The Collab...

Chapter 74

By Shell97 and Agent Havoc

The mood inside the inner enclaves of the Core was anything but relaxed. Anika and Nakano strolled down the corridor at a sedate pace as technicians, administrators and guards hurried from one point to the next. Their immediate goal was to avoid attracting attention to themselves--a confrontation now wouldn't help Cisia any. Anika lead the way, following the path outlined by Sammy in the garage.

In her borrowed silk suit, Anika looked like she belonged among the various Ministry employees. Unfortunately, Nakano stuck out like a sore thumb in his jeans and forest-green sweater. And he wasn't immune to the questioning glances aimed at his attire.

Those questioning glances seemed all the more penetrating as they neared the Reactor. Nakano swore inwardly when he saw the guard at the entrance to the Reactor area. But he could tell by the way that Anika held herself that she had been expecting this area to be heavily guarded. He followed Anika as she ducked into a doorway to her right.

"So how are we going to get past him?" he asked as soon as she turned around.

"Well," Anika hesitated. "I haven't really thought of that yet…"

A medium sized box caught Nakano's eye and he missed the last part of her sentence, which was a good thing, because it probably wouldn't have inspired much confidence in his heart. Nakano's eyes lit up and his lips curved into a smile, that his sister--if she had been alive to see it--would have recognized immediately as trouble. He walked over to the black laminate table and grabbed the package.

Anika watched Nelson's excited face as he carried the package back. Maybe there were explosives in the package, something they could create a diversion with. Suddenly, the situation didn't seem so hopeless. "What do you have there?"

Nakano's answering shrug was all it took for Anika to revert to her former assessment of the circumstances.

"Beats me, but I think we can use it," Nakano added atop of his shrug.

"How?"

"I'm going to pretend that I'm delivering this to one of the techs, and you can slip in while I'm keeping the guards busy."

Not a terrible plan, Anika thought. At least it was better than getting into an out-and-out shootout with the security guards. "Not a bad plan," she said. "Let's implement it."

Nakano walked back into the corridor sans Anika. His mouth puckered into a cheery whistle as he approached the guard desk. The guard looked up from an LEP screen, seemingly annoyed by the interruption. "Hi." Nakano blurted the greeting out. Calm down, he told himself. "I've got a package here for Dr. Johnson."

The creases in the guard's forehead seemed to disappear as he watched some activity on the polymer screen. He shouted involuntarily, "C'mon, you lousy bastard! That was fair!"

Nakano's eyebrows raised as he peered over to look at the screen. "The Titans/Warriors game, huh?"

The guard seemed surprised to still see Nakano standing there. What he didn't know was that Nelson was just buying time so Anika could get past him. "Who's winning?" Nakano asked as he saw Anika slip into the hall.

After a quick glance the guard answered. "The Warriors."

Anika was halfway down the hall.

"Tell 'ya what," Nakano proposed as he tracked Anika's progress in his peripheral vision. "I'll bet you twenty credits that the Titans pull through in the second half."

Anika slipped through the door as the guard considered the bet.

"Okay, but you gotta put your money where your mouth is."

Nakano let out the breath that he had been holding. He reached into his wallet and slapped twenty credits on the countertop. "I'll collect when I come back."

"Yeah, sure." The guard turned back to the game, pleased with himself for winning an easy twenty credits.

Everything was in tones of black and white to Lydon’s eyes, which led him to believe that he was dreaming again. Such sights were very familiar to him because he always remembered his dreams and it had come to the point that he often understood the difference between dreams and reality. The difference wasn’t much, but it was still there, subtle, yet very evident at the same time. The truth he had found in this was that dreams and reality were very much interconnected, and that his dreams did influence his reality and vice-versa.

This time around, his environment would be considered as morbid by many, but it wasn’t to him… He was in a graveyard with a bright full moon illuminating his surroundings. The reflection of the moon’s light on the grass was the only thing that permitted him to see what was going on around him, and at the moment, there wasn’t much around him… Only tombstones, grass, rose bushes here and there…

Certainly nothing that was worth grabbing his attention.

John approached one of the rose bushes and ripped off one of its blooms… Blood started to spurt out of the plant as it began to melt itself into a huge mass of blood.

Looking at the plant melt away, the detective snorted and dropped the bloom he had in his hand, crushing it under his feet as he walked away.

As he walked and tried to find his way out of the graveyard, Lydon came across a hunchbacked figure who was digging in the ground with a shovel. "Typical," sighed the detective as he looked at the hunchback working. "Hey you," Lydon shouted, "tell me how I can get out of this god-forsaken place!"

The hunchback turned around to face Lydon.

No eyeballs… This guy had no freaking eyeballs. Not to mention the deformed face that he had as saliva was dripping from the side of his mouth. While the detective was not scared of this ugly bastard, he certainly didn’t want to approach him.

"Just point the way so I can get out of here you ugly son of a…" started the detective then he finally noticed the corpse that was next to the hole that the hunchback was digging. The corpse of a little girl… Not just a little girl, it was the little girl…

It took him less than a millisecond to react as Lydon reached for his handgun in his jacket and drew it, pointing it at the hunchback. "Drop that shovel and step back," ordered the detective. "You have something I want and I won’t hesitate to kill you where you stand to get it… Now comply with my orders or die."

The hunchback took a step towards Lydon with his hands raised…

"Step back, I said…" repeated Lydon calmly…

The hunchback took another step.

The detective pulled the trigger eight times, filling the hunchback’s chest and head with holes. The deformed man took one last step and fell flat on his face, dead.

Lydon spat on the hunchback’s corpse. "Ugly bastard, I’m just putting you out of your misery!"

The detective stepped over the hunchback’s body and leaned down to the little girl’s. Looking at her, he saw that she had a huge hole in her chest, similar to a shotgun wound that would have ripped apart all of her insides. Shotgun wounds were the worst ones out there as Lydon knew all too well.

He felt his heart beat faster as he picked up her body and started to walk away. Her cold flesh touching his was an eerie feeling that the detective didn’t appreciate at all. But it was all for a good cause…

What cause he thought? What the hell was he doing?

And then, the unexpected happened… She opened her eyes and put her small cold arms around his neck and gave him a gentle hug. The detective kept on walking , still not knowing what to do…

"Don’t make too many physical efforts little girl… You’re still very tired… Just hold still and I’ll bring you home…"

Home? Where was home? Home was a place he hadn’t been in either in reality or in dreams for at least the past ten years… How could he lie to her about home. There was no such thing as home. Home was a myth.

"Thank you, kind sir…" said the girl weakly. "I have not been home since I was born."

"I know little girl… I know…"

Looking around him, Lydon saw that the graveyard was infinite. There was no possible way to leave this place unless he woke up… Looking at the child with his deep forest green eyes, the detective lay her gently on the ground and pulled out his gun that was still hot…

"I’m sending you home right now," he said softly with the most compassionate tone of voice he could manage… Putting the gun in her mouth, Lydon pulled the trigger after counting up to two in his mind…

"Goodbye Cisia," he whispered to himself without looking back.

Opening his eyes, Lydon realized that he couldn't move at all, but that color had returned to his eyes… He was awake now, and he was attached to the guards with zipcord…

"What the hell is going on here?" screamed the detective angrily.

One of the guards began to answer, "I really don’t now sir, the last thing I remember is…"

"I don’t give a damn what you remember or don’t remember. I want somebody to untie me this instant!" spat the detective as he screamed his guts out.

As fate would have it, a security guard eventually passed by and went straight for Lydon and his men. The guard untied all of them.

"Give me your gun!" Lydon demanded as soon as he was free.

"But sir… I…"

Lydon knocked him out with one punch on the spot and took away his gun from its holster. And started to walk in a quick pace towards his goal. A plan was forming itself in his mind as the detective was now more determined than ever to kill Cisia. He was going to do so, and the beauty of it was that his career wouldn’t be the least bit affected by such an act.

As old Ran, Darian and Kuri walked in the hallways of the lowest level in the Core, the three of them could hear the echo of their steps as they walked in such a dark and deserted place. Half of the lightbulbs were burnt out and a flashlight probably would have helped them make it throught here, but they didn’t have one.

"Kuri! Help me!" screamed Mikan’s voice, echoing through the hallways.

Kuri stopped dead on his tracks and looked around to see where the voice was coming from. Looking frantically, the boy had a lot of trouble finding from where his sister was calling.

"What’s wrong my boy?" Ran asked with concerned eyes.

Mr. Ashley was looking at him with a boggled look.

"It's Mikan, she’s here!"

"Of course," answered Old Ran. "That’s what you’ve already told us, and that’s why you’re here with us--to rescue her…"

"Kuri! Help me! I’m over here!"

Her voice was coming from one of the ventilation ducts.

"Can’t you all hear her?" asked Kuri nervously.

A lump was forming itself in his throat, sweat flowed down his forehead and his heart beat on faster and faster.

"Hear Mikan? What are you talking about kid? There’s just the three of us here…" replied Darian dryly.

"That’s just it! You’re wrong! She's near, I can feel it!" Kuri insisted as he dashed towards the ventilation duct.

