Like the scorpion from the fable, he'd gotten rid of the frog; and with it, he'd doomed himself as well. There was no way he could ever swim across the lake he was stuck in, not without Val.

"This- This is a joke... right?"

Vic's hand dropped to his side.

"No, I don't buy it!"

He clenched his jaw and departed the scene. The mangled bodies and the blood pooling amidst the shadows were nothing short of a shrine to what Vic and Val once shared.

The city lost its color and became mute to Vic as he moved closer to the edge of the platform.

"I know. Val, it wasn't worth it."

He cringed inwardly as he felt his lip quiver. He didn't expect any sympathy. He had to be the Vic he was made to be, and that was the only thing he did deserve. He breathed and forbade the tears from forming. In a way, this was new to him. He hadn't felt the need to cry as long as his shredded memory told him.

A ring on his ear did little to snap him out of whatever he was in, but he still accepted the call half-numb.

"You had him cornered. What the hell was that!?" Atsev demanded. Vic stifled a sigh and opened his mouth.

"He was... quicker, I guess," Vic replied.

"Hunt him down. It's your only job."

"Right away." Vic hung up and undid his tie. He held it up and let it be ripped away by a gust of frosty night wind, to be lost to the endless levels of the city.

"I guess you aren't picking the movie for tonight, huh?"

Despite his best efforts, Vic's regrets gradually started raining down around him, piercing and heavy, crystal clear in a muddy world.

***

Val's regrets arrived two days later; they were red and diseased.

He pulled his new blade out of his victim's gut as he kicked forward, sending the neat suited man plummeting to his doom through broken glass. Alarms broke out as soon as the first echo of the crash bounced through the air.

"Done, got anything else?" Val said, looking down at the corpse.

"Not tonight. Val, grab some rest. You've been going at it non-stop tonight, holy hell! You're a fucking monster," Zeke said. Val's ear twitched at the last word. He would have argued before, but after all the people he'd killed, it was sin not to accept the label.

"Do you have anything new?"

"Yeah. The guy you asked me to look... I'm not telling you shit."

Val bared his teeth. "You'd better spill the tea before I spill your blood."

"Hey, easy. Grab some rest and I'll meet you tomorrow night, police presence is getting thicker in your area." He sighed. "I wonder why."

"Fine. This better be good."

"Alright. Now get the fuck out of there! It's not just police. There's Snow and Lambda, too!"

"Shiiiit" Val thought. "Ok ok, shut up now. I go, cool?"

"Yeah whatever man, just leg it!"

Val listened, sneaking through the shadows. He was about to jump out the window when a snake woven from metal and a thousand nightmares slithered past. Its only eye was scanning each turn and corner as if looking for a lost ring. Val froze in place. When it was gone, he fled. He'd forgotten about the Handler's pets. They'd been looking for Val the past days, but he wasn't as easy to get hold of.

He got away with much effort, and he called it a night.

***

"Give me more time, I promise I can find him!" Vic pleaded. The last thing he wanted was for Atsev to send someone competent after Val.

"It's been a fucking week already!"

"I know, but I'm getting close, I swear. I spotted him near the diner earlier but he slipped away."

"You mean you let him get away again!?"

Vic held the earpiece away from his ear to avoid blowing out an eardrum.

"No. He tried to kill me, then he left."

"You'd better not be playing with my ass, Franco."

"Heh, not in a million years." Vic's stomach sank when he realized Val would have said something similar once more.

"What was that?" Atsev growled, menacingly.

"Uhh, nothing! I'll get Val, I just need a few more days."

"You have three days. And this is me being generous. Fail to meet the deadline and I'm sending in the Bloods." Atsev hung up.

Vic had to get to him. He wouldn't stand a chance against the Bloods. He needed to get to him.

Indeed Val had leapt at him, but he hadn't tried to kill him. He wasn't the Val that had slaughtered the personnel at the prison facility. It was the Val he'd kissed in that alley, all those nights ago; the Val he fell in love with.

"Nonsense. He probably hates your guts."

Irony bent his lips slightly upwards, and he pressed a hand to his face.

"Let him go. You've done enough damage."

He got up and grabbed his jacket. His eyebrows met.

"Fuck it, he might hate me but I'd rather have him alive to do so."

He'd have to stop by Aisha's place. She had the resources to know whatever she wanted at a moment's notice, and that was precisely what he needed.

***

Val glared absolute daggers at Zeke as he gulped down a spoonful of the red soup. "What do you mean 'they moved'?"

"I had signs, but I must've been wrong. I saw them enter that place, and that much is true." The man in the trench coat took a sip out of a flask and stretched it out to Val.

Val grabbed the flask and poured its contents down the gutter just behind him while still maintaining eye contact. Val and Zeke had known each other over a week, and Val was pleased to see Zeke knew better than to try and stop him.

"That was uncalled for."

"No. That's for using me. You sent me a wrong location as payment, that's not what we agreed upon."

"Val, next time-"

"There won't be a next time. You give me whatever you got right now or I'm going to serve you as a fucking spring roll in this very place."

Zeke did an effort not to react. "I'm your employer," he said, weakly.

Val grabbed another spoonful of soup and picked a single grain of corn that he flicked onto Zeke's face. "No. We're both out for revenge, that's why I've been your hitman this long."

"Look, I'm paying you. Without me, you won't get yours, got it?"

Val shot up and yanked one of Zeke's flaps. Color drained from Zeke's so fast he might have been just another corpse in a morgue.

"You ain't paying me shit, alright!? We have an agreement!" Val let go and rested his hand on the hilt of his sword, making sure Zeke would get the full view of it. "Spill or be spilled, now."

"Al-Alright. I have three places, but I haven't got solid proof he's in any of them."

"Anything flies at this point." Val sat back down, getting back to his soup.

Zeke sighed and pulled out his notebook. Val's spoon stirred impatiently.

"Here. I'm not responsible for whatever shit you get into from now on."

Val looked at the notebook before ripping the page out, reading it, and stashing it in his pocket.

"See? How hard was that?" He downed the soup and left a few bills on the table, which were picked up by something Val judged to be a human, except it looked anything but. The creature was rigged to the ceiling with harness and wire, its endless collection of limbs – each with their own pair of eyes – completed the tasks of a complete kitchen crew simultaneously as its dead face stared blankly into the void, face mask worn and stained with yellowish drool.

Val was still squeamish around whatever was left of humanity, and he had no choice but to face it day after day. He walked away and vowed to exact his revenge. For being forced to carry out horrible acts, for having his past stolen from him, for turning him into a monster. But most of all, for pitting him against Vic.