Stefan, 10 years ago…
His hands still smelled of gunpowder from today’s job and his heart was racing after having gunned down that woman in broad daylight.
Though he was paid handsomely for it, he still felt that there was something off about it.
For one thing, there was no contact information, a purely anonymous job, and it was directed to him personally by name.
And ordinarily, target being a helpless mother wasn’t something he felt comfortable with, but the pay was incredibly persuasive.
He tried looking into her to figure out what he could about his target. Any connections to local gangs, or perhaps ties to any crime families, but to his shock, he found no information on her at all aside from her current place of residence.
No ties to businesses, no work history, no family history, no transaction history, no criminal history…
Nothing.
The woman was well and truly a ghost.
Her son was the only real indication that she had ever existed at all as he had been born in Good Samaritan’s Hospital in Kearney Nebraska, but anything before that drew a blank.
Regardless, the job was done so he should have shoved it from his mind but he couldn’t help but feel like this would come to haunt him later in life.
His hands were still shaking hours after he had shot her and he couldn’t understand why as he didn’t feel fear for what he had done.
It felt as if the after effects of what he had done was resonating with something deep within himself.
His driver at the time had asked him if it was the first time he had taken a life and Stefan shook his head no, so he shrugged and said, “Well...whatever the case, you better figure it out.”
When he returned to his apartment, he found his wife Josie looking at a realtor website for large family house estates and mansions ever since the paycheck dropped.
She looked up at him with the same vacant blank expression in her eyes masked by a false smile.
Josie had brown hair, grey eyes, and olive skin.
She was thirty seven years old and the two had been married for twenty years up until that point, and yet she always had that same look in her eyes.
It was a look that felt as if nothing truly mattered and that she was simply along for the ride.
She was already fully aware of the work that he did, killing, stealing, smuggling among other things, yet she didn’t care.
He had wondered if maybe she was a nihilist or if he had been married to a psychopath all this time, but every time he had tried to talk about it to her, the conversation went no where.
She well and truly did not care about what it took to reach that lavish life that he had always promised they would have. She didn’t even really care if it meant that it might put her or her children in danger to reach it, only that Stefan made good on his word to reach it.
As long as he made good on his word, she would remain loyal to him through and through, and she did for the foreseeable future.
“What do you think about this house dear?” she asked as she turned the laptop screen towards him and showed him a picture of a large gated estate with a clean white painted finish. It was in the nice parts of North Riverdale in The Bronx, but not too close to the Hudson to avoid too much of the smell.
He nodded unenthusiastically as he said, “Yeah...yeah that’s a good choice. Lets go with that one.”
She nodded back and got to work writing down and calculating the necessary expenses while headed into the bathroom to wash his hands.
He needed to get the smell of gun powder off of his hands so that he could relax or he felt that he wouldn’t be able to sleep tonight.
As soon as he turned off of the water and reached for the towel to dry his hands, his eyes glanced at the mirror for a split second and he saw not himself, but a woman staring back at him with a twisted smile on her face.
With pitch black hair, porcelain white skin, and glowing golden eyes.
Her lips stretched into a thin and disturbing smile as she angled her head back to look down at him.
He felt his heart pound do hard in his chest from fear as he clutched his shirt and stumbled back and away from the mirror.
He blinked once, and she vanished.
What...in God’s name...was that?
He started breathing heavily as he slowly walked back to the mirror to see if the sight of that woman would reappear but nothing happened.
He heard his wife Josie call out to him from the other side of the door as she asked, “Are you alright dear?”
He swallowed his fear as best he could and said, “Y-Yeah, I just lost my footing and slipped. I’m fine.”
At the end of the day, he concluded that it was nothing more than a stress induced hallucination and ignored it.
It never again appeared…
Until…
Stefan, four years ago…
It had been more than a day since he had last seen or heard from his son after their conversation ended with him drunkenly shaming him.
Sure, they were words he had wanted to say to his son for a long time, but it was probably not very wise to say to him at that moment. Either way, what was said could not be unsaid, and so Julian had wandered off and apparently collapsed in Marcus’s old room shortly after the latter had left the family for good.
From what the staff had told him, Julian had woken up the next day with a furious expression on his face but gave no clues as to where he would go later.
Perhaps he was going to try and find Marcus to give him a piece of his mind, but not even Stefan knew where he had gone.
He doubted that anything would come of it so he let him stew in his anger until he came back.
Until he received a call from the Montefiore hospital.
