Archive of Our Own ^beta

Twilight noticed immediately the strange people in the neighborhood. It was one of the poorest areas of Berlint, where many ex-soldiers lived. The Ostanian Government gave them a pension, but for most of them it wasn’t enough to live in any other place, specially as they had grown old and had suffered injuries during the war that left them incapacitated to work once they returned. Dr. Loid Forger volunteered once every two months to go there and provide some free consultation to those who wanted to talk to him. Which quite honestly, wasn’t really a lot of people, but he still had some regulars, one of them was a WISE contact. The whole volunteering was just a cover so they could exchange information without raising suspicions. A cover that had worked until that day, Twilight recognized the gestures and secret signals from the SSS. WISE had always known it was a gamble and that they would have to stop if things turned too high-risk, so this was most likely the last time Dr. Forger would come to this part of the city. He adjusted his hat and continued his way towards the community center building where his consultations took place.

“Is something wrong?” Chloe asked Yuri seeing his disgusted expression had deepened. The boy had been wearing a frown since they were asked to go to that part of the city.

“What is Lottie doing here?” Yuri muttered between teeth. He would need now to be careful to not expose his work as an SSS Officer to that depicable man.

“Who is Lottie?” Chloe asked, following the eyes of Yuri to find them locked on a handsome and well dressed man that had just entered the building they had under surveillance. “Oh, someone just entered, let me add that man to the register.” She said, trying to take the pen and notebook from Yuri’s hands, who unusually, let her have them.

“Dr. Loid Forger, 9:50 am.” Yuri said aloud for Chloe to write. He cursed as he went through the list he had received just one hour ago. Of course that the name of that detestable man was on the list of preregistered visitors.

“Forger? Doesn’t your sister goes by Forger now? Oh! He is your brother in law!” Chole exclaimed, misunderstanding the reason behind the disgust from Yuri. “I’m sure there is a perfectly reasonable explanation why he is here. I don’t think you should worry about him being involved in what we have come to investigate” She tried to comfort him while patting his arm.

“I’ll never accept him as my brother!!!!!” Yuri yelled, bringing the attention of the people around them.

“Be quiet!” Chloe smacked him in the head, they had been trying to go unnoticed, but Yuri had just blown up their cover, undoubtedly that handsome blonde man was now walking towards them.

Twilight was actually never happy to see Yuri, he had come to understand that. The young man was loud, bothersome and his presence was always a threat to his work, but this day he decided to use the leverage he had on him. Twilight knew Yuri was part of the SSS, he could use this chance to meet some of the colleagues of Yuri, at the end, that information could be handy in the future, so he sighed internally and put his best fake smile as he walked towards Yuri Briar.

“Yuri, I thought I heard your voice. What a surprise, what are you doing here? Who is this lovely lady?” Twilight asked, switching quickly to greet the young woman next to Yuri with his hat.

“Uh? Lovely who? She is just Chloe.” Yuri said shrugging, his bad humor going worse now that he had to talk with Lottie.

“What do you mean with just Chloe!?” Chloe asked upset.

“Ah! I understand, I’m sorry, I didn’t want to interrupt your date…” Twilight said, knowing well that his words would upset Yuri even more.

“We’re not dating!” Yuri and Chloe said at the same time.

“We’re coworkers.” Chloe added quickly, trying to recompose herself.

“Coworkers?” Twilight asked, trying to sound confused. “What are you doing here? I thought you worked at the Foreign Ministry…”

“Busted!” Chloe said with a nervous laugh. “We cannot keep lying to him, Yuri, I know that you didn’t want your sister to hear about us yet, but…” She looked at him with murderous eyes that meant that if he didn’t play along they were going to be in bigger problems.

“Don’t listen to her, Lottie, she just talks non-sense. Aren’t you going to be late for whatever you’re doing here?” Yuri asked to the hateful man to make him go away.

“You’re right. Sorry for interrupting… this. See you!” Twilight turned and smiled to himself, he had gained very valuable information. He now had a way to make Yuri quiet whenever the young man decided to stop by the Forger’s apartment.

“Are you sure it is fine to let your brother in law to be here?” Chloe asked Yuri as she saw how the blonde man walked away. There was something odd about him that make her feel uneasy, it was almost as if he had been wearing a mask while he had been talking to them. “We should at least let the boss know that you two are related.”

“We are not related!” Yuri screamed once again. “He is just the man that stole my sister away.”

“Gee, and I thought that you had already grown up a little, but you’re still a baby.” Chloe said as she continued taking note of all the people who entered and left the community center building.

Dr. Loid Forger started his day with an old man that liked to talk. The old man, Otto Osann, had been waiting impatiently for him, the nurse in charge told to Dr. Forger, as he had spent the last month gathering his memories about the Blackbell artillery gun he had used, after learning that the daughter of Dr. Forger was friends with the Blackbell’s child. Otto Osann would usually spent his allocated time talking about a topic in specific, while they played chess, he used to say that a good ear was all the therapy he needed. That was why Dr. Loid Forger was very surprised when he entered the office they used as consulting room and found the man lost in his thoughts.

“Is everything alright, Mr. Osann?” He greeted the man.

“Ah, Dr. Forger! My apologies, it’s just that… Have you ever seen a face that you’re sure you’ve seen in the past but cannot put a name on it?” Otto Osann asked to Dr. Forger, for his life he couldn’t remember who was the man he had seen that morning and why it had startled him that much.

“It’s something very common when we’re trying to leave certain parts of our memories in the past. The smallest thing can trigger our trauma.” Dr. Forger explained as he took seat in front of Mr. Osann. The old man had already arranged the board to start a new game. “Do you want to talk about that?”

“Not really.” Otto Osann answered after scratching his head. He knew very well there were memories it was better to leave buried, otherwise he wouldn’t be able to function. He started to talk about many different things, jumping from one topic to the other, without really focusing on anything. His mind still trying to solve the mystery of that familiar face. At the end his hour ended with him losing all the games they had started as he kept thinking about that man. “See you next time, Dr. Forger.” Otto Osann smiled and walked with a limp on his right leg, as he waved to the next man who was ready to see Dr. Forger.

