2 years ago...

"How could you?"

I could hear the accusation in his words, the pain caused by my betrayal weighed heavily in every syllables. Despite that, Cain still looked like he couldn't believe I had it in me to do what I did and that was where he was wrong. I would do it all over again without hesitation if I had to.

I wanted to laugh at how I somehow always managed to fuck up every good thing that comes my way. I could have sworn it was a fucking talent. If I didn't love myself so much, I was sure I would despise me like everyone else does.

"It's the right thing to do." I said. It sounded funny coming from me. Since when did I care about the rights and wrongs? My moral compass had been a little rusty ever since I discovered the internet.

Cain glared at me, his eyes rimmed with red.

"You betrayed us to save your own skin!"

I didn't bother with denials. It was just a waste of time and energy. I turned my attention back to the pile of clothes on my bed. I picked them up and arranged them neatly inside my luggage.

"Are you done?" I asked without looking at him. The conversation was starting to wear me out. I had already heard the same words of accusations from Maria. It couldn't get any worse than that. "Because I really don't have time for this. I have an early flight tomorrow, I need my beauty sleep."

I felt a hand grabbed me by the shoulder and shoved me hard on the wall. My head hit the wooden frame of Mom's painting and it toppled straight to the floor.

Great. If I ever did survive Cain, I was sure my mom would kill me instead for destroying one of her masterpieces.

"Don't fuck with me, Dean." he said through gritted teeth. "Give me Cerberus and I might even forgive you for this."

His words amused me so much that I had to laugh. Fuck Cerberus.

"It's gone." I said matter-of-factly.

Cain's eyes blazed with hatred, something he usually reserved for our enemies. I was his enemy now.

"You son of a bitch!" He punched me in the face, so hard, I saw stars. I felt my fist clenched involuntarily, my natural instinct to hit back too overwhelming that I had to count to ten to stop myself from killing the asshole. So much for my beauty sleep.

It was tragic, seeing our two years of friendship fall apart before my eyes. I reminded myself that I chose this.

Destroying Cerberus was the one decision I got right. Something that dangerous wasn't meant to exist. Being its creator was a sin I had to pay for the rest of my life.

God, I sounded like a fucking martyr.

"I will ruin you. I swear, I fucking will." Cain spat at me.

I couldn't help it. I let out a dry bark. Everything seemed funnier when you're fucked up.

"Good luck with that." I said, chuckling with amusement. "There was nothing left in me to ruin, my friend."

The CIA made sure of that.

***

2 years and a month ago....

It wasn't the kind of CIA interrogation I was expecting. For one, I didn't expect we would be at Starbucks, with me drinking a venti caramel macchiato and my interrogator devouring a slice of blueberry cheesecake.

"How did you do it, kid?" Agent Z Bromm asked in between bites. I was disappointed when I first saw him. He was a man in his late twenties, wearing dark jeans and black leather jacker over a plain grey T-shirt, not the black suit I'd seen CIA agents wear in movies. The dark sunglasses were also missing. "That's Men in black, not CIA." Bromm said when I pointed it out.

It was such a shame.

"I invoke my right against self-incrimination." I answered, trying to be cheeky to hide my nervousness. He may not look like it, but I knew that Bromm was not someone I could mess with. I saw the profiles of CIA's top agents when I hacked the CIA's database and Bromm was one of them. I would have been proud the CIA sent him for me if I wasn't feeling so nervous. Bromm had a way to make me feel like a child by just being in his mere presence.

"How cute." Bromm cackled merrily. He grabbed a napkin and wiped his mouth. "Now kid, I don't want to be rude and all, but do you really think I give a single fuck about your rights?"

I didn't think so, so I shook my head. Bromm looked pleased.

"Smart kid. I like you." Bromm smiled as he took a folder from his jacket and handed it to me.

"What's this?" I asked.

"Oh, it's nothing. Just your arrest warrant. You're a felon, Hunter." He said, sounding a lot like Hagrid when he said: "You're a wizard, Harry."

"Why are you the one handing it to me? You're not from the FBI."

Bromm rolled his eyes.

"Fuck the FBI. They're all lame as shit." Bromm rested his arms over his legs, all business now. "I'm giving you a head's up here because a week from now, the FBI will come knocking on your parents' door to take you somewhere fun. And when I said fun, I meant juvenile detention."

His announcement didn't come off as a surprise to me. I expected it. I expected it the moment Cain forgot to use a proxy server to test Cerberus. The idiot.

"I already know that." I said. "Is that all you have to say? Because I might as well go back to school now to enjoy my remaining days outside of prison."

Bromm's smile widened.

"You have balls and brains. I could use someone like you in my team." He said.

"Thanks, but I think I'll pass." I knew enough of CIA to know that it wouldn't be a great idea.

"It's not a request, kid."

Bromm took a brown envelope out of his jacket pocket and handed it to me.

"How did these folders and envelopes fit inside your jacket pocket? Is that some kind of a technologically advanced jacket?" I asked suspiciously.

"No, silly boy. I'm just a talented packer." He winked.

I opened the envelope. My eyes widened as I scanned the papers page by page.

Bromm was obviously satisfied with my reaction. He sat up and crossed his legs, regarding me with his intelligent, gray eyes. There was no mercy in his expression.

"Don't make your life complicated, boy. Give us Cerberus and join our team."

I crumpled the envelope in fury.

"Go to hell." I said, my breathing heavy with barely concealed panic and fear.

I expected him to be angry but he just shrugged.

"I'm almost there."