"Wait! Kuri!" cried out old Ran. Kuri ignored the old man and opened the duct and started to crawl through it… "Come back Kuri!"

Kuri could hear Ran’s pleas for him to come back getting further and further away from him as he kept on crawling in the duct…

He would get to Mikan, and he would be reunited with this sister if it was the last thing he did…

Unfortunately for Kuri, a well-built man in his late twenties stood next to Mikan's bed with the intention of preventing any such reunion. He stood about 6'5" and held a syringe filled with J-10.

Dr. Correa glared irately at the sentry. "Is this really necessary?" he asked a man eating in a scrolled jade chair.

Sir Reginald ignored the doctor while he painted shoyu on his sushi with a sliver of ginger. He leisurely placed the small Ahi topped morsel into his mouth. Reginald chewed thoroughly before answering. Through some freak of genetics, Reginald had been born with a benevolent countenance. But after he swallowed, a cruel smiled spread across his face, twisting it into something truly malicious "We wouldn't want all of your efforts to go to waste, would we?" he inquired, looking pointedly at Mikan, who lay in a medically induced coma.

The picture that Mikan made, surrounded by wires and plastic, was a pitiful one. Tears of frustration welled in Dr. Correa's eyes as he thought of the machine breathing for his mother. "No, we wouldn't."

With a flick of his hand, Reginald called forth his private chef. "Masuhiro, prepare some sushi for the doctor."

"That's not necessary," Correa insisted. He didn't want to take anything from this man.

"I insist, Masuhiro enjoys demonstrating his talents." Sir Reginald understood why the doctor had refused his offer and took great pleasure in insisting. It was often remarked around the Ministry, that what Reginald lacked in intelligence, he made up for in cunning and arrogance. His cunning was what made it possible for him to retain the position his father had given him, but his arrogance kept Reginald from moving any further in the organization, despite the fact that his father was one of the Twelve Apostles, the governing board of the Ministry.

Reginald smiled again as Dr. Correa struggled with a soft-shelled crab roll.

It was just beginning to rain again as Phoenix approached the Core. He stopped the motorcycle a scant block away and traveled the remaining distance on foot. The sight that greeted him wasn't a pretty one. Swearing, he stepped over the body of a baby-faced security guard. Whoever had been here before him hadn't been kind, and as he took in the carnage around him, he realized exactly who was responsible--the Syndicate. In a way he was almost grateful to them for clearing his entrance into the Core, but Phoenix also knew that the Syndicate spelt trouble for Cisia.

He needed to get to Cisia first.

The first thing Phoenix did was go to the security station and locate the status reports for the evening. The reports told him what he had been afraid of--Cisia was in the Reactor.

It's funny what stays with you, Phoenix thought as he traversed the narrow utility staircase. He hadn't needed to look up the location of the Reactor at all. Drawn by a force he couldn't begin to comprehend, Phoenix found himself standing at the entrance to the Reactor.

Darian stood in the darkness for a minute, letting his other senses do what his eyes couldn't. Gently, he took Ran by the arm; "We have to keep moving."

Ran gestured towards the slight opening Kuri had crawled through a minute ago. "But Kuri…"

Darian acknowledged the older man's concern even as he dismissed it. "Is on his own for now. We'll never catch up to him if we don't go."

"It's hard to believe that you've changed so much," Ran said cryptically before inching his way down the darkened hallway.

Unbidden, a memory of the hunt for Dalasius came to mind. It had been the night they lost Lillian. It had also been Darian's first encounter with the necromancer…

The deserted playground had been the last place the team had expected to find a trace of their quarry, but the readouts on the RJ45 didn't lie. Waves of tension vibrated off of everyone, but with the exception of Hihori--who looked like he was about to jump out of his fine leather shoes--they hid it well.

Darian bit back a smile as Lillian winked suggestively at Derek. The six-foot tall redhead had been openly lusting after Derek ever since he had volunteered his services. Tonight, she looked positively outrageous--as usual. Her black cowboy hat was perched precariously atop hair so red it was almost magenta. She had chosen to enhance her voluptuous figure with a low-cut fringed black leather vest paired with black leather pants so tight it was a wonder she could move at all, let alone breathe.

But move she did. Lillian quickly tracked down Dalasius' position and fired off a few shots. Lillian was damn handy with the pair of six-shooters Derek had fashioned for her, but tonight Blazing Sin and Lucky Star were off their mark. She paid for it with two well-aimed strikes of energy. Darian watched as Dalasius disappeared into the night sky. His parting words had imprinted themselves on Darian's brain. "You're not as pretty as you used to be."

It was a tremendous relief to get out of that drab storeroom, but Byrce didn't have time to spare reflecting on it, there was too much to do. He looked around but there wasn't a guard in sight. "Where are all the guards?" he asked a confused David.

"Beats me, they were gone when I got here."

Byrce gripped Talehn's upper arm tightly. "We have to find her."

Talehn didn't push him off, even though Byrce's fingertips were digging into his muscle. "We will. I think that we should head towards Ven's office. They probably took her in for questioning."

As John walked through the hallways of the Core, every single animal instinct screamed at him angrily that he was in a dangerous situation, that he shouldn’t be doing this. That he was compromising a lot of hard work by going against the will of the Ministry.

His old mystical partner Jackson O’Hara once told him that he was way too ambitious: “A rat cannot hurt a lion, let alone eat it.” But then again, Lydon knew that all the people around him had misjudged his capacities. He was not a mere rat, but rather a raging wolf. And it was a dangerous thing to mistake a wolf for a rat. He was going to go through with this, and he was going to make it out alive with an intact career. And for such a plan to be possible, he would have to do it the right way. And at the moment, the first thing he had to do was to go knock out the surveillance station that controlled all the security cameras in the building.

Quite a task, but it was manageable.

His stream of thoughts was interrupted by the sounds of machinegun fire and pistol shots, coming from behind him.

John jumped for cover ready to counter-attack, but he soon realized that the shots weren’t aimed at him. Checking the clip in his gun, Lydon saw that he had exactly 16 bullets, meaning that he would have to make each of them count.

Running towards the elevator, the detective swore under his breath. What the hell was going on here? A gunfight? In the Core? Was this the doing of Ashley’s friends? Were there more of them than the ones he was aware of? No matter, he would get to Cisia before them and even if they did get to her before him, they would easily be dealt with. But for now, he had to head for the fifth floor quickly. He knew by memory that the fifth floor was where all the controls to the electric and mechanical systems were. From the fifth floor, he literally had total control over the whole Core, including the reactor.

And then it hit him like a ton of bricks, if he managed to knock out all the cameras without being filmed and kill all the employees on the fifth floor, he could literally have access to the Reactor from there… Meaning that he could certainly engineer a short circuit that would fry Cisia and kill her instantly, freeing him from these feelings that he could not comprehend.

It sounded like a good plan. It sounded like a safe plan. And he was going to act on it right away.

Turning to the stairs that were next to him, Lydon started to climb them silently, ready to strike on any prey that would present itself to him.

The wolf’s jaw was ready to tear open its prey’s neck while the prey still believed that it was a rat.

Lydon laughed to himself and kept on climbing the stairs, leaving the distant sound of machinegun fire far behind him.

As soon as he opened the door, the detective saw a camera that was turning on itself, facing away from him. But within moments now, the camera would face him and he would be caught on film. John aimed quickly but carefully and pulled the trigger, smashing the electronic device to pieces. Glancing around the corner to see if there was anybody or any more cameras around, Lydon was shocked to see a man lying in a pool of blood on the floor just around the corner. It wasn’t that he was not used to seeing dead people, because he had seen his fair share of corpses during his career, but he just didn’t expect any corpses to be lying around this soon.

But then again, perhaps Ashley’s friends were behind all this. If so, he mustn’t underestimate any of them if he was to run into any member of the group.

Walking past the body, Lydon saw another camera past another corner. Another carefully aimed gunshot destroyed this device as it had destroyed the other with ease.

So far so good…

Another dead man on the floor blocking the doorway to the room that controlled all the cameras, this one had his throat sliced open. His clothes were drenched in blood and his face was locked away with an ugly grimace. Lydon pushed the body with his feet, letting out a small grunt, and opened the door, ready to shoot at any cameras that would be present or anybody that would be there.

Fortunately for him, none of the two elements mentioned were there.

The green-eyed detective went straight for the control panel and started to push away at buttons, improvising, until he finally managed to turn off all the cameras.

The detective walked out of this room and headed for the one directly controlling the Reactor.

It was now the time to send Cisia to next world and free himself of this burden.

Why he was always the one chosen to do the most disgusting jobs without cover was beyond Daisuke. Mr. Yodama had once asked him to go over to some poor schmuck’s place to skin him alive with a machete. It didn’t enchant him to do such a thing, but then again, if he didn’t do it, someone else would and would cash in the big fat paycheck.

He didn’t even want to think about the pregnant junkie that he was asked to dispose of last month…

Well, today was no different than any other day, he was here to enforce the will of the Syndicate, and he was the only one that was going to work alone. He was sent to the fifth floor and had to wipe out a total of about 6 civilians as well as shutting the mechanical doors to the Core.