This guy was a weird man, according to all the people who went to the open clinic from the community center. The most accepted theory was that he had been hit in the head during the war and he never was the same. He had a very noticeable tick that made his head twitch every other minute and sometimes his eyes started to cry out of nowhere. He also had the habit of scratching his neck continuously, the snake tattoo he had on his neck quite visible when he did that. Despite the fact that he shared a room in an apartment complex nearby, it was pretty common to find him sleeping on the streets or the parks of that zone. He was well known by the police and neighbors, who would usually just take him back to the complex. He was a very valuable asset for WISE, since he was basically invisible to the people around him. Most of them talked and acted as if he wasn’t around, which allowed him to gather a lot of useful information. However, this informant didn’t know that Dr. Forger was the famous Agent Twilight, for him, Dr. Forger was just another informant that would take the valuable information to WISE.

“Don’t you feel there are too many people today?” The man asked as soon as the door closed behind Otto Osann.

“The SSS.” Twilight responded, inviting the man to take seat.

“The SSS? Do they know about you?” The man sat on the available chair as he scratched his nose.

“I thought so when I just arrived, but now I’m not so sure.” Twilight responded, if they had any actual suspicion on him, Yuri would had already jumped to his neck. “Haven’t you heard anything that could had caught their attention?”

“There are some new kids on the block.” The man said, explaining that there was a group of newcomers from the East. Rumor was that they were involved in some criminal activity, but he hadn’t been able to find anything related, yet. “Anyway, it’s not as if there is much to steal around here, maybe they will start selling drugs or something similar.”

“Do you really think the SSS would be interested in that?” Twilight asked with a frown. He was starting to think he was going to need to spend some more time with Yuri.

“No, not really. Give me a couple of hours and I’ll figure out something for you.” The man said and proceeded to provide the standard report that he gave to WISE.

“Your brother in law is very popular around here.” Chloe told to Yuri as they continued with the surveillance. There had been nothing that would actually justify they presence there so far, so she was starting to feel bored and had gone to get something to snack on and a coffee. “Many of these men do not like talking with anyone but he has found a way to approach several of them. The social workers are very grateful for his efforts here.”

“I’ll never accept him as my brother and I do not care about what he does.” Yuri said bitterly. “What’s so great about playing games or talking about movies? Anyone could do that.” Then he noticed the lieutenant through a window at the other side of the street and elbowed Chloe to follow him.

“We’re done here.” The man with scars over one of his eyes told them as he smoked. “Minister Taube has concluded with the business he had nearby and the other units are already returning. Is there anything to report?”

“Nothing, Sir.” Yuri responded and then complained. “They should had let us be closer to Minister Taube, what if Twilight was around? This could have been my chance!”

“You’re still young, you should be satisfied with having been called at all, not everybody was asked to come here.” The lieutenant told him trying to placate him.

“But we were stuck in this place just looking at old people!” Yuri complained once again. “What is it?” He asked to Chloe noticing she had been searching for a while on her jacket pockets for something.

“I think I forgot something at the community center, please wait for a moment.” Chloe said as she started running back to the building, but just as she had advanced a few meters, she remembered she had put her keys on an inner pocket of the jacket. Sure enough, they were there. She sighed and returned, just to hear Yuri still complaining.

“Take it easy boy, I really appreciate you taking care of Chloe. There will be more chances in the future if you keep up the good work.” The lieutenant told to Yuri, still trying to calm him down. “We as men need to take care of her, you know?” The man continued while he took another smoke.

“She should train to become stronger.” Yuri grunted.

“I don’t think there is anyone who could match your endurance in the SSS.” The lieutenant responded in a matter of fact way. “Oh, you’re back Chloe. That was fast. Should we go back then?” He said, noticing the young woman. He wondered for a moment if she had heard them, but then decided he didn’t care.

As they were walking to the car, they heard some screams and people running to somewhere nearby, they decided to go check what had happened and found a bunch of ex-soldiers that were surrounding the body of a man who was lying on a pool of his own blood. His head was missing. The lieutenant approached the body and asked Chloe to call for the police as he and Yuri safeguarded the body. It wasn’t really something that they had to do as part of the SSS, but he had a bad feeling as he saw the body of the man and the injury. He had seen something similar in the past. The dead man had had a large tattoo on his neck, that was still partially visible, a snake and some numbers. He knew those were the numbers of a batallion. Minister Taube had come that day to meet with one of the men from his former battalion. He called Yuri apart and in a few words informed him of what he knew and asked him to start investigating around.

The cold eyes of a man examined the multitude that had gathered around his victim. He went through them, wondering if the other vermin was still in there or had already ran away. He had an address though, it would be very easy to just go to that man’s house and wait for him there. He turned around, he still had some hunting to do.

Chloe looked from afar the indications that were given to Yuri and then went to make the call, she had guessed the lieutenant would use her absence in that way, so she had decided to wait, at the end a few minutes would not make any difference for the dead man. She knew she wasn’t as strong as Yuri or the others, but she also knew she wasn’t a useless woman that needed to be pampered around. She returned after making the call and pretended to agree with the lieutenant to return on her own, after the man told her that he had decided to take Yuri to somewhere else to calm him down. Instead of going home, she ventured into the alleys that grew darker as the sun started to set on the horizon. She wasn’t familiar with the neighborhood, she was surprised to find so many people that lived on those alleys, the retired soldiers were supposed to have access to a place to live and some money, she couldn’t understand why those people chose to live on the streets instead. An old man with no teeth called her.

“Are you lost, Miss?” He asked as he showed her his empty mouth.

“Did you hear about the man that was murdered?” Chloe approached the man who was starting a fire in one dumpster.

“Do you work for the police?” The man asked as he looked at her with certain distrust now.