What the…
He answered the phone, hoping it was just a missed called, “Hello?”
“Is this Stefan Romano?”
“Yes, why?”
“You were listed under Julian Romano’s emergency contacts-,” the woman on the other end said and Stefan stood up suddenly from his seat in shock.
“Is Julian alright?” he asked.
“He is in critical condition right now. I would strongly advise making your way to the ER right now so we can discuss this in person.”
“I’m on my way right now,” he said as he hung up the phone and made his way to his car.
As soon as he arrived, there was already a nurse waiting for him to give him the information as he walked with her inside.
The hospital has long been familiar with the Romano family and their subordinates, so they worked with them often.
“Your son was in a car crash earlier today but did not receive medical attention immediately after due to assaulting the first responders and wandered off,” she explained.
Fucking idiot child…
“But later, he was reported in by someone who thought they heard a disturbance and found him with a single gunshot wound right above the center of his forehead with no exit wound. Its impossible to tell if there is any fragmentation but due to the size of the wound, it might have been a low caliber.”
Hearing this, Stefan stopped and paused to replay the words he had heard from her and asked, “Wait, he was shot…?”
“Yes. Soon after the car crash, someone shot him. Even if we remove the bullet, there is no telling how much brain damage he might have from the crash itself since he refused care.”
“I see…,” he said as he stepped away for a bit.
She waited for a moment before asking, “Would you like to wait here until we can notify you when he stabilizes?”
“No. No, I...I have some things I need to take care of. Just send me any details about his condition later,” he said and she nodded before returning to her duties.
He then held his head in his hand while leaning on one of the walls for support and started rubbing his temples.
I don’t get it...why is this happening now of all times? First it was losing the bank, then it was Julian…
Its all happening the moment Marcus disappears…
Then, as that thought crossed his mind, he thought back to what Julian had said about his concerns around Marcus’s absence.
Was it really possible? Could Marcus be behind all of this? If so, then why bother asking to leave in the first place if he would immediately launch an attack on me?
But then Stefan shook his head and thought it to be nonsense. His son was a fool to assume that Marcus would risk his, and his sister’s safety to do all of this.
More likely, Castellano had been monitoring Marcus’s movements and robbed him while he was away.
This attempt on Julian’s life might have been revenge for taking Castellano’s life.
Marcus has been nothing but loyal and dependable.
Stefan felt no reason to assume him responsible after he had put in so much effort to leave and was finally free from the business.
Stefan would certainly never go after him after he had left for fear of incurring his wrath, so he wanted to push the thought of blaming him far out of his mind until he could find another answer for why this was happening.
As he left the hospital and got into his car, he looked in the rear view mirror as he was about to back out when the sight of that woman who had haunted him so many years ago appeared once more and smiled at him.
He did not dare look behind him or blink as he locked eyes with her, breathing heavily as fear gripped his chest once again.
“It-its you…,” he forced out as he tried to speak with her.
“Hello there Stefan,” she said with a voice that resonated with his soul.
“What do you want with me…?” he asked.
That question made her laugh at him as she answered, “You? Nothing. You are nothing more than a means to an end. An instrument of ‘that man’s’ suffering. You are the third and final sacrifice, whose life will end at his hands so that I can hear his cries of anguish.”
Her words disturbed him so much that he closed his eyes in the hopes that she would disappear and leave him alone.
A long silence stretched on until he heard the sound of fingers rubbing against the fabric of the driver’s seat as the woman’s lips brushed past his right ear.
He went perfectly still and his eyes opened wide as he heard her speak to him, “Your cries of anguish as well…I’m looking forward to hearing you scream and beg for him to show you mercy.”
Then nothing.
He sat perfectly still for nearly an hour, expecting her to appear once more, but there was nothing.
The nothing that followed her absence terrified him more than anything he had experienced to that point, and only the sound of a semi’s horn blaring by was able to break him from his stupor.
As soon as he regained his sense of self, he made a call to as many of his subordinates that he could to hunt down all of Castellano’s men and kill them on sight…
And to locate Marcus Wright.
Marcus…
After loading William’s body into his car, he called Lucas to meet him at the East River.
After half an hour of waiting, Lucas drove up to the riverside and walked out.
“Hey, you called to meet. What’s going on?”
“I need your help with disposing a body,” Marcus said and Lucas paused for a moment but shrugged as he made his way over to the trunk.
But before the trunk was opened, he sniffed the air and said, “Something smells burnt.”