Playing around with the buttons on the control panel that was in front of him, Dai simply had no clue of what he was doing. It took him quite a few tries but he eventually got around to shutting all the doors. Meaning that nobody else would be entering the Core from here on, and nobody would be getting out. Simple as that and the only people that would be leaving this place alive from here on out would be members of the Organization’s strike force.

Too bad about all these other people…

Dai didn’t see the point to this whole operation; but then again, he wasn’t paid to see the point of things.

The sound of a gunshot snapped him out of his thoughts. Dai reached for his gun and checked one last time to see if the doors were indeed shut, and they were.

Time to investigate what the hell was going on here. He reached for his radio.

Another gunshot…

“Dai to everyone, are any of you guys on the 5th floor? I just heard two gunshots here.”

Hearing a few gunshots from the radio, Victor’s voice replied first. “Negative Dai, can I get back to you later? I’m with team 4 and 5 in a parking lot and we’re in a shootout with some security guards and some cops.”

One after the other, the teams answered negatively. His fears were confirmed, the person who had used the gun on this floor wasn’t an ally of his, meaning that he’d have to dispose of him or her.

“99 bottles of beer on the wall, 99 bottles of beer on the wall, one fell down, broke it’s crown, 98 bottles of beer left on the wall,” sang a familiar voice through Daisuke’s radio in a very mocking tone.

Daisuke felt his blood freeze, was he the bottle of beer the man was referring to?

“Who the hell is this?” replied the enforcer.

“Glad to hear that you managed to escape from the cops Daisuke!”

Ashley! That was Ashley’s voice.

“But you’re not the one I want,” declared the hunter through the radio. “Hihori, I know you’re listening to me right now, so now, I want you to know that your little plan won’t work, I’m going to knock out every single one of your men like I’m going to knock out this guy!” A gunshot followed by a loud scream of pain that rang through the radio. Dai could feel his heart beat faster and faster. Who was it that Ashley had just whacked? Was it a friend? Was it someone he hated? Either way, it affected him.

“If you didn’t try your best, it wouldn’t be much of a challenge now would it? My men and I are prepared for you!” replied Yodama’s voice in the radio.

“I’m truly glad we cleared that up! Ashley out!”

Daisuke put back his radio in his pocket and walked out of the control room, gun in hand, ready for whoever awaited him next.

As they were about to turn a corner in the dark hallways of the Core, Darian stopped dead in his tracks and made a sign to old Ran to stay put and stay silent.

“Negative!” he heard a voice whisper lightly in a barely perceivable volume.

The scarred hunter drew out Escaflowne and counted to three in his mind. As soon as he was done counting, he turned the corner rapidly and fired two consecutive shots, hitting the mobster that was walking towards them in both hands. The man dropped the machine gun he was holding screaming in pain. Darian ran towards him and punched him in the stomach, knocking the wind out of the wounded mobster.

The man was whimpering on the floor, gritting his teeth and holding back tears of pain.

“How in blazes did you know he was there?” asked old Ran, baffled by the events he had just witnessed.

“My partner , Anika would call it a gut feeling, but I prefer to call it being extremely alert to your surroundings.” said Darian, smiling as he bent down to the man he had just shot and punched.

The icy-eyed hunter stuck his gun to the fallen mobster’s head. “How many of you are there? And believe me, I won’t ask twice.”

“A… about a hundred of us or so.”

“Is Yodama here?”

“Y--yes.”

“How many of you are there on this floor?”

“A team of ten or so in-including me.”

Darian snatched the portable radio from the man’s belt and pressed on it. The first thing that came to his mind was a song that he, Bella, Hihori and Derek sang loudly when they were drinking beer during their days off during the hunt for Dalasius. “99 bottles of beer on the wall, 99 bottles of beer on the wall, one fell down, broke it’s crown, 98 bottles of beer left on the wall” Darian sang mockingly in the radio.

As he sang, the hunter looked at the horrified look in the wounded mobster’s face as well as the confused one in old Ran’s.

“Who the hell is this?” replied Daisuke’s voice, muffled by static.

“Glad to hear that you managed to escape from the cops Daisuke!” replied Darian coolly. “But you’re not the one I want. Hihori, I know you’re listening to me right now, so now, I want you to know that your little plan won’t work, I’m going to knock out every single one of your men like I’m going to knock out this guy!” Darian stuck his gun on the wounded mobster’s kneecap and pulled the trigger. He could literally feel the mobster’s kneecap explode as the mobster screamed in pain. Darian punched him in the stomach again, cutting the scream short once more.

Ran’s look showed that he was absolutely horrified by the scene.

After a small moment of radio silence, Hihori’s voice finally rang through. “If you didn’t try your best, it wouldn’t be much of a challenge now would it? My men and I are prepared for you!”

“I’m truly glad we cleared that up! Ashley out!” said Darian as he hung the radio on his belt.

“I usually shoot off both kneecaps as well as the hands, but since you cooperated, I’ll leave you one of your knees. It’ll be easier for you to crawl out of here,” said Darian to the agonizing gangster.

“What kind of monster are you?” asked Rangarion.

“The kind of monster that respects life too much to kill nowadays, but understands that this isn’t a game and that all of our opponents have to be knocked down for good or else they’ll have a chance get back at us later on.

One way or another, too much is at risk here to let these men succeed in their little ploy.”

Darian handed the machine gun over to Ran. “Here, learn how to use this!” said the hunter smiling.

Lydon was cursing under his breath, as he looked at all the weird buttons on the control panel that served as a remote station to check up on the Reactor. And to add to that, the fact that he had knocked out the security camera system didn’t allow him to see if Cisia was in the reactor on the monitors that were above him.

Lydon hit the control panel with all of his might in anger.

“Tsskkk, tsskkk, tskkk!” said a mocking voice from behind him, “That’s quite a temper you have there detective.”

He had forgotten about everything that was around him in his haste to kill Cisia and had let his guard down. Pathetic. Not wasting a single second, Lydon rolled on the floor immediately, gun in hand and started shooting away towards the origin of the voice as he headed for the exit.

The man who had surprised him had his guard up and dodged the shots easily, as he jumped behind one of the consoles for cover. The man shot back at Lydon, but missed the detective who ran out of the room and used the doorway as cover.

“You’re Daisuke from the Syndicate! I arrested you a few months ago!” said Lydon.

“Should I give you a lollipop for having a good memory, Detective Lydon?”

“Why the hell didn’t you just cap me in the back? And what the hell are you doing here in the first place?”

“I never shoot anybody in the back, I prefer my victims to look at me in the eye as they give away their last breath, as for your second question, does it really matter? You’ll be dead in about a minute or so!”

“Don’t bet your life on it!” cried Lydon defiantly.

As cocky as he tried to sound to impress his adversary, Lydon knew that he didn’t have any time to lose. He had to get to the reactor quickly to claim Cisia’s life before the alarm sounded. It was only a matter of time before somebody realized that the surveillance system had been shut down.

Taking a chance, the detective dashed away from his cover and headed down the hallway, hoping to get to the corner before the mobster would try to take another shot at him. Nothing would make him fail in his task.

Failure was not a word that existed in his vocabulary.

Daisuke could hear the detective running away from their gunfight.

“Coward!” breathed the enforcer under his breath.

Dai stood up and ran out of the room he was in. He could see the detective from far away, about to turn a corner. The enforcer aimed quickly and took a shot. He missed and the detective managed to get away.

Dai started to chase after the man, but as he turned the corner he could see the detective in front of the stairs from which the enforcer had entered this floor earlier on. Dai aimed again, but he took too long to aim, and the detective spun around, aimed and pulled the trigger.

The enforcer pulled his trigger as well.

A great force of impact hit Dai in the belly as the very familiar pain of burning lead hurt him as it had so many times before, projecting his whole body against the wall behind, knocking the wind out of him.

He didn’t have enough breath to scream in pain at the moment and he could only wonder if he would find some anytime soon. This was the first time he had ever been hit in the stomach.

To his satisfaction however, his own bullet had hit home, sending Lydon falling down the stairs. Considering the fact that the stairs were on the other side of the hallway, Dai simply didn’t feel he had enough strength to go and see if he had managed to kill the detective.

For the moment, he would simply stay put and agonize and lose blood. Hopefully, he would think up of an ingenious course of action soon. Somehow, he thought that nothing short of a miracle would provide him with such a possibility right now.

At least he had completed his task.

As fate would have it, a loud alarm started to buzz as all the lights turned red around him. This just wasn’t his day.

Getting up, Lydon tried to catch his breath. Lucky enough for him, he hadn’t taken off his bulletproof vest since the operation at the airport this morning.

Looking at the hole in his shirt at the level of his heart, the detective thought to himself how Daisuke was a good shot--Straight at the heart. Too bad it didn’t do anything more than make him gasp for breath and give him a few bruises from falling down the stairs.

Checking his clip, the detective saw that he only had 10 bullets left. And he still had to get to Cisia. Meaning that he didn’t have the time or the bullets necessary to finish Daisuke off.