“The University newspaper.” Chloe responded quickly, smiling.

“Ah! A college student!” The man exclaimed, returning to his affable tone. “I did not hear much about that, it’s not uncommon for those things to occur around here. You know, most of those men are not in their right mind specially at night. You’ll hear the scariest noises from those buildings, that’s why some of us prefer to live away.”

“I see. Well, thanks anyway.” Chloe said, starting to turn around to walk away.

“Wait, Miss Student! Now that I think about it, I might had heard something. I’m sure I’ll remember more if you do me a little favor.” The man said as he unzipped his pants.

Chloe decided not to resort to violence and just walked away, but the old man was insistent and started to follow her and screamed profanities to make her turn. She was afraid of meeting with Yuri or the lieutenant because they would reinforce the idea that she couldn’t take care of herself, when a large shadow appeared in front of her.

“Come on, leave her alone.” The masculine voice commanded.

“Ah! Mr. Brother in Law!” Chloe exclaimed without thinking, recognizing the blonde man.

“This is not place for you to be alone. Where is Yuri?” Dr. Forger told the young woman as he pulled her away from those alleys.

“Dunno.” Chloe responded, she had just started to notice all the eyes that were set on her, from windows and other alleys. She internally thanked the blonde man for appearing. “What are you doing still here? It’s kind of late.” She asked, trying to take the conversation away from her.

“I could ask the same.” Dr. Forger responded as they finally reached one of the main streets that was properly illuminated. “I know it’s not my business to tell you what to do, but this place gets very dangerous at night, specially for a young woman. Most of the men that prowl these alleys suffer from PTSD or worse, and some of them are just craving the power they felt while they were in the battlefield. You should go home.” He told her in a serious tone.

“Sure, I’ll just do that.” Chloe responded, sighing internally. She didn’t want to be told to go home. She could see in his eyes that he didn’t believe her, but he didn’t say anything else.

“What the hell are you doing still here, Lottie?” An upset Yuri appeared from behind the blonde man. “Why does my sister have to babysit that child of yours?”

“I was just about to leave, I’m at a peace now knowing that you’ll walk Miss Chloe to her home.” Loid Forger said with a smile and tone that sounded as a mock on Yuri’s ears. Loid Forger patted the young man’s shoulder and once again used his hat to say goodbye to the other two.

“What are you doing still here?” Yuri asked to Chloe, once he considered that Lottie was at enough distance.

“You know it’s not fair that you and the lieutenant put me aside.” Chloe complained. “I also want to participate in more assignments, just like you.”

“I’m also a lieutenant.” Yuri reminded her, Chloe seemed to conveniently forget that Yuri outranked her. “And we only do it because it’s dangerous, you should focus on talking to informants and performing interrogations.”

“I’ve helped you before.” Chloe reminded him. “And if you send me away, I’ll just catch up with your brother in law and tell him some embarrassing stories about you.”

“I’ve already told you, he is not my brother.” Yuri frowned, but finally agreed to let Chloe go with him during his vigilance. He told her what he knew, as the lieutenant remembered, this wasn’t the first case that a man had been attacked in that way. So far, no one had really investigated the other murder or murders, Yuri wasn’t sure on how many attacks had been before, because no one had made the connection. The lieutenant had gone to talk with a retired General that lived on the good part of the city, he suspected the men that had been killed were all part of the same secret ops group, based on the tattoos the men had. He warned Yuri to just monitor the situation but don’t try to intervene if another attack occurred, the lieutenant had the suspicion that the attacker was a well trained assassin and was the reason why the SSS had been called for surveillance during the visit of Minister Taube.

Twilight listened to what Yuri had been saying, he had used his chance to put a listening device on him when he patted his arm. Twilight frowned, he had tried to communicate with Handler after the incident, but he didn’t trust in any of the phones in the area. Whenever he picked up one, he could heard some noise on the line, he was sure all of them were intervened. By whom? He had no idea. The only thing he knew at the moment was that the man who had pretended to be working for WISE for that long was most likely dead and Twilight had reasons to believe he had been actually a double agent. During one bathroom break, Dr. Loid Forger had met Mr. Otto Osann once again. Seeing that the man still looked confused, he decided to talk more to him.

“It’s just that the world looks upside down today, Dr. Forger.” Otto Osann told him as he scratched his head once again. “You know crazy Karl, right? Well, if you ask me today, he doesn’t look so crazy…” The man looked around him to make sure there was no one who could hear them and lower the volume of his voice. “I saw him talking to some SSS Officer, uniform and everything. He was saying he had everything ready and to go and meet him in the Park next to the water fountain at 1400 hrs.” Otto Osann sighed. “I-I ratted out someone to the SSS many years ago, maybe I’m just projecting but I could swear he had the same face I had when I looked at the mirror that day. It’s one of my biggest regrets.” He added, misinterpreting the white face of Dr. Forger, thinking that the man was disappointed at him.

“I’m sure you had your reasons.” Dr. Forger said, trying to recompose himself, the information was devastating. According to WISE protocol he would need to go back to a safe location immediately and drop any ongoing mission. Even if crazy Karl didn’t know he was Twilight, crazy Karl knew that Dr. Forger passed information to WISE. That meant the end for the Forgers. “Don’t worry about any of that, Mr. Osann, we cannot change what has been done, but we can take actions to change the outcome.”

He left Mr. Osann at the community center as he hurried to the park. He knew he wouldn’t arrive on time to eliminate crazy Karl, but maybe he could steal the information he was going to give to the SSS if he hurried. However when he arrived it was already too late, the body of crazy Karl was in there, soaking on his own blood. No trace of the SSS Officer. He hurried to inspect the scene, there were marks of boots nearby the body that went south. He decided to follow that trace, looking over his shoulder with every noise, thinking that it was the SSS that had finally come to capture him. He eventually reached a dead end. He had followed the footprints until a paved road, from there, he had no way to know where the murderer had gone. A few minutes later he heard the screams of someone who had discovered the body and he realized he had to make his exit now, but instead he went back to where the people was gathering around the body. He looked at the interaction of Yuri and his superior, and by reading their lips he knew what they were talking about. No mention of him. An idea started to form on his mind, maybe the SSS Officer that crazy Karl had talked to wasn’t actually an SSS Officer. Maybe he was still around, he just needed to find him.