Soon as Marcus walked around to meet him, Lucas turned his attention to him and said, “The smell is coming from you. You reek of gasoline. What happened?”
He looked at the man with a nervous expression and said, “Y-You wouldn’t believe me even if I told you.”
Lucas had an almost offended expression on his face as he said, “Oh really…? I already had a hard time believing you were The Enderman when I first met you. What could you possibly say to me that would blow my mind?”
Marcus just stared at him as if to say ‘drop it’.
Seeing this, Lucas shook his head exasperated but said nothing as he opened the trunk and he saw the face of the body inside.
“He looks familiar…”
“This is William Diaz, the former UFC champion, and also my martial arts instructor,” Marcus explained, to which Lucas’s eyes widened in shock and stared at him.
“What th...why do you have someone like this dead in your car?” Lucas demanded.
“Because he tried to kill me,” he said flatly, and Lucas noticed that he was being quieter than normal.
“Why did he-”
“Don’t,” Marcus said a little too quickly, which caused Lucas to blink in surprise and take a cautionary step back.
“Marcus...you need to be straight with me here. You’re being unusually quiet and distant about this, so clearly something is off. Now explain to me, now, why he tried to kill you,” Lucas said while keeping his right hand close to waist so that he might need to reach for the gun tucked behind his shirt.
Marcus noticed what he was doing, looked at Lucas, then sighed as he shut the trunk door for a moment.
“This man…William…he was my sister’s birth father. He didn’t know, and I didn’t know for a long time either until just the last couple of months, but Julian must have figured it out somehow. He told William, then sent him to kill me,” he explained as he gripped the car’s spoiler so tightly that it started to warp.
“I…,” Lucas stuttered as he tried to form a response but couldn’t.
“This was the second time Lucas. The second time I’ve had to kill a man I considered to be a father to me,” he continued to say.
“The second time? When…,” Lucas tried to ask but paused as he started to put the pieces together as he remembered Marcus’s time in Japan not too long ago.
“First it was Hiroshi, now William…and pretty soon I’ll have to kill Romano too. I don’t…I don’t know if I can stomach killing a third father Lucas. This is too much for me. I don’t think I can keep going,” he said as his knees gave out and he fell to the ground.
Lucas took a step towards him to help but Marcus held out his arm to stop him as he turned his body around and leaned his head back against the rear fender.
“I don’t have a single memory of my birth father or any pictures of him, yet I’ve killed the closest father figures I’ve ever known in my life and I’m about to kill another. I don’t think I can live with this!” Marcus said as he started crying.
“Oh Jesus…,” Lucas said as he watched him break down.
Marcus pressed his palms onto his eyes as he said, “I don’t know how to face my sister with the fact I just killed her father. What am I supposed to do next?”
Lucas didn’t seem to have an answer and just stared at him in stunned silence.
Marcus raised his voice as he asked him, “What do I do Lucas?!”
“I…I don’t have an answer for you, I’m sorry,” he said, to which Marcus shook his head and looked away.
“All I know is that you won’t be able to find an answer if we don’t finish this. I mean…I did promise you that once all of them were dead, the worst of this would be over, right?”
Marcus turned his head to look up at him.
Lucas knelt on the ground next to him and looked him in the eyes as he said, “Just suffer with me a little longer and this hell will all be over. I promised you that then, and I’m making that promise again now. Only two more hurdles left, and that freedom is yours. I just ask that you help push us to the finish line.”
He then held out his hand to him, waiting for him to take it, to dive back into that hell so that he might finally see that peace.
Swallowing his guilt, and driving it into the deepest pit of his chest, he took Lucas’s hand and was hoisted back to his feet.
Now…
Marcus sat in his chair in the cafe across from Ruvick, staring quietly in the distance as the man recounted what he saw in his dreams.
Some of the details that Ruvick talked about, even recalling the points of view from people other than Marcus himself, bothered him and seemed to make very little sense.
What bothered him the most was probably the mention of that woman that appeared to influence Stefan and Julian both.
“So...now that I’ve told you everything I’ve seen so far, what’s your insight on the matter?” Ruvick asked.
Without turning to look back at him, he asked, “That woman you mentioned earlier...you said she had black hair and golden eyes. Do you know anything about her?”
Breathing in deeply, Ruvick appeared extremely nervous at the mention of her and said, “Unfortunately I do. That woman had a striking resemblance to the Seraphim Azrael, the Archangel of Death. During the Exodus period, she was involved with various battles on Terra and had a deep seated hatred for Lucifer. She blamed him for influencing Gabriel as he had become attached to humanity and even took a wife, Izumi Tenkura.”