Too bad… Maybe after all of this was over.

And then, red lights lit up everything around him as a aggressive alarm started to blare around him. “FUCK!” screamed Lydon as he started to limp down the stairs.

This was going to be even more difficult than he first thought.

The deafening sound of the alarms were threatening to drive Kuri crazy as he kept on crawling in the duct, focussing on a single task, which was to get Mikan out of here. They were using her to blackmail him into giving himself up. To do such a thing to his little sister was unacceptable. To do such a thing to her to get to him!

The sound of the alarm only fueled his anger even more. There was no way he was going to be bullied by these people any further. The time was ripe to take a stand. A stand for Mikan, for himself and for all the people that the Ministry mistreated since they became an important organization.

Kuri kept on crawling and eventually, he could see through the bars of a ventilation duct that Mikan was indeed there. She was asleep but he could feel from where he was that her sleep was not a natural one. This was their doing.

“Don’t give in to anger, hate and ambition, Kuri.” rang the female voice inside his mind. “Doing so will only take you down the same path as Dalasius.”

“Who are you?” Kuri demanded, tears of anger starting to flow out of his eyes. “Why won’t you leave me alone? Stop it!”

“I only want to help you, Kuri. Just let yourself go and focus on the love you feel for your sister and you will be that much stronger.”

“How can I fight with love? I want to fight these people. I’m tired of being helpless. I want to do something!”

“If you give yourself up to hate, then I won’t be able to help you, Kuri, but if your heart stay pure, then I will be able to assist you.”

“Radhani.”

“Trust me. Kuri, you need not fear anything, just go in there with the love you have for your sister, and everything will be fine. Just let the purity of your heart lead you in your actions, avoid that syringe at all cost, and everything will be fine.”

The woman’s voice faded away.

He had called her Radhani. How? Why? So many questions were unanswered. The young boy was extremely confused, but at the same time, he felt more at peace with himself than ever.

The annoying alarm was nothing but a detail for him now. His heartbeat slowed down and he felt light as a feather. Kuri used all of his might to kick the down the bars that separated him from his sister and jumped down in the room in question.

His feet never hit the ground. He was floating and 9 balls of light were circling around him. Looking around him, Kuri recognized Doctor Correa, who was eating sushi with another man, both of them looking at him with an extremely surprised look. Another large man stood up with a syringe in his hand, looking extremely determined to strike at the young boy, ready for a fight. But none of these people mattered to Kuri, only Mikan did.

And so, he started to float towards his sister, ignoring all the other people.

“What are you waiting for? Stick him!” ordered the sushi eating man angrily.

The large man approached Kuri but one of the glowing balls shot a white beam of light at him, hitting him in the chest and rendering the usually imposing figure unconscious immediately.

Kuri swooped down to pick Mikan up. As soon as she was in his arms, two of the glowing balls entered her body and her breathing became regular. She opened her eyes slowly and the first eyes she met were the young boy’s.

“K-Kuri?” she asked weakly.

“Shhhh…” said the boy to his sister reassuringly. “I’ll take you home, Mikan. It’s almost over, don’t be afraid.”

“Kuri!” she said once more, weakly, but with honest happiness in her voice.

“If you want something done right, you’ll have to do it yourself!” said the sushi eating man as he pulled out another syringe from his pockets.

Kuri didn’t even have time to react before the doctor grabbed a chair and knocked the man out before he could use the syringe in question.

The man fell to the floor, as the device he was about to use on the boy broke in pieces on the floor.

“Go home Kuri!” said the doctor with clear sadness in his voice. “You and Mikan deserve it. I am sure my mother would understand.”

Kuri closed his eyes. “What is happening to me Radhani? What am I doing?” he whispered. "What are you making me do?”

“You are only following your heart. I am doing absolutely nothing right now, you are the sole person responsible for your actions, Kuri,” answered the voice in his mind.

One of the remaining glowing balls went inside the doctor’s body, but didn’t seem to hurt the man. All of the doctor’s motivations and the contents of his heart were clear to Kuri now, and he felt so sad for the man. The boy wanted to do something and he knew he actually could make a difference in this man’s life.

The ball then got out of the doctor’s body and went straight through the wall. “What? What did you just do?” asked the doctor.

“Go to your mother, Doctor. When you next see her, you’ll see a fully awake and healthy woman.”

Kuri didn’t know what was going on and how he did all these things, but it didn’t really matter to him anymore, he was with Mikan, and that was all that mattered.

As he left the room with his beloved sister in his arms, the boy never saw the tears of joy that fell down the doctor’s cheeks.

"Well it's moot now. She's inside the Reactor."

At almost the same instant Ven uttered those words all hell broke loose. First, the alarm system blared with enough force to shatter eardrums, and then the room went dark. The darkness accentuated Raoul’s holographic image to the point where it almost seemed as if he was the real person and Paula and Ven merely holographs.

Raoul stared at Paula questioningly but she couldn’t provide him with any answers. Ven didn’t seem to know what was going on either. Flustered, he bent over his desk and hit the intercom. “Dayton, what’s going on?”

A loud burst of static came through the intercom in reply.

“Can Izumi tell us what’s wrong?” Paula asked Raoul.

Raoul’s image flickered. And although they were separated by thousands of miles, Paula could hear something akin to panic in his voice. “Izumi seems to be indisposed right now, Paula. She’s not answering me.”

Terror surged into Paula’s system as the holograph disappeared, plunging the room into total darkness.

When the winds blow hard, to survive you must sway with the reeds.

As she floated in a dark abyss Cisia tried to remember where she had first heard those words. She hated the Swiss cheese holes that being born a clone had left in her memory. How did the saying apply to the situation? Did it mean that she should just give up and let Dalasius do as he wished?

She couldn’t do that. She wouldn’t do that.

All of her unnatural life she had been a victim--of the Ministry, of Dalasius. If there was something she could do, anything, she would.

There was one thing she had yet to try.

Nakano let out a sigh of relief as he crossed the Reactor’s entrance. The relief didn’t last long, the trumpeting sound of the Ministry’s alarm system made sure of that. He rushed towards Anika. “We need to shut the Reactor down now!”

Anika didn’t skip a beat, apparently unfazed by the repetitive noise. The technicians didn’t pose a problem for her either; most of them had fled at the first boom of the alarm. “Grab the red lever to your left,” Anika shouted over the alarm. She ran to the control panel closest to the containment area and reached for a similar lever. “On three. One… Two…”

In his single-minded determination to rescue Paula, Byrce didn’t see the obstruction on the ground before him. As a result, the former patrolman tripped and fell violently to the ground, only his sharp reflexes saving him from having his skull cracked open on the black granite floor.

Gingerly, he rose to his feet. His fingers were wet and he looked down at them before wiping them off.

“What the hell?” he exclaimed as he realized exactly what moistened his fingers.

Talehn hurried to Byrce. He had fallen behind earlier, losing precious time convincing David of their intentions. It was worth it now, he thought as he repeated David’s security codes in his head.

But when he saw what lay at Byrce’s feet his mind went blank.

“Did you…” he stuttered. Taking in the mutilated body, Byrce’s bloodstained fingers.

“God no,” Byrce exclaimed. “I tripped over it… him…”

Talehn came forward and did what Byrce had been unable to--he closed the corpse’s unseeing hazel eyes. “Let’s keep moving.”

Byrce nodded numbly, and they made their way to Ven’s office.

As Cisia concentrated, the isolation and the darkness became palatable to her. She calmed down enough to sense Dalasius’ actions and they repulsed her. No, she could not let this abomination “rule” the world, not from her body. Cisia imagined herself pushing Dalasius out, riding her body of him like one would drive out a cancer.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

Cisia ignored him, ignored the smirking tone to his voice that seemed to say, “I’ve already won!” Instead she focused on re-entering her body, finger-by-finger, toe-by-toe. Her heart rejoiced when she felt it working.

Then--suddenly--it wasn’t working. Cisia could feel Dalasius’ rage and fury sweep over her like a twenty-foot tidal wave. She could tell that the rage wasn’t directed at her but the backlash swept her back into the abyss.

But before she was swept back in Cisia opened her eyes to see who had earned Dalasius’ enmity. To her heartfelt grief, it was Anika and Nakano.

Dalasius would crush them like ants.

Phoenix stood as still as one of the alabaster pillars that graced the lobby of the Core, pillars that were now stained red with the blood of the guilty and innocent alike. Only the sudden deafening wail of the alarm galvanized him into action. The hunter, who had once claimed that he wasn’t afraid of anything or anyone, was afraid of a simple inanimate object--the Reactor.

Yodama walked on confidently with his hands behind his back as his men walked with him, shooting anybody they passed by on the spot. He blocked his sense of hearing from the deafening sound of the alarm and his eyes had gotten used to the red light. He had on his hands what would probably be considered one of the greatest bloodbaths ever. But there would be those who would understand his motivations and for some reason, only those people counted. The innocents who would die today by his hands would be considered as sacrifices for a greater good. Dalasius had to go down for good no matter what the price.