Twilight knew that he couldn’t go along with Yuri as Loid Forger, so he quickly prepared a new mask with the emergency kit he always carried on his briefcase. He stole some clothes that were dry hanging nearby and put some dirt on his hair. He couldn’t do too much given the time and circumstances, but he hoped the imminent night would be enough to not be recognized by Yuri. He now looked some years older, with a large crooked nose and a baggy face, as if to look as someone who had lost a lot of weight recently. He also took care of dirtying the clothes he was wearing, to make it seem as if he had been sleeping on the streets for a couple of nights at least. He couldn’t do too much about his personal smell, but he found a trash bin nearby and also took advantage of it to try to hide his cologne. He didn’t have time to go wash it away. Once he was satisfied he decided to follow Yuri and his partner.

“Police it’s really stupid.” Yuri was telling Chloe. “They didn’t protect the crime scene and by the time they had managed to control the multitude, a lot of the evidence was already destroyed. I even told them I found the track of two different footprints going south, but they decided not to investigate.”

“Do you think there are two culprits, then?” Chloe asked him.

“I don’t think so, the footprints were too different, boots and shoes.” Yuri replied, explaining the details of each footprint to Chloe.

“Well, if you told them that the boots were from the SSS, I think that explains why they didn’t want to investigate.” Chloe told him, she knew well enough that don’t even the Police liked to work with them. “And if the shoes footprints didn’t have any special mark, it would be like chasing Cinderella, I think I understand why they didn’t investigate that, yet. But they should really look at that tomorrow.”

“A special mark? Now that you mention it, those boots were kind of weird, every other step the eye seemed to close, as it if was blinking.” Yuri said, trying to think if he had ever seen anything like that on the boots he used. 

“An eye!? Come on, Yuri! Those boots hadn’t been official in ages!” Chloe smacked his back with enthusiasm. “We should go back to the park and see where they go.”

“They go nowhere. I did follow them, but the trace ended in a pave road, from there, there was no way to know which way the killer went.” Yuri said a little annoyed that Chloe thought he hadn’t followed the trace on his own. At the time he had had the idea that he was pursuing the pursuer of the killer, since the second set of footprints disappeared along the way, as if whoever had left them was trying to not disturb the other set. Yuri had stood up at that paved road for a while, thinking of where to go, but even if he followed all the directions he could think of for a while, he couldn’t find anything useful.

“So we’re looking for an older man with a limp.” Chloe said, trying to remember if she had seen someone with that description during the day. She could think of at least ten persons like that in the community center, but as she had wandered through the streets, the number multiplied quickly. “As I told you, those boots had not been used in ages, so whoever has them was with the SSS many years ago, or stole them many years ago. The eye blinking suggest he has some problem walking, he probably drags his leg a little. Was it the left or the right one? There were three men limping from the left one at the community center and seven from the right.”

“Uh.., it was the left, I think. Why should we focus on those? I’ve seen so many people limping today that I cannot keep count.” Yuri asked with curiosity despite himself.

“It’s just to start, but think about it. The men that go to the community center are mostly the ones that are living better than the rest in here. If a head appeared on a dumpster, it would be found quickly since those guys keep going to the dumpsters everyday. So our culprit has a way to get rid off the head in another place or he has a place to keep it where no one snoops around.”

“Maybe a gardener? He could dig around without people being suspicious.” Yuri ventured, but he hadn’t found any trace either of a place that could had been dug up recently. There were no houses around, just apartment complexes. Unless the guy could drive, it would definitely be difficult to keep a head in hiding. “You’re right, and he must live nearby the park, otherwise we would have already heard about an SSS Officer from other people. He must had been able to come and go very quickly from there. Damn it! I’ve been wasting my time!.” He said as he pulled his hair. Then he paused as another thought hit him. “Hey, you’re smart!”

“Of course I’m smart! I’m not here just for my pretty face, you know?” Chloe responded indignant.

“I know you’re not here because of your face.” Yuri said without thinking, which earned him a sonorous slap.

A man in large trench coat had been following them now for a couple of blocks. He had just heard them by mere chance as he had gone out to buy some bread. The word “SSS” brought his attention towards them. They were young, he thought with contempt, but that didn’t mean they were not part of the scum of this world. Better to pull out the little weeds before their roots infested the whole place. He knew that place like the back of his hand, he knew the perfect spot to eliminate them was just a few blocks away. A dark alley, behind the supermarket warehouse. There was always a loud noise from the air ventilation and the noise of a nearby busy road. He just needed to make it look as a lovers quarrel gone wrong. As those thoughts filled his mind, his left leg started to hurt, it had been like that for several years now, whenever the blood lust invaded him.

Yuri and Chloe froze on the middle of the streets and exchanged looks, both of them had heard the indistinct whistle that was used by the SSS to call for reinforce. They hurried towards the place the whistle was coming from. They crossed some dark streets until they reached the back of a warehouse. It was only illuminated by the moon. They pulled out their concealed guns as they walked back to back, trying to find who had sent the signal.

“There.” Chloe told to Yuri, pointing to a large shadow that was close to a dumpster. They walked towards there, barely breathing.

