As the sun began to slowly began to set over the horizon, the sound of motorcycle driving through the forest was heard as Alex had opted to make a stop somewhere first before heading straight back home to his apartment.

Alex drove slowly on a lone trail through the woods until he came to a stop and parked the bike.

He would get off and looked ahead as he now stood face to face with two large and tall gate doors accompanied by equally as tall walls that seemingly went on for miles and wrapped around in a circle.

Alex took a deep breathe before approaching one of the doors and placing a hand on it as it opened with ease.

After going through the gate, Alex had now stepped foot in a place that he hadn't seen in a long while.

He was at the abandoned Lastation Slums, his former home before moving into the city.

Alex would walk through the streets, reminiscing about his life here as he had spent the first seven years of his life within these walls.

Despite living here for a long time, things were never pleasant.

The population that used to live here were a very angry and volatile bunch that showed major disdain towards Noire, seeing her as a girl that didn't deserve her role as CPU.

What also didn't help was the continued neglect the slums would receive whenever it was time for a CPU to perform an annual fly over check up of their nation.

With those two factors in mind, Alex's father would take advantage of them and essentially rise in popularity as he would constantly add fuel to the fire and feed the people's urge and desire to take down Black Heart.

Over the course of three years, his father would quietly and slowly lead a planned revolt to overthrow the nation as he and his men would somehow managed to acquire and ate all numerous weapons from their army.

Needless to say, they definitely had the equipment for an attack.

By the time Alex's seventh birthday had come around, his father prepared to have the coup d'é·tat officially began that weekend.

In the end though, it would never happen as Alex would end up slaughtering the entirety of the slums, those innocent and those who weren't.

He figured that it'd be best if no one was left alive so that way the whole coup would be forgotten.

Unfortunately, this plan included also killing his parents.

While Alex had no issue killing his father as he even lambasted him for siding with the CPUs, the boy felt immense guilt for having to wrap up his mother in all of this.

Alex's mother however was okay with all that as she knew her son had made the right decision.

After killing his parents, Alex ran away from the slums and wouldn't return for three years until he was ten.

On that return, he would burn down his old family home to the ground as an oath to never turn back and to keep moving forward.

Today was the first time Alex had been here since burning the house down.

As Alex walked around, he had arrived at the slums central fountain as it still had water though obviously with age it was no longer running as the water that was left was obviously very dirty.

"Used to play a lot here with the kids in my neighborhood." He said to himself as he walked elsewhere and would come across the elementary school he attended.

"Only had two years here. Wonder how different things would be if I hadn't quit after that day." Said Alex before he would continue walking.

As the sun set more and more with night beginning to slowly set in, the boy decided to end this trip by visiting the burnt remains of his old family home.

Alex began making his way over there as he would eventually come across the spot and approach it however as he did, he noticed a cloaked figure kneeling down, seemingly inspecting the remains of what was left.

The boy initially thought it was Kunsil however he knew that Kunsil had zero reason to come to Lastation on a whim let alone even come to the Slums.

Though Alex didn't really feel like interacting with this random stranger, he felt like there was no harm in doing so as he carefully approached them.

As Alex stood behind them, the figure slowly stood up.

"You've come. I had a feeling I'd see you here boy." Said the figure as their voice made them out to be a guy.

"Boy?" Said Alex as this person had an oddly familiar voice.

The cloaked man would then turn to face Alex, slowly taking off their hood and revealing their face as Alex was wide eyed with shock.

"F-Father?"

Indeed it was Alex's dad, Akira Mustang.

Alex's mind was going into overdrive at the moment.

Why was he here? More importantly how was he even alive?

Those were the two thoughts going through his head as Akira simply looked back at his old home.

"My old home is burnt down. I assume you had something to do with it?" He asked which snapped Alex out of his thoughts.

"Y-Yeah. It was me. I did it." Said the boy.

"May I ask why?"

"I did it because a swore an oath to never look back. To keep moving forward. Burning down my home was a sign of removing the last piece of that wretched day."

Akira simply kept quiet for a bit, staring at the remains before sighing as he placed a hand to his face.

"So, that's how you view this as huh?"

"W-What do you mean by that?"

Akira would step right in front of Alex as he looked down on him, easily intimidating the boy.

"If you really did move on, then there wouldn't have been a purpose of going through all that trouble. That oath of yours seems to be nothing more than an excuse. A mask to hide your true feelings. Those being that you're ashamed of what you did. You're not running away from the past in acceptance. You're running away in cowardice." Said Akira as Alex simply stepped back, already annoyed.

"Shut up! I know what I said and you aren't changing my mind! Besides, even if I didn't end up killing you that day I still took away all your men and prevented the revolt." Exclaimed the boy as Akira simply nodded.

"That is true. You did indeed do that, however I'm actually thankful for that. After all, it's made my plan for revenge all the more clearer." Said the man in a sinister tone.

"R-Revenge?"

"Fact of the matter is, you took everything from me. I'm not gonna let that slide after six, long years boy. At the end of the day, you failed to finish my story. Truth be told, I have nothing else to do and would rather end my story myself, however now, I've been given a chance to finish yours as well."

Akira then raised a hand as he pointed at Alex.

"New Year's Eve. We'll meet here once more, for the final time and end this. Come New Year's Day, either your left standing, or none of us are. Maybe this time, you can finish what you started and end my story."

Alex had no clue how to respond as Akira slowly approached him as he placed a hand on his shoulder and leaned down to tell him one last thing.

"If you chicken out, I'll be sure to not just end your story, but everyone that you care about as well. That way, you'll know how I felt."

That was the last thing he said, walking away to who knows where as Alex just stood there in silence before gritting his teeth as he clenched his fists.

'The past has finally caught up to me.'

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Chapter 15: Complete