Hihori didn’t even flinch every time one of his men opened fire on a technician, bureaucrat, or any other person that they was unfortunate enough to be seen by them.

For every person that was killed in front of his eye, a part of his humanity died. They sacrificed their lives for the greater good, but he was sacrificing his soul. Which, in the long run, was the greater sacrifice? He envied his men because they all could tell themselves that they were only following orders, orders that their honor as soldiers of the Syndicate required them to obey.

He could not have such luxury. He had to live with each and every one of his decisions and acts, knowing full well that he was fully responsible for his actions.

Actions that would end up saving that would end up saving the planet of a lot of pain and suffering.

“Bah, I should stop doubting myself so much!” he mumbled under his mask.

“I’m sorry sir? What did you say?” asked one of his men.

“Nothing of importance, soldier. I was thinking out loud,” Yodama answered, knowing the wooden mask would be muffling his voice.

“Yes sir, I’m sorry for having spoken uselessly sir.”

Hihori nodded and kept on walking along side his men when suddenly, all of his instincts ordered him to draw Tainted Love. The young leader of the Syndicate did so and rolled on the floor feeling a bullet whistling just inches from his ears as it missed its mark.

Hihori spun around, only to see that two of his men had been shot down by a squadron of the Ministry’s special agents. The agents had managed to ambush them all from behind, and the rest of his men were pinned down by gunfire, forcing them to stay covered by whatever obstacle they had managed to find.

Yodama ran a short distance to a corner as more bullets whistled past him and used the wall for cover himself.

There was absolutely no way his men could make it out of this one without further casualties. Unless…

“Yamagata!” screamed Hihori to one of his men. “Grenade!”

“But sir…” replied the soldier.

“Do it, or we all die!” Yodama yelled back.

Yamagata pulled out a grenade from his belt, ripped off its pin and threw it over the locker that was covering him. Hihori knew that two more of his men, Kazuhiro and Kaoru would possibly be hurt by the grenade’s explosion because they were both in front of Yamagata. But it was a necessary course of action because Yamagata was the only one in the team carrying grenades, and the thrown grenade was their only chance of making it out.

A loud explosion rocked the wall behind Hihori and it was his cue to spring out of his cover with guns blazing. Each pull of the trigger on Tainted Love resulted in a kill, as the Ministry agents who had survived the grenade fell like flies, one after the other because they were too disoriented by the blast too react properly.

As Hihori was shooting at the agents, a few of his men got out of their cover spots and started to shoot away. The sound of gunfire mixed with the sound of the alarm made the sight a rather aggressive one. Soon enough, the last agent was taken care of, and the leader of the Syndicate changed the clip of his gun.

“Status!” Yodama demanded.

One of his men went to check all of the fallen members of his team and screamed back the report he had asked for.

“Shinji and Yoshimitsu have been killed by the gunshots, Kaoru died in the grenade’s explosion, but Kazuhiro is still alive, his left leg has been torn off however...”

Yodama didn’t want to look at his fallen men.

“Give Kazuhiro a quick and painless death and we’ll keep on moving,” ordered Hihori as he kept on walking.

Behind him, he could hear a single gunshot. And he could feel yet another part of his humanity leaving his body.

Mikan was confused. She felt as if her whole brain was nothing more than jelly and all of her memories were rather jumbled. Was this a dream? Probably… Being carried around by her brother who was glowing like a white angel seemed rather surreal.

But then again, she was comfortable and she felt at ease in his arms, even with the aggressive sound and the red light that brightened all of these hallways, even with all these dead people lying around.

But then again, she was comfortable and she felt at ease in his arms, even with the aggressive sound and the red light that brightened all of these hallways, even with all these dead people lying around.

“Kuri,” she asked softly. “Where are we? What’s going on? This is like a dream, and a nightmare at the same time.”

Her brother tightened his grasp on her a little bit, obviously to comfort her. "It isn’t a dream, it’s very real,” he answered in a reassuring tone. “But the nightmare part of it is almost over.”

“Then where are we heading?” she asked.

“I’ve been asked to go to the reactor. I’m going to go and after that, nothing will hurt us ever again, not as long as I have anything to say on it. This I promise you Mikan.”

Kuri had changed so much since she had last seen him. He was like a grown up. “I believe you Kuri... I believe in you.”

She had no choice but to believe him. He was the only element that made sense in her reality at the moment. Luckily for her, he was an element she had always been fond of in her life.

“Sir!” said one of Hihori’s men as he dragged along a civilian with him that had obviously been beaten up by the soldier who dragged him. “This one claims to be one of us, to be a part of the organization.”

Yodama looked at the man carefully and finally recognized him through all of his bruises.

“Ah! Sir Reginald!” Hihori called out. “I’m sorry to tell you this, but you look like shit!”

“And I feel like it!” replied Reginald angrily. “I was knocked out by Correa, and the next thing I know, I wake up face to face with this guy next to me who starts to beat me up and who was about to shoot me in the head.”

“And why did you ask him to spare you?” asked Hihori coldly.

“What? Because we had a deal you son of a bitch!” replied Reginald, sending spittle flying upon the inscrutable features of Hihori’s mask. “I gave you the plans to the whole freaking Core!”

“And I paid you good money for them. I never said anything about sparing your life. You are a witness now and I know as much as anybody that you are anything but a trustworthy person.”

“What?” Reginald asked fearfully, his eyes widening instantly as understanding dawned upon him.

“Your father is one of the apostles and you were ready to betray his organization for a mere sum of 50,000 credits. A boy who betrays his own flesh and blood for so little money proves himself to be nothing more than a traitor.”

“But... but,” fear was in Reginald’s eyes and sweat started to drip off his forehead.

Hihori drew Tainted Love and stuck the gun to Reginald’s head. Reginald spun around and started to run. Yodama took his aim slowly and carefully and pulled the trigger once, hitting the Apostle’s son square in the back, making the man fall flat on his face.

Hihori started to walk towards Reginald and observed as his victim tried to crawl his way to freedom in vain. His men followed him without saying a single word.

“Enjoy your money in hell you back-stabbing Judas,” whispered the leader of the Syndicate as he emptied his clip in Reginald’s back.

With each bullet, Reginald’s body moved in shock a little bit, but with the last few shots, his body stayed limp.

As he well knew with experience, there was not a single turncoat that was trustworthy in this world. Turncoats held allegiance to nobody but themselves, and Reginald was no exception.

With those thoughts, Yodama and his men continued their way.

Daisuke was cold as he felt most of his blood oozing away from his body. He barely had any strength left at all, but he wanted to keep on walking. With one hand, he held his handgun, being ready to defend himself. With the other, he gripped the wound in his belly, feeling all of his warm blood spilling on the hand. He grit his teeth and told himself that the situation was not a good one.

Going down the stairs had been hell because gravity had its toll on him and he had often felt like just letting himself fall down the stairs. But he hadn’t because he knew that he’d probably have broken his neck doing so.

Willpower… it was all about willpower when he had to go down the stairs, and it was going to be about willpower now too. But then again, he knew fully that his will to go on could flinch any minute now because the pain was simply to great to support

. There was always the last resort that was still available to him but he still hesitated to use it. Inside his jacket right now, in a small airtight vial, was half a gram of Trichloral emphinephrine, “Angelic Boost”, as it was known to most people.

“Angelic Boost” was an experimental drug that had been discovered in the laboratories of the Syndicate about 30 years ago. On the streets it was distributed in the form of a grayish powder. 1/10 of a gram was enough to get someone speeded up and ready to dance all night, giving the user the illusion of a great boost of energy for about 12 hours.

Half a gram was the limit of what the human body could accept without popping on the spot. Half a gram would kill any possible feeling of pain and would put the user on a constant adrenaline boost for the next 24 hours.

But such a dose would also mean that there were chances that the user would stay addicted to the substance physically.

All of the Syndicate’s high ranking enforcers carried such a dose on them as a last resort because after snorting such a dose of Angelic boost, the user could become an almost unstoppable killing machine for a period of time and nothing short of death could possibly stop the user.

Dai had never touched the Angelic Boost that was in his jacket and had hoped that he would never have to use it. But he felt he wasn’t going to have any choice any minute now, either he used it and had a chance of getting out of here alive as he became a junkie, or he could not use it and risk dying.

Neither option enchanted him much.

But the pain was simply too much too bear and the stress of the alarm as well as the red lighting didn’t exactly motivate him to go either. Perhaps it would be best to just let it all go and die here, he had accomplished his job after all, and he was confident that his death would not be in vain.

Yodama would probably send a check to his little sister. Indeed, perhaps dying would be the best solution after all. Becoming dependant on Angelic Boost wouldn’t exactly be living in his opinion; he had seen quite a few people that were addicted to the substance and had no intentions of becoming like any of them.

Today was as good a day to die than any other day.

He wasn’t afraid of death but he would miss goofing off with Victor and Shin. He would regret never having said goodbye to his sister.

Damn that prick, Lydon! Just what was he doing there anyway?

And because of the detective’s unexpected arrival, chances were that Dai wouldn’t have the chance to settle the score with Ashley, and that was something that hurt his pride a lot.