“Identify yourself!” Yuri demanded to the man that was standing next to the dumpster, but there was no response, only the sound of a large truck traveling at high speed. Yuri prepared his gun and demanded once again for the unknown man to identify himself, with no answer. He shot once as a warning, but the man didn’t move. “What the heck!?” Yuri hurried towards the supposed man, it was only a large trench coat hanging from one side of the dumpster. He turned when he heard a scream from Chloe and hurried to receive the blunt impact of the hit of a steel pipe that the unknown man was brandishing. He felt how his eyesight turned blurry and the blood started to pour from his head, but he forced himself to stand once again between the man and Chloe. He blocked another hit with his arms, but couldn’t react on time when the man took out a knife from his clothes. It was a very large knife, that undoubtedly hadn’t been cleaned since that afternoon’s murder. Yuri thought of his sister one last time, managing to connect a kick towards their attacker. Then he collapsed as he saw the man was being restrained by another unknown man who was applying a choke hold, but the attacker appeared to be too strong and started to use his weight to regain the advantage by crushing the unknown man against the dumpster. The fought only ended because Chloe shot another shoot and the attacker fled at high speed.

“Don’t move.” Chloe asked, approaching Yuri who was bleeding profusely, it looked as if he had been reached on the abdomen with the large knife.

“Are you okay!?” The unknown man asked as he stood up, but he didn’t approach them or move any further.

“We need an ambulance.” Chloe responded.

“Uh? Are you hurt?” Yuri asked, not understanding that the ambulance was supposed to be for him. Then he stood up very quickly and in two jumps was shaking the hand of the unknown man. “Thanks a lot for your help! May I have your name?”

“Leon Issan…” The man responded hesitantly. “Are you sure you’re okay? You’re bleeding like crazy.”

“This? This is nothing for me! I’m perfectly fine.” Yuri responded as blood spurted out of his abdomen.

“Miss?” Leon Issan asked for help, seeing that the young man didn’t have any intention of letting his hand go.

“Yuri, stop that!” Chloe said approaching and getting out some medical supplies from her jacket. “I don’t think I have enough, we should call an ambulance.”

“You could use his under shirt as well.” Leon Issan suggested. “I would offer my clothes, but as you can see, they’re pretty dirty.”

“Okay, Yuri, take off your shirt.” Chloe commanded.

“W-w-why? I’m perfectly fine!” Yuri refused, holding onto his clothes. “Turn around.” He finally said after the killer glare from Chloe. “I can take care of myself, you old man, help me.”

“I’m dirty as heck.” The man said, but finally did as Yuri asked and held on to his jacket and offered some instructions on how to cover the injury. “It doesn’t look very deep, he should be fine as long as he doesn’t move around.”

“How do you know all that?” Chloe asked.

“I was a soldier, we all know stuff like that.” Leon Issan responded shrugging as he helped Yuri with his jacket.

“What were you doing here?” Chloe continued with her interrogation, she thought it was very convenient that his man had appeared just as he had.

“Nothing really, I saw you two running from outside that place.” Leon Issan responded pointing towards the supermarket. “I didn’t think too much of it, I just followed you. I thought that perhaps something else had happened. Look, I am the last man on earth who wants to be dragged into problems, but shouldn’t we do something about the guy who attacked you? Maybe he is in some delirious state and will try to hurt someone else.”

“We should call the boss, Yuri.” Chloe said, she didn’t trust that Leon Issan guy and she needed to make sure that Yuri was taken for medical attention. She didn’t think the man would attack someone else since it looked he had specifically lured them to that place, but they would be in danger if they remained in that place with Yuri injured. “Where is the closest phone boot?” She asked to Leon Issan.

“There is one outside the supermarket.” He responded, turning towards the direction the attacker had ran away. He couldn’t see a thing, just some more dark alleys and side streets that lead to who knows where. He cursed internally, he needed to ditch Yuri and Chloe or he would lose this chance.

“Come with us.” Yuri finally said and pointed towards the supermarket.

Twilight was not actually surprised to see that they could communicate with their lieutenant despite the fact they didn’t know where he was. The SSS had set up a series of wired communications that allowed them to locate their people very shortly just via a specific chain of connections depending on their suspected location in the city. It would not work outside of Berlint, but it was an impressive setup that had already cost WISE several of their agents. He waited some steps away from the booth with Chloe, they approached once Yuri exited the booth.

“Well?” Chloe asked impatiently.

“Lieutenant said that there is no risk for the attacker to flee, there are barricades and checkpoints since after the murder was reported. No one comes in, no one goes out, those are the orders.” Yuri explained.

“Wait, did you tell him that you’re injured or not?” Chloe guessed correctly Yuri had not.

“He said no ones comes in, no one goes out, why would I bother him with that?” Then Yuri turned towards Leon Issan. “Hey, you said you were a soldier, right? I want you to help us finding the man who attacked us.” He then showed him his SSS ID.

“Yuri!” Chloe called him and pulled him some steps apart. “Just why? We don’t know anything about him? Why do you need his help?”

“He knows how to fight and knows how to tend injuries.” Then Yuri lowered his eyes. “We cannot stop that man as we currently are and no one from the barricades will come in, the lieutenant said that they will shut down any news of what happens here until the murderer is stopped.” His words implied that they would also shut down anyone who tried to leave. The SSS was focusing their efforts on containing the menace inside an area, since Minister Taube was terrified after hearing the news of this murder. It sounded as if the man was a notorious paid killer in the past who had been betrayed by Minister Taube and his former battalion. If by next morning someone from the inside hadn’t successfully stopped the killer, Minister Taube had ordered the bombing of the place. The lieutenant had given Yuri a deadline and a password to be nearby the main checkpoint so he could pull them out.

“B-but that means they don’t care about who dies in here!” Chloe said horrified.

“That’s why we have to stop him, there is no one else.” Yuri added.

“Wait! You said that the barricades are keeping everybody inside since after the murder. That means that your brother in law is still around here!” Chloe started to understand why suddenly it was a priority for Yuri to stop the murderer, or at least she thought so.

“I don’t care what happens to him! I don’t!” Yuri said shaking his head, still thinking on the face Yor would make if something happened to Lottie.

“O-Of course, sorry I keep forgetting that. We should go to the community center, we can ask around about men with a limp.” Chloe offered.