I threw the envelope back at him. It wasn't like me to lose my cool but this was just so fucked up.

"This is blackmail!"

Bromm calmly gathered the papers that flew out of the envelope and shoved them back inside.

"This is how the CIA negotiates."

Fuck.

I had already mentally-prepared myself for Juvenile detention. I remembered my mom crying when I told her what I did. She cried and cried and my dad hit me for the first time in my life for making my mom cry. My brother, Holder, just gave me a look that says: "Congratulations! You've just successfully fucked up your life!"

Cain made everyone calm down. He said he would hire the best lawyers in the country. He assured my parents there was a way to get me out of this mess. I let him offer them false promises. I knew the weight of what I did. Hacking the pentagon and CIA was a criminal offense. There was just no way I would get away from it unscathed. Then this motherfucker appeared on our school yard to offer a more terrible alternative. And he came prepared.

"Cerberus' no longer exists. I destroyed it." I said in defeat.

Bromm raised one of his eyebrows.

"Did you?"

I looked at him straight in the eyes and nodded.

"It was a mistake. I shouldn't have created it." I said, meaning every words.

Bromm stood up and brushed the cheesecake crumbs off his pants.

"You can atone for your sins in Washington DC." he said then he walked out of the coffee shop, blending with the passersby so quick, I didn't see which direction he went to.

I looked at the folder and envelope in front of me. I stood up and hastily dropped them inside the nearby trashcan.

I headed for the restroom, steps heavy with guilt. Once inside, I took the USB out of my pocket. It was just half the length of my pinky finger. A thing so small, it shouldn't have the power to destroy a country. But it did. I wrapped my fingers around it one last time before I opened my palms and let it slid off to the toilet bowl.

I could still hear the sound of the toilet flushing when I stepped outside the cubicle. I had never imagined the sound of a flush could be that comforting.

***

2 years and 2 months ago...

"I did it!" I announced when I saw Cain rose from the couch. He just woke up from his nap and still looked disoriented.

"What?" He asked dumbly, scratching his neck.

I rolled my eyes.

"The perfect virus. I did it!"

That woke him up completely. He rushed to my side to look on the screen of his brand new macintosh computer, his eyes sparkling with excitement.

"How did you know it's perfect?" He asked.

"Tested it on CIA's database. It worked." answered Maria, smiling at me fondly. The two of us stayed awake all night to finish coding, making out a couple of times when we got too sleepy. I was glad to have her at my side. Sometimes, I felt like I was starting to fall in love with her but I wasn't sure if it was really love or just lust. Feelings weren't easy to determine at sixteen. Besides, I think I was in love with another girl too, but that was a different story.

Cain reviewed the codes and smiled.

"Perfect! I can't wait to tell dad!" He exclaimed, smiling from ear to ear. "Thanks for helping us, man!" he pat me on the shoulder.

"No problem." I said, suddenly feeling a bit... off. I brushed it aside. I didn't do anything wrong. I did it for the greater good.

Moriarti Tech had been trying to create the world's strongest anti-virus software for years. But Cain doubted they would be able to do that.

"I mean, how will they create the perfect anti-virus without a perfect virus to destroy, right?" His post on hackersanonymous.com, says.

Hackersanonymous was where brilliant hackers from around the world talk about almost everything. It was a heavily protected site. You had to be a brilliant hacker to be able to access it. I first accessed it when I was eleven.

Cain's username got my attention first: , I thought it was creepy and cool. I didn't know he was the son of Moriarti Tech's President and CEO. I took up his challenge to help him create the perfect bug. We communicated through email for the first three months until we finally trusted each other enough to meet in person. That was two years ago.

"What should we name it?" Maria asked.

I almost rolled my eyes. Girls. We finally created the perfect virus and she was more worried about its name. Typical.

"How about The great Hunter Dean Virus, HD virus for short?" I joked, getting a kick from seeing Maria's annoyed face.

"Too long and too horrible." She said, scrunching up her nose.

Didn't sound that horrible when she was moaning my name last night, I almost teased, but quickly remembered Cain was there and I didn't fancy a black-eye.

"It should be named after Hunter because he created it." Said Cain.

Maria stomped her feet. "I helped too!" she pouted. It was kinda cute.

I raised my hand.

"Let's just call it Cerberus named after Hades' three headed dog. Each head represents the three of us." I said, looking at the painting hanging on the wall of Cain's room. It was a painting inspired by Dante's Inferno, one of my mom's early works. I found it strange that Cain liked it enough to buy it.

Cain nodded his head.

"Cerberus' cool. It also symbolizes the bug's basic function: Decode, Disseminate, Destroy."

I stood up and did a little bit of stretching. My muscles felt sore from sitting up all night.

"It's settled then." I said, fighting a yawn.

I looked over Maria and saw her frowning. I walked towards her and sat beside her.

"Hey, what's wrong?" I whispered.

Maria rested her head on my shoulder. I glanced at Cain nervously but found him too engrossed reviewing the codes to even notice us so I let myself relax.

"I'm just worried, I guess." I heard Maria murmured.

"What are you worried about?"

"You've finally succeeded in creating the perfect virus." she said.

"So? We're going to create the perfect antivirus next. It'll be awesome." I said, trying to cheer her up. I hated seeing girls sad.

Maria looked up and stared at me with her big, silver eyes.

"But Dean, we call this virus the perfect virus for a reason." she said. "How do we destroy something that is made to be indestructible?"

I didn't have an answer for that. In fact, I hadn't thought about it that far.

"It's okay, Maria. It's going to be okay." I said.

I couldn't be more wrong.