As if on cue, Daisuke saw Ashley turn the corner of the hallways with an old man holding a machinegun. As luck would have it, neither Ashley nor the old man had noticed the wounded enforcer.

His pride took over any feelings and logic that were present in his mind as Dai took out the vial of Angelic Boost, broke it open and snorted all of its contents.

From then on, he waited for the boost to kick in and he would be able to end this little confrontation with the scarred hunter--no matter what the cost.

“Just how many kneecaps did you pop open in the last few moments? Just how many hands did you shoot off?” asked Ran, obviously shocked by Darian’s procedures.

The sound of the alarm made it more difficult for old Ran and Darian to hear each other and both men had to scream to make sure that they could be heard.

“19 kneecaps, and twenty hands. Leaving 10 Syndicate soldiers lying on the floor, being absolutely useless for their cause,” replied Darian coldly. “These men are ready to kill and die for their paychecks, and they were ready to take the risk. I believe it’s rather courteous of me to leave them with their lives. I don’t see you doing much either old man, so until you think up of a better plan, I’ll ask you to stop complaining.”

Before Rangarion could reply, Darian felt something move behind him. The scarred hunter turned around to see Daisuke run at him with a look of rage in his eyes and jump at him with a flying kick.

Darian managed to duck in time and tried to reply with a jab that completely missed its target. Dai’s reaction time had considerably improved since they first danced a few hours ago.

Before Darian could do anything else, Daisuke turned his attention to old Ran and punched the old man quickly, stunning old Ran and putting him out of the fight for at least a few moments.

Meaning that the hunter was on his own.

Darian tried to hit the enforcer with a sidekick on the face, but he simply rolled on the floor and tripped the scarred man, making him fall flat on his back. Daisuke stood back up and drew a gun from his jacket. It was then that Darian noticed that the enforcer was losing blood from a wound in the guts.

How a wounded man still fought with such determination and agility was beyond his comprehension. He had felt adrenaline boosts before, but this was simply ridiculous.

Darian drew Escaflowne without a single second of hesitation.

And time slowed down for him once more, as it did during every single gunfight that he went through. Daisuke’s movements made it clear that he was aiming for Darian’s heart, trying to make this a fast and easy kill. There wasn’t any way the hunter could let that happen. As Dai’s trigger finger squeezed the slowly, Darian aimed for the enforcer’s hand and squeezed in a slightly quicker manner.

To the hunter’s surprise, the enforcer moved his hand and dodged the bullet that was intended to put his hand out of use.

Daisuke pulled his trigger, which Darian dodged by only an inch by rolling as he felt a bullet hit the floor next to him.

By instinct, as he rolled, Darian pulled the trigger repeatedly towards the enforcer. When he was done rolling, the hunter stood back up and was ready to go on with his duel. To his surprise, Daisuke was lying flat on his back and holding his throat.

Weary of a deception, the scarred man approached the enforcer to see that one of his bullets had hit home when he was rolling--in the enforcer’s throat.

Darian had not killed anybody since he had killed his best friend Derek Keaton 8 years ago, he had sworn never to do such a thing again. And here he was, about to witness the end of yet another life that he had taken

Feeling a lump in his throat, the hunter went down on his knees, next to the enforcer who was holding his throat, gurgling and gasping for breath. Blood was dripping out of his mouth as the enforcer gave Darian a look that clearly translated as, “Put me out of my misery.”

Darian felt his heart beat faster and faster as he looked at Escaflowne and at Daisuke.

What was he going to do?

Daisuke had a lot of difficulty gasping for breath and knew that the drugs he had snorted a few minutes ago killed the pain he should be feeling right now. He also knew full well that his life was about to end any minute now and he hoped that Ashley would have the decency to kill him quickly enough.

He didn’t have any regrets. After all, he had finally met his match and he got to die fighting, unlike most people in his line of work, who usually died poisoned or beaten to death by a dozen people.

The people around him would mourn him of course, but life would go on. “What the fuck are you waiting for, Ashley? Kill me!” screamed Dai in his mind as he looked at Ashley.

The scarred man looked at his gun, and then at Daisuke.

Darian stuck his gun against Dai’s head, in between the enforcer’s eyes. “I’m sorry Daisuke, I truly didn’t want to go this far,” said the hunter with a genuine tone of sadness in his voice and a deep look in his icy blue eyes. “I know that under other circumstances, we could have been friends and allies. Good bye... I will do my best to compensate your loved ones for what I’m about to take away from them.”

For some reason, those words comforted Dai. He had lost to an honorable and skillful warrior. He never could have asked for a better death.

He saw Darian’s finger squeeze the trigger of his gun tighter and tighter

And then, there was nothing.

Darian stood up and looked at Dai’s corpse. He had forgotten the emptiness that was felt after a kill, it was a feeling that he did not welcome at all.

He had worked so hard for years to make sure he would never kill anybody ever again, and in a small moment of weakness, a moment in which he was not in total control of his actions, a man had to die. Was it in his instincts to kill? Was he a born killer? Did it take constant checking up on his part to make sure that he didn’t claim any lives? As fate would have it, he had no answers to give to any of the questions he had just asked himself.

Feeling nauseous because of what he had just done, Darian tightened one of his fists and let anger take over him as he punched one of the walls in front of him. But then again, anger wouldn’t take him anywhere. He had objectives to complete. He would deal with personal problems afterwards.

Turning around to see if old Ran was all right, Darian saw the old man rubbing the spot where he was punched.

“Are you all right old man?” said in a tone that barely showed any life signs as he helped old Ran get up.

Ran gladly accepted Darian’s hand as he went back to his feet. Looking at Dai’s corpse, the old man turned around to Darian. “What happened?”

“I believe I just lost a great deal of things I was fighting to keep old man,” answered the hunter with an almost hollow tone of voice.

And that thing was something that his whole reality had been gripped up upon for the last few years. That thing was the belief that he was a good person…

Three bullets…

That was all John Lydon had left to complete his objective. Three fucking bullets... He hadn’t expected to get into another gunfight with a Syndicate goon after the one he had gone through with Daisuke.

And this second no-name goon was a lot harder to knock out than Daisuke, but John managed to get rid of him by popping a bullet in the back of his head at a certain point in the cat and mouse duel they had engaged in.

Lydon had disposed of him as he had disposed of anybody who had ever gone against him. But it had cost him a lot of bullets, and as luck would have it, the dead goon had emptied out his clip before dying and didn’t have any spare ones.

Three bullets left…

And he would be at the Reactor in less than 2 or three minutes. He would see Cisia then. Meaning that he would have to make those three bullets count.

There was no time to lose. The Reactor had to be shut down, and Anika and Nakano stood poised to do what needed to be done. Anika reached for one of the Reactor’s emergency shutdown levers and turned her head to look confidently at Nakano. The levers needed to be pulled at exactly the same time or the system would reset, making a full shutdown impossible for another twenty minutes.

“On three,” Anika called out to Nakano. “One… Two…” But before she could articulate the number that would signal the shutdown of the Reactor a pair of angry blue eyes materialized and nearly had Anika jumping back from the red lever.

Anika stared, frozen in time, at the summer blue eyes. A small moan escaped her parted lips as the man to whom the eyes belonged began to appear also. She hadn’t recognized the ghostly eyes as his at all, mostly because she had never seen that particular pair without a gleam of merriment and mischief in their warm blue depths.

A few feet away, Nelson Nakano struggled with demons of his own. He struggled with the tears that left him with a sharp stinging sensation in his sinuses. He struggled with the loneliness that left his chest hollow and aching.

Aching for a smile, a small hug and a lilting laugh that had always managed to chase away his doubts and fears and made him feel ten feet tall.

The figure that stood before him now made him feel ten centimeters tall.

Cisia didn’t think that she could hate Dalasius any more than she did at this moment. No, she was sure that it wasn’t humanly possible to hate anyone more. She hated Dalasius with all of her soul for the pain he was causing Anika and Nakano with his illusions. Their pain radiated from them in waves so strong that their anguish was clearly perceivable to Cisia, even in this between world that her “father” had banished her to.

She fought her way back to the surface. The anger and hate inside of her raged like an inferno and instantly evaporated the tears that welled in the corners of her mahogany eyes.

Someone called to her from deep within the shadows. “Cisia don’t!”

Her progress ceased as she turned to see who shared this prison with her. “Don’t what?”

“Don’t give in to your hatred. You’ll only make Dalasius stronger.”

Cisia peered deep into the shadows. “Life?” she asked hesitantly.

If the entity she knew as life had a body, it would have nodded its head sadly, instead it responded with a morose “yes”.

Fear distorted Travis Jackson's clean-cut features as he scrambled to call for help. He hadn’t wanted the assignment at the reactor, but it was a desk job and it meant extra hazard pay.

But the pay wasn’t good enough to risk his life for, he decided. Not when one of the most notorious hunters in the city just ran right past him. Travis knew that he wouldn’t be able to take Phoenix Mark down alone and with the entire Core under siege there was no chance he’d get any backup.