“We should try to look for any lead behind the warehouse.” Yuri contradicted her. He thought it was a waste of time. “It’s late, no one is going to be at the community center anymore.” He explained, seeing her frustrated expression.

“If you allow me, I’d go back to the beginning.” Leon Issan said aloud, for the other two to listen to him. “Our suspect knows how to move and hide, I don’t think we’ll find anything if we go back to the warehouse.” He remembered despite the clear footprint trace at the park, it was lost as soon as the attacker wanted to disappear. He had no doubt they would find the same behind the warehouse. “There might be something that the Police didn’t notice.” He wanted to return to the park, he hadn’t thought of the possibility, but the past deduction from Yuri was correct, the man should live nearby the park if he could go in disguise without bringing attention to himself.

They finally agreed with him and moved towards the park. The streets were filled with men who were drinking in solitude or loudly chatting around some bins on fire. Some screams came out every once and then from side streets or the open windows from the apartments, but no one bat an eye. It was a common occurrence. Chloe wanted to ask some questions on their way to the park, but Leon Issan convinced her that they would not get any info from those men. As soon as they sniffed a police or an SSS agent, they will shut down completely. When they arrived to the park, they found a large group of younger men who were sitting on the dirt, smoking and drinking.

“You cannot go there, police tape all around.” One of them told to Leon Issan and the rest, as he saw where they were going.

“Hey Miss, do you want to have some fun with us instead?” A second one said, once he had noticed Chloe between Leon Issan and Yuri. The rest stood up to surround them.

“Come on, don’t do something stupid.” Leon Issan warned the guys as he evaded the first punch and knocked down three of them with a single kick. The men quickly started a brawl, that ended with all of them on the ground. “Now, let’s talk. Do you use to come around here?” He asked to the one that had talked them first.

“You’ll never get answers like that.” Yuri said scoffing and then he went and grabbed the hair of the second guy who had talked to them and smashed his head to the ground. “Talk trash, where are you coming from? I can tell you’re not soldiers”

“W-we’re from the East.” The first one talked, scared after seeing the state of his pal. “W-we came to Berlint to change our luck, none of us wanted to work with the coal.” He explained that hey had been offered a job in a factory and some sleeping accommodations in exchange of some dalcs, but they had been cheated and now were stuck in there with no job and no money. “We stay around here because the people from here don’t call the police on us. W-we haven’t done anything.”

“Except harassing people.” Chloe said, asking Yuri to drop the man he was still holding. “What do you know about the murder?”

“Nothing! I swear!” The first man said. “We just heard about it like everybody else. We weren’t even around here at the time, we only come here at night.”

“Did you see a man in uniform around here?” Leon Issan asked, describing the size of the man they were looking for. He noticed the hesitation between the men, but one movement from Yuri cleared their doubts.

“W-we saw one old man a week ago nearby the community center. He was wearing a trench coat, which was kind of strange you know, it isn’t cold or anything. He was going in circles, muttering something for himself. Then he saw us and started to yell at us. We didn’t like that and pushed him a little… when he fell we saw the uniform and ran from there, we didn’t know he was with the SSS.” The man explained, adding that they hadn’t seen him again.

“I see.” Leon Issan said and after capitulating with Yuri and Chloe decided that their best shot was still going to the park.

Yuri and Chloe had some flashlights with them which helped them to light the place searching for clues. Just as Yuri had said, the place was a mess, with a lot of the evidence destroyed by the curious lookers and apparently the police had abandoned the place later in the day, probably they had been called away from the area in preparation for the bombing. The tape had been ripped and it was visible that someone had been playing around, writing anarchic messages on the dirt. Most of them were just anti government or anti West.

“I found something.” Chloe announced, she had turned one stone that caught her attention. It had something written on it.

“V-R-N-X-T-T-A” Yuri read aloud. “Some code?” He asked to no one in particular.

“Your are next T-A… He was probably interrupted or couldn’t fit the rest.” Leon Issan said. Chloe had found the stone some meters away where the body had been left. He cursed internally, he was starting to guess that the trail of boot footprints had been a decoy. He asked Chloe for her flashlight and started to point it to the ground, it didn’t took too much to find another set of boot footprints, these more light and better concealed in the terrain.

“Woooooah!” Yuri exclaimed with admiration. He had had a hunch that that Leon Issan was a cool guy since he saw how he had faced the attacker, his actions during the night kept confirming that. “Hey Leon Issan, are you single?”

“Uh? I’m sorry I’m not into men.” Leon Issan responded as he continued to mark the way to follow.

“Hahahaha, no, no, I wasn’t talking about me! You see, I have a sister!” Yuri said with enthusiasm, recovering his color as soon as he thought of Yor.

“Your sister is already married.” Chloe remembered him.

“B-but I’m sure that Lottie’s pee pee is very small and it’s almost as if their marriage was never consummated!” Yuri said. “She is perfect, you should meet her, Leon Issan!” He added.

“That has nothing to do!” Chloe reprimanded him with a face red. “I cannot believe you, thinking of those things under these circumstances. Why do you hate your brother in law that much?”

“Because he doesn’t deserve my sister.” Yuri responded with a sour mood. “My sister is the best, Leon Issan, she is the prettiest and kindest person you’ll ever meet!”

“Something tells me that you’ll start finding Mr. Issan not as wonderful the moment he starts talking to your sister.” Chloe pointed out.

“Hey, hey, Leon Issan, are you married or have ever been married?” Yuri continued pestering the man.

“No.” Leon Issan responded, starting to get tired of Yuri’s antics.

“See, that alone makes him better than Lottie.” Yuri turned to say to Chloe. “Lottie had already been married and has a spawn from another woman, which means he sees my sister as a second option, since his first option was someone else. My sister deserves better than that.”

“Down!” Leon Issan screamed as soon as he saw something shiny at the distance. A small knife came flying and finally encrusted deeply on a tree next to Yuri. They turned off the flashlights quickly and waited in silence.

