Later that night, Ryoko Shimizu was in London as well as she was taking refuge at a local coffee shop to read up on some current events on her tablet. She and a few others that were with her staying on business. This was indeed her last day as she had to make a flight from London and back to Madrid. She already had her bags packed and destined to leave for her trip in the evening. Before she does, she wanted to meet up with her team. Ryoko went to her living quarters, but no one was there.

She drove out of town and went east to Knightsbridge Underground Station. As Ryoko arrived at the Knightsbridge Underground Station, she went inside the Personnel entrance and used the maintenance elevator. There she pressed three buttons: 1, 3, and Sub-basement at once. The elevator started to move downward. A few moments later, the elevator opened, revealing a hidden underground laboratory/armory that once belonged to the Oleander Syndicate.

Knowingly, Ryoko wasn’t alone as she went to the computer station to see Kayla Anderson typing away on her keypad. Ryoko couldn’t help to cringe at the smell of the place and the bad lighting.

Deeply vexed that her guest is using her facility, the small wolf kemonomimi relented, “You know, Kayla, I am so glad that our palace is finally rebuilt. How long has it really been since the old palace had burned down?”

“Long enough. And who said it was my home?” Kayla said, still typing. “Ryoko, I think he was on the news the other day…” Kayla reported.

Ryoko felt an uneasiness in Kayla. Out of the remaining four, Ryoko was the only one in the Nether Elite to maintain a personal and positive relationship between everyone in the syndicate, “Wasn’t the agreement that we weren’t allowed to pursue any form of leads, especially about Bĕhēmōt Firas?” Ryoko reminded.

“I don’t care,” Kayla flatly replied. “I still have a job to do…”

“That’s funny, I thought the United Nations banned ‘independent man-hunting’ after what happened in London.” Ryoko corrected as Kayla changed the subject.

“This Bĕhēmōt Firas may have made his political career ruining our own, but I still have a job to do. I have done some digging, and I have gone into Alastair’s old terminal and did some research. It appears that Bĕhēmōt Firas was born and raised in the United States. Manhattan, New York, to be exact. He lived there all his life, so it seemed…”

“So? People like him don’t want to leave a paper trail behind… Can you really blame him?” Ryoko nervously added, remembering the towering jackal kemonomimi.

“Indeed, Bĕhēmōt Firas builds and designs unmanned aerial vehicles, commonly known as drones, aircraft that can fly without a human pilot aboard,” Kayla agreed as she pulled up documents. “He owns a conglomerate called Second Renaissance Industries, where he offers his services to the military and private companies. The company’s net worth alone is about 39.2 billion dollars.”

“Everything is legit?” Ryoko asked.

“He even pays his taxes in advance. He even donates three percent of his entire revenue-building infrastructures to undeveloped countries, giving scholarships to underprivileged kids, medical research, charities…” Kayla explained.

“How did he become an Emperor in the first place? That’s what I want to know…” Ryoko mentioned.

“The Royal Nephalem Order is pretty much the top one percent of the Nephalem species, literally,” Kayla answered as she pulled up more information. “Those who belong to the particular order are indeed from royalty, and they all share a bloodline of numerous black-winged Diaras like the first one on recorded history, Lucifel. Bĕhēmōt Firas, of course, is indeed a part of such order. Although he was considered to be an illegitimate crossbreed, Nephalems are indeed ultra-progressive and accepted him with open arms. His birth father was a Daemon Prince named Sifr, a descendant of the nephalem beasts called behemoths.”

Ryoko sighs deeply, “and Bĕhēmōt killed everyone to become the new Emperor, right?”

“No. From what I discovered, he was doing some soul-searching himself, and he immediately stumbled upon his own heritage. There were some detractors, naturally. But they all saw him as the true Emperor of the Nether. Ironically, the same time Bĕhēmōt Firas became the Emperor, someone else ascended to the throne as the seventh Daemon King alongside him. Now his real name, I can’t get a hold of…” Kayla explained.