Travis tried the switchboard one more time anyway. It was hard to believe that just a few minutes ago his greatest worry had been whether or not Joel Heinemann was going to get off the Warrior’s injured list. The game still played in the background and Joel heard the crowd cheering as the Titans scored the winning play.

Lydon watched the security guard carefully as he approached. The man seemed totally preoccupied in reaching whatever passed for Calvary around here. Would it be necessary to use one of his three remaining bullets? Lydon sighed as the guard struggled to release his gun from his holster. The answer was yes.

When the lights turned back on in Ven’s office Paula felt a heady surge of relief. That feeling was increased tenfold when Byrce and Talehn muscled their way into the office.

“Are you okay?” Byrce asked solicitously.

Paula gave him a quick smile and nodded. Not wanting to waste any time she then turned to Talehn. “We need to shut down the Reactor. Cisia’s in there.”

Talehn ran from the room so fast that Byrce, Paula and Ven had to do an all out sprint to catch up.

“Wait!” Ven called breathlessly.

Talehn spun around and shoved Ven up against the wall. “Nothing’s going to stop me from getting her out of there. So don’t even think of sicking your attack dogs on me,” he declared vehemently.

Ven shook his head hurriedly. “I wasn’t going to try to stop you. I’m here to help.”

Talehn’s eyes narrowed in suspicion but he didn’t have the time to question Ven’s motives. He acknowledged Ven’s offer of help with a slight tilt of his head. “Let’s go.”

The sight of Cisia, hovering in the lime-colored liquid that filled the reactor, drew Phoenix’s eye. The titan-haired hunter kept the interface in his line of sight as he made his way to Nakano.

The older man stood transfixed, a stream of salty tears running down his tanned cheeks. The sergeant looked much older than his thirty-seven years.

Phoenix grabbed Nelson’s shoulder. “Nakano?”

There was no answer, not even a flinch in response to the pressure Phoenix had applied with his fingertips.

Phoenix knew that the situation was desperate. Since he wasn’t getting a response from Nakano he went to Anika’s side. To Phoenix’s dismay, he was unable to get a response from Anika either.

He had to think. Their inability to respond must have something to do with Dalasius. Phoenix looked up at Cisia once more.

The echoing sound of a bullet hitting human flesh made Phoenix’s heart leap in his chest. He scrambled to find cover, hoping that whoever had fired the shot wouldn’t take aim on Nakano or Anika.

The machine-gun felt inordinately heavy in Rangarion’s arms. He had no way of knowing how many souls this particular instrument of death had claimed. Come to think of it, he had no idea how many his partner had claimed either.

Ran watched Darian as he walked in front of him. How could a soul change so dramatically in a matter of lifetimes? Maybe he was wrong about Darian being Mari’s reincarnation. He certainly couldn’t reconcile this hardened warrior with the earnest girl he had once known.

Darian turned as if he had heard Ran’s most private thoughts. Ran braced for the confrontation.

But there was no confrontation. Darian simply turned and asked, “Did you hear that?”

Ran’s brow furrowed in puzzlement. “Hear what?”

Darian shook his head to clear it. “Never mind. I’m going to pick up the pace, can you handle it?”

Self-conscious, Ran puffed out his chest. “Of course.”

Not long after the gunshot sounded Phoenix watched Lydon enter the room. Ordinarily, Phoenix would have felt compelled to call out a challenge--but not this time, it would be stupid to try to play fair with someone who seemed to go out of his way to play dirty. Phoenix felt no remorse as he fired upon the unsuspecting detective.

Phoenix was puzzled when Lydon ducked out of view without firing back. Then he saw why. The tricky bastard was low crawling towards Cisia! Phoenix waited for John to pass a table that obstructed his view before he fired his next shot.

This time Lydon fired back. The bullet hit Phoenix’s temple and dug a furrow along the side of his head. Warm, viscous blood dripped into Phoenix’s left eye as he passed out.

Kuri laid his sister down in the room where Nakano and Anika had thought out their plan to get into the reactor. “Stay here, Mikan. I’ll be right back.”

Mikan’s large brown eyes started to tear. “Promise?”

Kuri’s eyes settled on an abandoned tweed cardigan and he brought it over to drape over his sister’s legs. He held out his pinky and hooked it with hers, “Pinky promise.”

Leaving Mikan behind didn’t enchant Kuri too much. At this state, he knew that his little sister was still very fragile. But from with all the information Miss Jansen had told him and Mr. Talehn, and everything that has been happening to him in the last few hours, Kuri knew that he had to do something. Or chances were that neither Mikan, nor anybody else on the planet would have a chance of making it.

Floating his way to the Core with the energy balls spinning around him, the young boy tried to ignore all the corpses that were around him to keep his morale up and running. He was afraid that with doubt, his powers would leave him and he would most definitively be helpless. Hell, he felt helpless enough, as it was already with his powers, any more helpless than that and he’d be in very deep trouble.

Thoughts of simply going back to Mikan and leaving this place came and left the boy’s mind.

Just what was he supposed to do?

“Just follow the purity of your heart and you will see that everything should go well! You will know what’s right and what’s wrong. From then on, you’ll do what you really wish to do,” said the woman’s voice in his mind.

The woman’s voice usually either creeped him out or gave him more confidence to go on. Luckily, this time around, it gave him more strength to go on.

As soon as Kuri turned the corner to the Reactor, passing by a dead security guard, he saw Miss Jansen and three other men. Miss Jansen was standing in front of a lever, another man was standing in front of another lever, the bounty hunter Phoenix Mark lay unconscious on the bridge that led to the Reactor and a detective stood there with a smoking gun.

As for Miss Cisia, she was plugged to the Reactor itself and looked as if she was having a nightmare of some sort.

Glancing down, Kuri saw that the plunge down the bridge would most certainly be a fatal one, so he made sure that he kept on floating over the bridge itself.

“What should I do?” sobbed the young boy.

It was then that his eyes revealed to him elements that were not of this plane. It was clear to the boy that Miss Jansen and the man next to her were suffering from hallucinations that were haunting them both.

Instinctively, Kuri knew that it was a “fear” spell, one that made the victim of such a spell face his or her greatest fears.And it was also clear to him who was behind all this; It was the huge mass of darkness that was in front of him, a large dark figure that was not tangible in any way and looked at him with hateful red eyes and a glowing red aura.

“So you can see me in my plane of existence now Radhani! You are surprisingly strong for a dead woman,” said the darkness in an echoing voice.

“My name is Kuri, Dalasius, and I’m ending this here!” replied the boy. The confidence in the tone of his voice surprised him.

Reaching out with his mind, Kuri lifted the only man that was conscious and sent him back outside of the Reactor’s room, he did not want him to get caught in the crossfire. He would have done the same with Miss Jansen, Phoenix Mark and the other man also, but he was afraid that he might kill the wounded Phoenix Mark doing so, and he knew that moving victims of the Fear spell could be dangerous for their mental balance. This said, the young boy knew that he’d have to be careful when fighting Dalasius not to hurt anybody around him.

“Your name matters not! Soon, you will be nothing more than a mass of un-living flesh!”

“That’s what we’ll see!” replied Kuri.

Without warning, Dalasius sent an energy beam at Kuri. The boy knew that it was a beam meant to wipe out any of the Ether that was in him temporarily. He also understood now that this fight was only between Dalasius and himself, since nobody could see what was going on in this plane of existence. Kuri counter-attacked with exactly the same spell sending away a huge white beam of light from his palms towards Dalasius.

Both beams hit each other and tried to push their way to one mage or the other.

The cards were set; the rules of the game had been made. From here on, it was going to be nothing more than a contest of wills.

“Impressive!” said Dalasius with his echoing voice still pushing the beam forward without any effort whatsoever.

“You haven’t seen anything yet!” said Kuri as he pushed his powers to their limit. The boy knew that he couldn’t keep this up much longer.

“Ah, but I believe I have,” replied Dalasius.

“Believe what you will!” replied Kuri as all the energy balls that circled around him went flying directly at the necromancer.

At that precise moment, Kuri lost the will to keep on fighting and felt the beam hit him directly on the chest. And at the same moment, all of the energy balls entered Dalasius’ body.

Kuri dropped to the floor like a sack of potatoes and felt his vision blur a little bit he looked up and saw that Dalasius was screaming in pain.

“THIS WILL BE A SHORT LIVED VICTORY, RADHANI!” screamed the necromancer. “YOU HAVE ONLY SET BACK MY PLANS BY A FEW MOMENTS!”

With those last words, the necromancer’s astral plane dissipated. And a shell of some sort formed itself around Miss Cisia’s body. Obviously, it was a protection spell incanted by the necromancer.

Feeling the whole world spin around him Kuri let his head slump down on the ground. “My name is… Kuri.” Stars blurred up his vision and he passed out.

Anika closed her eyes and plugged her ears! The sight of those blue eyes tainted by evil was simply too much for her to bear! The fear, the pain… her heart was beating in an anarchic way. She had trouble concentrating on breathing and gasped for air every now and then.

