Vice and Virtue

Chapter - 5

I gazed at her peaceful, sleeping face and thought about the pain I caused her as soon as I was awake. Six years, it has been since I have seen her or even remembered her and she was looking out for me all this time. The morning light gave her pale skin a golden glow and her freckles made her look like a cute bunny. Her dark circles were quite faded but it was evident of how hard she worked and also how little she slept. I did not want to wake her up but I know that we still had work to do. I got out of the bed as silent as I could and made my way down to the kitchen, grabbed a beer and then ‘Oyy Nina, you want a beer?’ I called as I closed the refrigerator. ‘I want wine, stupid’ she answered me as she entered the kitchen’. As soon as I saw her, I had this little smirk on my face. She was leaning on the entrance with her arms crossed and was looking at me with a relieved look and a forced smile. I prepared myself for a kick to my guts but instead she came close and hugged me as her eyes watered and at this moment I realized what happened.

Nina always loved Jason and she was always cheerful without showing any of her emotions. If she was in this state, it meant Jason is no more. Cyan may be immortal but they are not invulnerable. He must have been drained of his conscious along with his energy in a power struggle. Under normal circumstances, an energy duel is only allowed if both the participants are willing and also the conscious of a person is never tampered. The vanquisher inherits the power that is spent in the duel and the vanquished is seriously weakened but is still a plenty Cyan with weakened abilities. It was something that is used to be held to control the ones that went berserk and also it was also used to decide the outcome of inner conflicts between the Cyan with energy above a certain level to keep the damage to a minimum.

The only person that ever managed to survive and come out victorious against multiple Cyan at once was Theo and he was also the only person to ever initiate the duel without approval of both parties. Jason was not smart enough to follow a plan but he is not stupid enough to be so reckless as to ask for an energy duel either. If it was not his decision, then it could only mean that the rogue division is serious about taking us down, no matter what the cost of it is.

I wrapped my arms loosely around Nina but I was not so confident myself that we could get Jason back. ‘Why did you have to take so long, Ryan!’ she screamed into my shirt. ‘Just why did you have to leave, when things were so dire.’ She screamed again. All I could manage to say was ‘I am sorry Nina, I am really sorry for what happened’. She pushed herself off me a bit and started to hit me clumsily on my chest as her tears would not stop even though she shut her eyes as tightly as possible. I clenched my fists as she and bowed down my head as she asked me why I was not here to take care of them. I wanted to explain her why but I knew it was not enough to justify losing Jason but I had no choice or more like I had to make that choice.

Suddenly, there was an arm on my shoulder and I saw Kai beside me looking at Nina with a sad gaze but a serious face. ‘Welcome back, Boss but it is really not a good time to celebrate’ he said to me as his grip tightened on my shoulder. ‘Calm down, Nina’ he said in the same tone, ‘you already know the circumstances that led him to leave for the last six years. I know your pain but do not lose your hope already, it is disrespectful to Jason’.

‘How is she, Kai?’ I asked him as I put my hand over his. ‘She is right on time, boss, but the situation in The Gale is getting worse every day. Even Quilin is having a hard time juggling between keeping peace and his own company’. ‘Quilin is having a hard time? Just what happened after I was gone?’ I asked him in surprise. ‘You will get all the details soon, boss. For now, get Renae and gear up. We got you a hard one for your first job back’. I gave him a slight nod and started towards the basement. Nina pulled herself together but was still not her usual self. I dragged the carpet in the living room to the side to reveal the trapdoor below. It was fitted with an iris scan but it is not useful to keep Cyan from breaking in.

We made our way down the steps, towards a rustic door but I stopped with my hand on the knob and took a deep breath before opening it. As soon as I opened it, I stepped into a bright room lined with a whole range of assault rifles, handguns and daggers. In the midst of all this was Renae, equipped her raid suit and a half packed supply kit. ‘What took you so long?’ she put no effort to cover the sarcasm. ‘If you briefed him and prepared last night, we probably could have made it earlier’ Kai quickly snapped back. ‘It takes time to regain sealed memories Kai, cut her some slack and let’s go’ I tried to defend her but was met with a sharp glare.

Each of us had different combat styles. Renae went all samurai with a katana and throwing knives but she still uses a handgun for emergencies. Kai maintains a low profile but maintains a fairly lethal set of his own, a single knuckle duster always hidden in his left sleeve, a short and long ninja sword set and also a pair of locking short swords. He loves his blades but he somehow manages to hide a few handguns and carry an assault rifle too. Nina hates blades, so she uses nunchucks and an M4. As for me, I prefer to be volatile due to my ability, so I carry a pair of Berettas and Glock 18s along with a pocket knife, a wakizashi, which is a Japanese small sword and also a tactical knife because the Japanese one is harder to use. As for our armor, our raid suits are basically sewed with a really thin but really durable material that can withstand a lot of impact, meaning that a sniper damage is decreased by ninety percent.

The reason for all this preparation was the soon to be bloodbath, we were to walk out alive and unscathed. As soon as we were ready, we walked out of the basement and took cover in the living room. ‘Godspeed, Guys, Godspeed’ everyone nodded before they pulled out their main guns out. In a few seconds, shattered glass and gunfire signaled war.