More than a sound, Twilight felt the blood lust coming from above him and was thanks to that that he was able to evade the surprise attack. He didn’t know how is that the attacker was that strong, if he was supposed to be an old man. He was cornered down very quickly, as the attacks didn’t slow down for a moment. For a moment, however, he felt as if he knew that pattern of attack and was able to anticipate a couple of movements which gave him a small advantage. The attacker, feeling that he was losing, decided to change objectives and turned quickly towards Yuri and Chloe. Chloe shot several times, but was unable to hit the man, who moved incredible fast and in two steps was above her, the large knife on his hand. Yuri shot him, he knew he had hit him as the knife flew away from the hand, however he was still able to see how the attacker caught the knife with his other hand and continued his relentless attack against Chloe. Yuri shot once again, until he was out of bullets. He turned on the flashlight to find Leon Issan laying on the ground, blood on him. He restrained himself however of running to his side, lighting instead around them, there were no signs of the attacker.

“He escaped.” Leon Issan said, as he tried to guess the severity of his injuries. “That way.” He added, pointing to the direction he had seen the attacker ran away. “Go!”

Yuri didn’t hesitate anymore and went towards the direction that Leon Issan had told him. He couldn’t let his sacrifice go wasted, he thought as he ran at full speed, trying to short the distance between him and the attacker. To his surprise, he got out to the park and very closed to the community center. He could see an open window and cursed.

“I told you we should had come here first.” Chloe said arriving after him.

“Why did you leave Leon Issan alone?” Yuri asked with teary eyes.

“He is fine, he just had some scratches. It seems you really hit our man this time. Look, blood!” She said, pointing towards the ground and the trail of blood drops that went away from the open window and instead lead them to the back door, which was unsurprisingly unlocked.

Yuri reloaded his gun and walked very carefully into the building. There were some emergency lights here and then, that appeared to have let the attacker know that he was leaving a trail since suddenly the blood disappeared. Yuri still wondered how he did that, as him and Chloe tried all the doors they found, searching for another one that was unlocked. If they had paid more attention, they would have seen the man perching on the ceiling, above them. They walked away from that area, until they heard noise coming from one of the rooms nearby. Yuri tried to force the lock when the door opened.

“Lottie!?” Yuri was surprised to find him there.

“Yuri!?” Loid Forger emulated his surprise. “So you’ve also been retained here? I thought that perhaps working for the government would give you some perks.”

“N-no, what are you doing here?” Yuri asked, shaking his head, trying to keep his focus. “Had you seen anybody around here?”

“I was reading, hoping that they would tell me I’m able to go home, but so far there had been no news.” Loid Forger explained, showing him a book he had on his hands. “I haven’t been able either to call Yor, she must be worried by now.” He added with a pathetic expression.

“Yo! I-I…” Yuri hesitated but finally took out the notebook from his pocket and scribbled something very quickly. “Don’t read it, go to the checkpoint and give them this, they should let you go.”

They heard a woman scream nearby and Yuri and Chloe took off, not without warning Loid Forger to lock the door and wait for them to be back.

Twilight closed the door quickly and turned again towards the injured man he had found while forcing his way into the community building.

“I thought you were dead.” He said as he fixed the tourniquet the man had tried to put on his leg. The WISE informant, crazy Karl, also had a nasty cut to the neck.

“I thought so too.” He joked, white as paper. He had lost too much blood. “It seems I’m like a cockroach.”

“Don’t talk, just blink your eyes once of yes and two for no.” Twilight said, as he looked around the room, trying to find something to help the man.

“No time for that.” Crazy Karl said. “He is here and he is looking for you.” He warned to Dr. Forger. Then he had one of his twitches that caused his injury neck to bleed even more. He pointed to a mirror, feeling he couldn’t talk anymore. “He knows your address.” He whispered before passing out.

Twilight cursed between teeth as the pain at his side grew larger. He was sure he didn’t have any bullet inside him, but one of the shoots from Yuri had been way too close. He had barely had time to change his disguise as he entered the community center and found crazy Karl in a cleaning closet. He was upset with himself, he hadn’t been thinking clearly since he heard Otto Osann telling him that crazy Karl was going to betray him. He had been too worried about having to leave Operation Strix behind to think of what was happening. Otto Osann had been honest with him, he had seen a face from his past that had disturbed him, a face he didn’t want to remember. And then he had learned that Otto Osann had had to move to the community center since he had a fall some days ago and hit his head, which was causing some weird behavior according to the doctor that worked in the clinic in there. That doctor had arranged for a private accommodation for Otto Osann in the second floor of that same building. A small apartment, fully equipped that was generally used when other medical practitioners volunteered their time.

Otto Osann limped from his right leg, the man had lost all his memories after he was badly injured when he suffered a fall while going with his exploration team, or so he said. Still, he had an insane knowledge about the human anatomy and could challenge Dr. Forger to describe the worst and best places to suffer an injury. Dr. Forger had suggested several times that perhaps Otto Osann had been a medical student or nurse, but the man only moved his head denying the thought. He said that he never felt the call to help others. One time, he had admitted he was happy not remembering who he was, because he thought he wasn’t really a kind person.

Twilight didn’t have to force his way into the apartment, the door was opened. The metallic smell of blood hit him as soon as he entered. A pot contained the missing head of the miserable that had been murdered earlier that day. Twilight looked around, searching for information that could tell him where Otto Osann had gone. He found a large mirror on the bedroom and a notebook. He knew Otto Osann had a diary, after all, he had suggested the activity to the man. What he found, however, wasn’t the diary of Otto Osann. It was the diary of whoever he actually was, and he sounded badly obsessed with Dr. Forger, who kept pushing that part of him into the depths of oblivion as he kept helping Otto Osann to move forward. As he saw himself on the mirror, he could imagine Otto Osann looking at that strange man that morning, his own reflection. Then he remembered the words from crazy Karl and jumped through the open window, he needed to hurry back to 128 Park Avenue.

