Non Ducor, Duco 〈 Mikayuu 〉

❌13- Following Shadow❌

A numb pain resided in my skin as I flickered open my eyes. With a quick scan of the room, I almost screamed. My hands flew around, searching for my night vision goggles. They weren't on my head nor the floor. My eyes locked with the intense orange gaze of Cecil, who was standing next to the couch.

I was in his office.

"Cecil?"

"What the hell were you doing?" He asked, voice raw as if he had been screaming. Or crying. Maybe both. Who knows.
I opened my mouth to say something before it clamped shut. I pondered telling him a lie or the truth.
"No, wait, you don't have to answer that. I.... I don't think I want to know." He sighed, sitting on the wooden floor, taking my hand in his. He had dark circles beneath his eyes.
"You scared me, you know."

"I know, I know. I thought I was going to be fine. I'm grateful, Cecil, but how in the name of Jesus did you find me?" I asked, still trying to sit up. He kept me down.
"I got a call from a blocked number that wasn't speaking clearly, her voice was really fast. She was talking nonsense, but I was able to decipher an address and your name."

Cynthia.
God, I love that program. If she were human I would owe her a debt for the rest of my life.

I sighed in relief.
"I know I said I didn't want to know what you were doing, but is it alright if I know who did that to you?" He asked, pained expression still in his face.
"Green." I shrugged nonchalantly. Cecil looked horrified.
"I thought no one knew what he looked like? I mean, people did, but they're dead...." He trailed off, brows furrowed. He stared at his desk across the room, where I saw my night vision goggles staring at me.
"No." He muttered, shaking his head. I had accidentally given him a crucial hint.

Nice going, Mikaela.

Biggest fuck up since your mom's death.

"Really?" He asked, looking at me.
"Really what?" I asked curiously, tilting my head.
"You're blue?"
Well, shit.
"If I was, what would you do?"
"Nothing, of course. I love you anyway." He shrugged. Cecil was being too casual about this.
"The media perceives our identities as green and blue. To those who actually know our work and what we do, we are Ghost and Beast. As of recent, they've fused the two titles." I slowly explained.

"Why do they call you guys that? And who's Green, then?"

"I don't know who he is." I admitted.

"But the reasoning for our second titles are a simple answer. If you don't have a weak stomach, that is." I mumbled. He seemed to be greatly interested in hearing about this messed up shit.
"I have a pretty strong stomach." He urged me on.

"I'm the Beast for my apathy for killing targets. It doesn't matter who they are. It matters what they've done, and how I need to end their lives. I never take innocents."
"Why not?"
"It makes me want to vomit."

"Why is green called Ghost?"

"According to his file, he's called the Ghost for a simple reason. No one can see him coming, even if he is right in front of you. But, he is known for how he keeps tabs on targets he stalks. They usually get passed onto me, scared shitless. I don't know what he does to them. We share a territory, but we are not friends."

Cecil stayed silent. I feared he was going to freak out and call the cops. He didn't. He laughed.

"The Ghost will Haunt, and the Beast will hunt! That's oddly comical." He said through giggles.

"How are you not freaked out?"

"Oh, I am. Not much, though. Kinda want to kill Green, though."

The emotion in his eyes told me he wanted to do worse than kill my enemy.

He wanted to torture him. Slowly and painfully.

✖️
Green Ghost

I hissed, pressing the alcohol soaked cloth closer to my wound. My feet were lost in the mess of clothes on my floor.
"Ah, God, that's gonna hurt for a long time." I laughed, an eye pinching shut in pain. My phone lit up next to my head as I laid back on my bed. Holding it above my face, I read the alert shining in my face.

"He is alive. Watch yourself. Do not bring the Beast to near death when he is so valuable. -H."

"Thanks, almighty person in my phone. Go away now." I mumbled, tossing the phone on to the pillow. I used a foot to press a button on my stereo, music flooding my ears and the rest of the room.
I didn't want to kill the Beast, in all honesty.
I got ahead of myself.

Something kept telling me to keep him alive.

"Turn that music off!" An angry voice shouted from the apartment next to mine.

I didn't obey.

➖

A woman sighed, sliding her phone into her pocket. The inexpensive sniper rifle at her side held no ammunition. It did previously, now wasted on her targets. Teenagers who tried to scam the black market for drugs.
Now dead in a ditch.
She stared down at the concrete far below, where a puddle of blood from the most valuable member of the black market had just been mopped up. Her eyes steadily moved to a building ahead of her. She stared at the blond head of hair that popped up over the couch, an orange gaze next to it flickering briefly to her and narrowing, before going bright as he returned to conversing with the Beast, now Mikaela Shindo.

"Olympia, do not alert our officials of tonight's incident." She said quietly to her ear piece.

"Of course, Sombra. Your wish is my command." A calm and serene voice responded. The woman laughed.

"You're always at my commands, Olympia. You're a program."

"Right you are." The voice said without any shift of emotion.

It was cold and hard.

The woman stared at Mikaela Shindo and Cecil Rogue once more, the audio in her ears shifting to their conversation. Her lip tightened to a tight line.

"Why would you want to kill Green?"

"Because he hurt you, of course."

"Anyone who harms you is punishable by death."

Mikaela laughed.

He thought it was a joke.

One of the many his lover spoke.

It was not.