At the mention of that name, Marcus flinched and stared at Ruvick in shock as he recognized it.
Seeing his reaction, Ruvick leaned forward in interest as he asked, “Does that name mean something to you?”
“Maybe…why don’t you keep going with your explanation first,” Marcus replied.
Ruvick nodded and continued, “When Azrael learned that Gabriel had married a human and conceived of a child, she hunted them down and killed Izumi Tenkura, taking her sword in the process. She tried to kill their daughter but the child mysteriously vanished before she could get the chance and no one knew what happened to her after.”
Marcus started fidgeting nervously with his hands as he said, “Ame Tenkura, Izumi’s daughter, is one of the oldest ancestors of the Kaneko family, the very same that Moyako belongs to. What else can you tell me about Azrael?”
“When the Second Age of Man came to an end with Yeshua’s death, a battle ensued and at the very end of it, Azrael cut off Samael’s head and severed his soul from his body, killing him instantly,” he said, which caused a chill to run down Marcus’s spine.
“So that’s why you thought my mention of meeting him was odd,” Marcus said, to which Ruvick nodded.
“I’ll investigate that on my own time. You don’t need to concern yourself with that I assure you. But that aside...do you have anything else to share on all of the dreams I recounted?”
“I do have...one thing. Back during that job in Lunaas, I had a conversation with Artemis. When she told me that I was not a human being, I didn’t assume that she knew about me being a god. Instead, I had thought back to the moment when I first learned about my immunity to fire. I thought about the moment my mother died and everything in between leading up to now. Learning about Azrael’s appearances…I can’t shake the feeling that she was involved in...shaping me into what I am now,” Marcus said as his fingers wrapped around the corner of the table in the cafe and gripped it tight.
An arc of red lightning sparked along his fingers and the people around him suddenly stopped moving, paralyzed by fear. Many of them started choking for air as the rage emanating from Marcus made it impossible for them to breath.
“Marcus, calm down…,” Ruvick said, but the boiling rage was drowning everything out until he gripped the table corner so firmly that it snapped off and the sudden shift jolted him out of his trance that he looked at the people around them awkwardly.
Everyone in the cafe stared at him with terror in their eyes as they realized that he was the cause of that rage that threatened to suffocate them.
Ruvick sighed and rolled his eyes as he snapped his fingers, making the corner disappear from Marcus’s hand while the people in the cafe returned to normal.
“Sorry about that,” Marcus apologized sheepishly.
“Your reaction is understandable. Just...try not to do that in public too often. Flexing your authority here might draw the wrong kind of attention,” he explained.
“Right…do you have any other questions for me?”
“Just one.”
“Go ahead.”
“When you fight Julian tomorrow, what do you intend to do to him?”
The next day…
Marcus stepped onto the floor of the arena, clenching his fists to try and restrain as much of his anger as possible, so as to maintain his sense of reasoning as he locked eyes with the man he hated most.
Julian Romano, standing opposite to him, already had Sceawere held in his right hand at the ready.
When he spotted Marcus walking towards him, he smiled, albeit nervously, as he said, “There you are...Do you have any idea how long I waited for you to show up when I came to this world?”
Marcus refused to answer him as he stopped and stood ten feet away from him, barely keeping his wrath from leaking out of him. If he allowed his authority to leak out, then there would be no point to this fight if Julian didn’t have the strength to stand up to him.
He wanted him to fight back so that he could withstand whatever punishment he threw at him.
Ignoring the fury visible on Marcus’s face, Julian tilted his head mockingly and asked, “What, ain’t got nothing to say?”
No longer able to hold back his wrath, he poured all of it into the next words that left his lips.
Tilting his head down slightly, like a predator preparing to sink his teeth into its next victim, he said, “I’m going to cut your head off and smash it like a tomato.”
The words reverberated through Julian’s body, making him take a terrified few steps back as his sword hand shook, but he grit his teeth in anger and said, “Go ahead and try.”
“Let the semi-finals match begin!” the announcer said, and before the spatial battlefield had time to unfold around them, Julian’s head had already been severed from his body and fallen to the ground next to him.
Marcus stood behind him, with Light Taker’s edge dripping with his blood.
He looked down at Julian’s severed head, raised his foot above it, and slammed it down upon his skull.
The sickening sound of flesh and bone turning to paste filled his ears as Julian’s corpse fell to the ground behind him.