“God damn you! Go away! Leave me alone!” screamed the blonde hunter. “I swear, if you don’t go away, I’ll…”

She felt something tap on her shoulder.

Instinctively, the blonde hunter drew her handgun and spun around, ready to shoot.

“I said leave me alone!” she screamed with teary eyes.

As she opened her eyes, she was face to face with Nakano who had his hands up in the air, and who looked every bit as exhausted as she was. She was still holding the gun, breathing heavily as her eyes and Nakano’s met.

“It’s over Anika,” said Nelson in a soothing tone. “It’s me, Nelson, I'm your friend here.”

Feeling a lump in her throat, the hunter let tears flow down her cheeks finally lowered her gun.

“What happened, Nelson?” Anika sobbed.

“I don’t know, but I sure as hell never want to go through that again,” replied the ex-officer.

Looking around up, Anika saw Cisia protected by a transparent shell and came to the realization that even if she and Nakano did manage to open the Reactor, they probably wouldn’t be able to carry Cisia and that huge shell that surrounded her. There wasn’t even a way to know for sure if the interface was alive. She turned to Nelson, who was also looking at the Interface.

“What do we do now?” asked Nakano, apparently thinking as much as she did about this whole affair.

“I honestly don’t know, Nelson. I honestly don’t know.”

Trying desperately not to think of her partner, Anika wanted to solve this situation on her own. For years, she had always relied on Darian to come up with the plans and to come up with the solutions to the puzzles they had to face. Whether she liked it or not, Darian was gone, he was probably nailed by Hihori and the Syndicate, meaning that she was probably on her own from here on. It was a bad timing for this to happen though: she had to deal with the fact that she was on her own AND save the planet at the same time. Talk about pressure.

But trying not to think of Darian actually made her think of her partner. His gentle blue eyes... She would never see them again. The feeling of his soft skin against hers, she would never feel it again.

She had to focus. And come up with a solution.

Turning around, Anika saw Nakano on his knees and checking on a body that was lying on the floor. It took her a moment, but she still quickly realized that it was Phoenix Mark.

“Oh my god,” she muttered.

“He’s still alive!” said Nakano as he stood back up. “Out cold, but alive. It was only a scratch. My goodness, what happened here while we were out of it?”

Looking up, Anika saw another body, lying face first on the floor a little further away. With a feeling of dread running up her spine, Anika recognized Kuri, the boy she had met last night with Talehn and Cisia.

The blonde hunter went running towards Kuri but was stopped when a man holding a handgun entered the room: Lydon.

“I suggest, Miss Jansen, and Sergeant Nakano, that you both step back right this instant and leave both of your hands where I can see them.” ordered Lydon coldly pointing the gun at her, and to Nakano afterwards, switching from one to the other continuously.

Anika gave a look towards Kuri and could see distinctively that the boy was still breathing. It was at least that.

She took a few steps back until she was next to Nakano. Giving the sergeant a look, she saw that Nakano wasn’t even looking at her. The only thing that was left in his eyes was a look of hatred for the man who had murdered his sister.

This was most definitively Nakano’s past catching up with him, and whether she liked it or not, she was going to get involved.

Nelson’s rage grew as he took in every detail of Lydon’s appearance, from the detective’s well-shined leather loafers to his jet-black silk shirt. It wasn’t fair that he should be alive and well. It wasn’t fair that he should be here to threaten innocent lives.

He was going to even the score.

He was going to even the score that Lydon had begun the second he pumped a bullet into Mia’s back. Nakano knew all of the details of his sister’s death--he had coerced them from his friend Lee, the deputy medical examiner.

That’s how he knew that Lydon’s bullet hadn’t killed Mia right away. Instead, the bullet had torn through her lungs, filling them with her own blood. His baby sister drowned in her own blood.

Nakano couldn’t get over the fact that his only sister, whom he had raised after their parents died, had died such a painful and gruesome death. And why had she died? Because Lydon hadn’t been willing to pay for his actions and Mia had felt some loyalty to her first partner. Nelson had discovered the reason for her death months later, when he listened to her diary. He still carried it with him, in his back pocket. Every once in a while he played it back.

He reached for it now.

The black barrel of Lydon’s gun swung to face him. “Stop. Don’t move,” he commanded. Nelson’s grin was wide and sudden.

“Don’t worry, I don’t have a gun back here.” He turned to prove it. “I just wanted to play something for you. Consider it my final request.”

Lydon weighed the situation. He hadn’t made it this far by overlooking the obvious. And it was obvious that Nakano would do just about anything to make him pay for Mia’s death. Anika Jansen on the other hand was also a dangerous opponent--you didn’t get to be a hunter by playing nice.

But who was the greater threat? Now that he could see Cisia he realized that killing her wasn’t an option. Whatever that shell around her was made of seemed impenetrable. He would just have to settle for getting out of here with his life and his career intact.

Maybe if he placated Nakano, he could distract him and shoot him down with his remaining bullet. Then he could bluff Jansen into throwing down her gun by threatening to shoot the boy on the ground--she seemed to have a soft spot for him.

Lydon plastered a look of boredom on his face and hoped that his expression didn’t reveal his machinations. “Go ahead, sergeant,” he told Nakano.

“Thank you, detective,” Nakano replied pleasantly.

What emitted from the recorder wasn’t pleasant. Lydon cringed internally as a dead woman’s voice rang out.

“Saturday, June 5th. Boy is it hot today. I swear it seems more like August. I just took a shower but I’m already sweating buckets.

“Note to self: remember to give Nels money for the water bill.

“I wish I could tell Nels where I’m going tonight but then I’d have to tell him why. I can’t believe that John is dirty. I wish that I could tell someone but I think it’ll be best if I give John a chance to turn himself in.

Once I get that over with I can enjoy the rest of my weekend.”

Nelson turned off the recorder and his voice replaced his sister’s. “But she didn’t get to enjoy the rest of that weekend, let alone the rest of her life.” The recorder clattered when it hit the metal bridge. “She gave you a chance. If you had turned yourself in you would have got off with a slap on the wrist.”

For a minute Lydon forgot all about his plan and opened his mouth to antagonize Nakano. “That wouldn’t have been nearly as fun as watching Mia trying to--“

He cut off his sentence when Nakano let out a cry of rage. The sergeant wasn’t a big man, he was about 5’8 and 160 pounds, but he looked gigantic as he charged towards Lydon.

Lydon’s finger pulled reflexively on the trigger. The bullet hit Nakano--center mass--but it didn’t slow the man down. Lydon flipped the gun around to use as a cudgel. He hit him with all his might as Nakano pushed them closer and closer to the bridge’s railing. It didn’t help any.

With a final pump of his legs, Nakano plunged into the darkness with Lydon.

Closing his eyes for the last time and letting gravity take its course; Lydon could see the little girl in front of him as he was walking on the rims of an active volcano. Lava was jumping up in all directions as the detective readied himself to go where he wanted to go. He approached the young girl and took her hand.

“Let’s go home,” he said softly.

The little girl nodded. And they both jumped, hand in hand into the lava.

He was going home with the little girl.

Without any regrets, and at peace with himself--finally.

Nelson continued to hang on to Lydon’s waist as they fell. Now Mia could sleep, he thought. His sister wouldn’t cry in his dreams anymore.

The fall seemed endless. Nakano let his mind drift back to the day his parents bought Mia back with them from the hospital.

“Why is she all bald and wrinkly?” the twelve-year old Nelson asked.

His dad laughed so hard he almost fell off the couch. “She’ll get prettier. And when she does, it’ll be your job to protect her.”

But I didn’t protect her, Nakano thought.

A second memory came to him then. In the memory his parents had been dead for 3 months. Nakano remembered using his college fund to pay off the mortgage. But he was determined not to touch Mia’ college fund. That’s when he entered the police force.

It seemed as if he spent all day at his father’s desk studying. Mia came running in the room, her eight-year old face streaked with tears. He could remember her tearful announcement word-for-word.

“I need to borrow your BB gun.”

Since he could see that this was a serious matter to his little sister, Nelson held back the smile that threatened to emerge.

“What do you need it for, Mia?”

“To shoot Scott in the butt.”

Nakano smiled then. “Why?”

“Because he kicked No-tail,” Mia delivered the puzzling statement with vehemence.

Shaking his head, Nakano closed his books. It didn’t seem that he was going to get any studying done until the situation was resolved. “Who’s No-tail?”

“The stray cat Sandy and me adopted. Scott said she was ugly and kicked her. I’m gonna get him back.”

“Well that’s the wrong way to go about it, Mia,” Nelson explained. “Shooting Scott in the butt is wrong, no matter what your reason is. If you really want to see that he pays for kicking,” Nakano cleared his throat, “No-tail, you should tell his mother. I’m sure Mrs. Niyomia will see to it that justice is served.”

Mia had gone to Scott’s mother, and justice was dealt out, because Mrs. Niyomia turned out to be a big cat lover.

You got justice for No-tail, Nakano said to his sister in his thoughts. I’ve finally gotten justice for you.

Nelson released his grip on Lydon then. All he could think about now was meeting up with his parents and his sister in his next life.