“I’m very sorry to call you this late, dear.” The voice from Shopkeeper greeted her from the other side of the phone. “I hope I didn’t wake you up.”

“N-no, don’t worry about that.” Thorn Princess replied. It was late, that was true, but she couldn’t sleep. She had been worried about Loid’s whereabouts. She had called the hospital several times, but no one knew where Loid was. Last thing she had heard was that there had been some crime at the place where Loid was supposed to go that day and the Police had implemented a siege.

“We have a problem with an old friend, Tod Vaters. I’ll send you the information as soon as I have it.” Shopkeeper said, ending the call before Thorn Princess could say anything. Then she heard the door bell ring, which was very strange because it was very late. Bond was growling to it. She looked through the peephole, there was an old man at the other side who said was a friend of Dr. Forger.

Twilight opened the door, worried because it was unlocked, he looked around, everything seem as usual. Bond awoke and went to greet him, wagging his tail. Then the sound of another door.

“Loid!” A smiling Yor greeted him as soon as she saw him.

He felt to his knees, overcome with the relief of seeing she was fine. He tried to say something about the unlocked door, but the words turned into knots that choked him on his throat. He couldn’t understand what was happening to him, because his body was trembling and he could feel his eyes started to water. When was the last time he had cried like that? He had spent the past twenty minutes tormented with the pictures his imagination showed him of what Otto Osann could have done to Anya and Yor. 

“Everything is fine. You’re home now.” Yor said as she hugged him.

“A-anya?” He asked, trying to recompose himself.

“Sleeping, she missed you though. She wanted to show you her last exam.” Yor said as she hummed while passing her fingers through his hair to help him calm down.

“What happened to your neck?” He asked, seeing the bandage she had in there. He pulled it a bit, seeing a large fine cut.

“I had to make dinner.” Yor said, looking aside. She could never tell him or anyone that she was taken by surprise by that old man and had barely escaped the reach of his knife. Shopkeeper ought to have given her more information before. A part of her wanted to ask Loid how is that him had come in contact with Tod Vaters, ex-Garden member. Another part of her knew that it was better not to ask. She would later learn from Shopkeeper that the man had left Garden to join the Army, just to be betrayed by his men. Shopkeeper knew that Tod Vaters was still alive under the guise of Otto Osann, but since he seemed to had forgotten everything about Tod Vaters, he decided to let him live. Shopkeeper apologized to her for not realizing her husband was treating him, otherwise he would have taken measurements to ensure Dr. Forger was safe.

“Please, have some more, Miss Chloe.” Yor said offering a large portion of the steak that Loid had prepared to Yuri’s special friend. She hadn’t been able to stop smiling since Loid told her about Chloe.

“Thanks, this is really good. But call me only Chloe, Miss Chloe is a little too much for me.” Chloe responded as she accepted the extra portion she was offered.

“Yes, Sis, you don’t have to be so polite, it’s just Chloe.” Yuri added while he devoured the special dish Yor had prepared for him.

Anya looked around the table and smiled. She had been worried since she learned her parents had been in grave danger while she didn’t have her powers. She was sure if she had had them Bond would have warned her about what was going to happen and she could had helped. But it wasn’t that bad, they were having some sort of celebration for Uncle Yuri and that was it.

Loid Forger had gone to the kitchen to bring some more wine, since Yor and Yuri were going through it like water. He noticed Chloe and stood up, asking if she needed something.

“I know your secret.” She said with a self-satisfied smile. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone… for now, brother in law.” She added, seeing how he opened his mouth to protest.

“I see.” Loid Forger smiled, he had almost pointed out that he was technically Yuri’s brother in law. “Not even me?”

“You two act as if you hate each other, but actually you really care.” She responded, looking at Yuri who was now discussing about something with the little girl.

“Well, Yor is my wife after all.” Loid Forger said as he grabbed the two bottles of wine he had found. “I want her to be happy.”

“I-I heard you’re a great psychologist.” Chloe said, she knew she had to ask before the soiree was over. “W-would you mind teaching me a bit? I want to learn a little about profiling and stuff…”

“I’ve read a bit about it, I don’t think it is broadly used around here but I’ve heard it is quite common at the other side of the world. You’re very observant, I think you’re already in the right path… sister in law.” He said, unable to not respond to the broad smile that appeared on her face.

“Lottieee!!! We’re waiting!” Yuri complained from the other side.

“Chloe! Come here, come here and tell me how is Yuri at work!” Yor called the girl as well.

Loid Forger smiled as he listened to the endless banter that filled the room, but internally he was still hurting. The police had found the body of Otto Osann the morning next to the murder, floating in the river. The official version was that the had killed himself after suffering a psychotic episode that lead him to believe he was back in the battlefield. The press had been informing of new programs that the government was offering to treat the mental health of the men who had fought during the war.

After reprimanding him, Handler had told him that Otto Osann had been identified as a serial killer, who joined the Army to be able to keep killing with carte blanche. However, he had been betrayed by his second on command, now Minister Taube. The forensic report that the SSS had, said that he had been killed by a stab to the head with a long piercing unidentified weapon. Very far from the suicide version. The SSS had no idea what had happened to him and had no clue to investigate, so they were closing the case on orders of Minister Taube, who didn’t want too much digging into his past.

Handler didn’t say much after that, just that they were going to be pulling out Dr. Forger from the visits to crazy Karl, someone else would handle those exchanges.

As Twilight saw the smiling faces around him he couldn’t avoid to feel thorn apart, wondering what would have he done if Otto Osann had reached the apartment that night. He had hesitated to part with Operation Strix and that could had had deadly consequences for innocent people. He knew next time he couldn’t doubt and needed to drop Anya and Yor if that meant they were going to be okay. There was no room for errors. He turned when he felt the patting from Anya.

“It’s okay Papa, we’re home now.” She said as she hugged his leg, maybe she couldn’t understand all of his thoughts, but she could understand what he was feeling.