"It was because of me… because of me… I am at fault… I am a fool… I am a fool."

Zal could take the impact no more. He sat on the side of the road with his appearance becoming more haggard than it already is and started sobbing and crying.

He blamed himself dearly and kept screaming, "Forgive me! Forgive me!".

Behind him, Leon was silent, mostly sympathetic, but silent still.

This was not normal. This was really not normal.

He stole a painting that is more than 200 years old just to deliver it to a crime lord who was after some map drawn on its back. Whatever the rewards this map gives, it can be more precious than a painting that is considered one of the best works to be ever made by human hands.

It is not Zal's fault at all, it is Leon's… his sin.

Was the Black Cobra truly a thief? It is hard to tell, what he stole were things he was returning to their rightful places, things that were already stolen. He never shied from his methods as Aims justified the Means and all he stole from before were either scumbags or filthy rich people.

This time, he did it all wrong. It is not a moral code or something he abides himself to, it is the value of his own skill and the consequences of his actions. A man must face those without chickening out.

"I am sorry, Zal." He spoke but Zal was still cowering with his head between his knees.

He barely raised his face and Leon could see the bruises and the blood on it. The bravery of the cowards was admirable especially when Leon couldn't do what Zal did just a few minutes ago.

When Hector Norman tore the map from the back of the painting, the world in its entirety crumbled in Zal's mind. He fought and tried to stop the Bull but he wasn't even a problem to the Bull's bodyguards. All Leon could do was to stop them from beating the man into certain doom and dragged Zal out.

Does he feel good about it? No.

Does he feel like going in there and murdering every person he sees? Yes.

But he can't do that… not now anyway.

All he could do is to walk away from all this mess he caused with a heavy mood and a guilty heart.

Half an hour later.

In front of the Mercenary Hall, Leon sat alone with a distant puzzlement on his face. It is about time he leaves this accursed city for good. He still has no direction in mind but somewhere far away, where the road can heal him along the trip, is what he has in mind.

He still couldn't shake the feelings he had today as if they were like a mountain pressing against his chest.

The Deja Vu he had when he was trapped inside the room with the Bull, the darkness that rose within him when he saw that woman with Mana Allergy being used as some sort of Magic Sensor, and what happened with the Painting.

Between the three, all he needed to focus on was the Deja Vu feeling. It felt the safest for some reason.

Trapped in a place he can't escape, surrounded by weapons, just came out of a successful operation… it all fits together too well. What it lacked was another element and he was sure that he would remember it all.

Was it with the Ring of Horus?

He immediately took off his gloves and touched his ring finger feeling it and calling back the ring.

It manifested and appeared as if it was always there and he kept touching it while trying to remember. It all felt like a distant dream while at the same time something important.

It should have been there when it all ended.

How did it end?

It ended in flames. In fires.

"Flame… Fire."

Leon kept looking around like a madman until his eyes fell on a brazier on the side where a mercenary was brewing some drink over it. The idea came to him, the memory started to rush but it still was holding back.

He couldn't let go of it… he mustn't.

He walked off from the place he was sitting with eyes frozen with madness then with the hand carrying the ring, he dipped it into the flame!

"ARE YOU MAD!"

***

"ARE YOU MAD?!" The man shouted, someone he recognized!

"Go away, Hani." Shady pointed his gun up at the man he always called his best friend.

"It's over, Black Cobra! Hand over the Ring and surrender!" A woman in dark ops gear walked beside Hani as she shouted aiming her submachine gun at Shady as well.

"Fucking bastards!" Shady refused to surrender.

Not now, not after how they pulled out the best heist in the world.

They secured the river, the underground waterways, the sleep gas in the ventilations, the charges over the garage walls, the 1-minute blackout. Everything was done right except for one thing.

A traitor!

"Your team will be captured! There is no escape!" The woman said.

"Yes, Shady, there is no escape from this. They will let you live if you hand the ring over." Hani said.

"You believe that?" Shady replied.

"… No." Hani laughed, "I just want the old man's head. I don't care about anything else."

"Yes, you want your father's head. Fucking bastard!"

Shady didn't back down knowing that they want him and they want the ring he is carrying on his finger. He only needed to add one more variant to the equation.

*Click* *Beeb* *Beeb* *Beeb* *Beeb* *Beeb* *Beeb*

From under his sleeve, a detonator appeared and the whole warehouse started making noises. The so-called black ops team surrounding him started panicking and some of them wanted to jump on him but his back and flanks were secured.

"STOP! NOBODY MOVES!" The woman beside Hani shouted, "We only want the ring, Cobra."

"The world is about to change, Shady. This ring carries a secret to a future we all will face." Even Hani started shouting, "This will change everything. The world powers, the political scene, even the nuclear game. Don't bury yourself with the old world. We can see a new world together."

"A new world?" Shady laughed, "One where you can freely conspire with the Mossad?"

[A/N: This conversation is a reference to my future novel, Beast of the Apocalypse. It is kinda the novel where I make my previous works have an effect on the plot together.]

"Shit!" Hani's face changed color knowing that Shady knew which side he's on, "Shoot him!"

*Bang* *Bang* *Bang* *Bang*

Without even a hint of hesitation, bullets flew from every direction and both Hani and the agent beside him rushed at Shady to catch the detonator. Shady could only fire a single round that found its way to the center of Hani's skull as he jumped away from the bullets that flew from every corner.

He was hit by one in the torso and another in the thigh marking that he can no longer escape from this. The decision of detonating the bombs didn't even take him a heart's beat.

*Click*

"Ashhadu alla ilaha ill Allah, w…"

"SHADY!"

And the regret came for him all of a sudden seeing her rushing from the backdoor running towards him. His last memory is that of fire filling up his vision and his hand reaching out to tell Nadia to go away.

***

And the image of his hand sticking into the flame kept overlapped with his vision.

"ARE YOU MAD?"

Yet his hand was pulled out as with him back to reality. The mercenary that was brewing tea beside him just now shouted at him as he pulled out a wet piece of linen and covered Leon's hand with it.

"Sorry."

Absent-minded and confused, Leon simply looked away into an empty space with a hundred ideas trying to invade his psyche. He had no idea what to think of this anymore.

He died. That's a fact. He may not be at peace with it since he dragged Nadia down but he has to face it and do something about this life he has gained.

"You okay?" The Mercenary noticed him unresponsive and asked.

Leon responded gradually looking at the man in a second and smiling at the next then nodding in the third.

"Yes, sorry."

"Young man, this won't do you good. What the fuck got into your head?" The man said as he looked at the burnt hand, "You'd need to see a Healer if you can afford one else you won't be able to work with a hand like that."

"I am fine." Leon dragged his hand away and kept it behind his cloak then looked around with his heavy eyes thinking of either some reckless or something distracting.

"Looking for your company?" The Mercenary asked.

"Company?" Leon asked before realizing that the man probably meant his group, "Well, I am not with my company today so I am going to fill any free place."

"Today's mission?" The Mercenary frowned, "The escorting of those aristocrat kids?"

As the mercenary said, Leon remembered the context of his job.

"Right. The Academy Student escort."

And a smile formed on his face.

This was the job that he found the day he registered as a mercenary. The Royal Academy's first-year students are going out for a field experience in the Miasma Forest which includes everyone from Leon's grade.

If that is not the time to cause some trouble, then when else will it be?