“Siath…” Ryoko dreaded.

Kayla nodded, “many people feared, including Eichner, being a two-man power trip… However, both of them have worked tirelessly to restructure the order, and they have done that.”

“And what about us?” Ryoko suggested.

“Restoring the order and keeping their people safe and prosperous is one thing, but now they see us as the monsters. Not just the Oleander Syndicate, but the Dark Nebula Coalition, who had been poisoned by corruption during the death of the late Grandmaster Sudbina Novak. Both of them are convinced that we are beyond saving and must be allowed to die. They will indeed destroy us…” Kayla concluded.

Ryoko was indeed impressed by Kayla’s discoveries. However, it was discoveries that she unearthed on her own. She could have acted upon it, but her superiors, like Adrian, denied any further involvement. Still, she was impressed by this as she gave another suggestion, “Well, that’s all good work on your part. I guess this is the part where you pack everything up and give it to Interpol?”

“More like I pursue these leads myself and find the motherfuckers who ruined our lives,” Kayla denied.

“You go ahead, and you do that, Kayla. And what is going to happen when you go over there and try to be what you can never be anymore?” Ryoko cautions.

“I’m not ready to call it a career yet, Ryoko,” Kayla being defiant. “All because a bunch of cowards and bleeding hearts say otherwise. Bureaucracy is not going to help anything. Our way still works.”

“Of course, it works, Kayla,” Ryoko argued. “I mean, for all of these years, we have done this. Traveled all over the world and to think we were making so much progress.”

“Ryoko, people like Noel, Firas, and Redgrave are still out there… And Siath is planning his next move,” Kayla pleaded.

“Of course, they are. And whose fault is that?” Ryoko contradicted.

“Your friend. Not mine,” Kayla chides.

This certain divisiveness was always heir apparent and constant throughout her whole entire life with them in which angered Ryoko for the very first time, “She’s not my friend either. And that is the problem. We might be the best of the best, so to speak, but we were never really a unit. We were never really a team. We were never really heroes. We just did what they wanted us to do like a master would call his dog, we have accepted that. We all bought into the twisted and perverted fantasy that they created. But you, Kayla, you’re the only one who wanted more than that. Having a husband and having a family. You successfully did both of that.”

“Yeah, so what does it really say about everybody else here if I’m able to do that?” Kayla mockingly questions.

Ryoko took a deep breath. She wanted to calm down and speak openly about what was on her mind. It took her a while, but at least she felt good enough to say what she really has to say, “Not much if you can shortchange everything that you have done so far. You know what I did every single year before I came back, I visited the Holy Fire Memorial Festival in London.”

Hearing those words cut Kayla’s heart like a knife. Still, to this day, it bothered her, and it bothered many others. The day that the Oleander Syndicate failed humanity.

Ryoko continued, “Honoring the victims on that fateful day that not only changed the world but our world. It became a habit of mine; I go to a nice little restaurant called Roka, a Japanese restaurant. I order some raspberry sake fizz and my occasional favorites. There, I would look over to my left, and I would see all of us in one big table. And then I would see Cordelia and Alastair along with his wife… Maybe a kid or two. All of them being happy for once…”

All Kayla could do was to shake her head in disbelief as Ryoko tearfully continued to explain her daydream, “I will look away only to have my waiter distract me just for a glance. There would immediately look over to the table… And who will be nobody there… Or it would be somebody else… Someone’s family…”

Afterward, Ryoko began to cry as she tries to choke out her final words, “Not a day goes by. I think about what happened in London. I wish I were there to help her… To help all of you, but I wasn’t good enough… There’s a lot of things I wish I could take back and change. Before I sold my soul and became what I am now. Regardless of how we are trained, we still have these doubts. I never wanted this to happen... I wanted all of us to be at least happy together. But I knew long before I even met all of you, it would never happen. And it never will.”

After those final words, Ryoko left the side of Kayla, who was still defiant about helping Interpol.