┏━━━༻☆༺━━━┓
𝚁𝚎𝚗
┗━━━༻☆༺━━━┛
𝘈𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘔𝘪𝘥𝘯𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵
Ren pounded on the door to the compound once more. "Is anyone there? Hello? It's me, Eris!"
At times like these, he cursed the rules and regulations of the Syndicate. The door was locked from the inside, and the only other entrance was from the main base. A place that, at this rate, Ren wouldn't get to see.
"Oh yeah? That's something someone dodgy would say!"
Trixcia was the last person he wanted to see right now. She had no clue what empathy meant. And what was she doing up at such an hour?
"I don't give a damn, open the door! I have someone who's injured!"
At that, she quieted. After a few moments, Trixcia replied, "Are they one of ours?"
"No," he whispered.
"What was that?"
"I said no! He's not..."
Trixcia flung the door to the compound open. "Who the hell do you think you are, Ren? First, you fail your mission, then you come waltzing back here with some random guy, banging on the door like you're still Mitsan's favourite? Like nothing happened an hour ago? It was chaos out there, and nobody knew what to do because you're a misanthropic arsehole with only one or two numbers in your phone!" she panted, her throat raspy from yelling.
Ren was speechless. Even throughout the year he had dated Trixcia, he had never seen her this fired up. Was it because of the florist? Or just the circumstances?
"I can't believe you. Now you've got nothing to say? You know I'm right, so why won't you admit it? Man up and say you're wrong, or you're not getting in. There's no one else here, so your only way inside is through me."
The sniper took a quick look at the florist in his arms and relented. Ren beat back his pride, his ego, and his vanity, all for this last chance to redeem his shortcomings. "I—I was in the wrong, Trix. There, now will you let me in?"
"Ever the impatient one, Ryker." She shook her head and led Ren into the compound. "Mitsan's been worried, for reasons I can't fathom. I'll let them know you've resurfaced."
"Trix, what are you going to tell them?"
"Simple. That you're back and didn't take the cowards' way out," she said, her stride lengthening as the gap between them grew. She turned a corner and disappeared.
"Wait, Trixcia! Damn it, Mitsan's going to kill me..." Ren trailed off, muttering to himself. He had wanted to delay his upcoming meeting with Mitsan as much as possible.
Less than a half hour later, Trixcia returned. "I'm back with orders!" she sang.
Ren groaned, resuming his panicked mumbling.
Trixcia rolled her eyes. "They raised you, Ren. They're not going to kill you over something like this. Anyway, Mitsan says to keep him here in the interrogation room and tend to his injuries, however minor. Then I'm supposed to question him." Her beige eyes scanned Lennox over. "I'll bandage this chap up for you, but you owe me half this month's pay."
"But you already took half for smuggling me in here, what'll I have left to buy food with? Can't I keep a tenner?"
"Oh, I know you have savings somewhere. Now piss off," Trixcia ordered, shoving Ren out of the room to stand watch alone.
Was she implying his savings for surgery? No, that was impossible.
Placated for the moment, he leaned against the door, ruminating on his predicament. What a perfect bit of irony he was. It was the middle of the night, but instead of celebrating and drinking alcohol, he was bargaining away his paycheck like a gambler on his last legs. He doubted things could get any worse. The sniper had lost his chance at the inner circle, and he'd be fortunate just to avoid being cast out onto the street. Ren cursed himself for letting things get so out of hand.
He slid into the ground, covering his face with his hands. Then a solid hit to his spine sent him sprawling into the opposite wall.
It was Trixcia who barrelled into the hallway, lobbing the door open. "The pity party's over, Ren!"
"Trix, you just realigned my fucking spine. The wrong way."
"It's nothing you haven't done to my leg, bastard," she sneered.
"Touché." Ren peeked inside the room, where Lennox was bandaged up and resting against a wall, his hands tied up. "Now go do the other part of your job, while I sit over here and die of boredom."
"You're more than welcome to watch." Trixcia grinned. It was a grin that decidedly made Ren uncomfortable.
"Wait, what are you going to—" But she was already gone. He paced around the hallway, only waiting a few moments to turn the knob and discover Trixcia on top of Lennox, who was backed against a wall. The pair was close enough to snog. At least, until they both turned to gape at him.
The wince on Ren's face was unmistakable. He had forgotten that Trixcia was still single, but even so... Why did it bother him so much? And why was she with the florist? She didn't have any connection to him... Or did she? Why did he care who she tried to sleep with?
He shifted his gaze to Lennox, who seemed a little disappointed. Whether it was Trixcia or himself, Ren didn't know. Nor did he want to find out.
"Trix, Mitsan told you to interrogate him, not ram your hand up his shirt." Ren sighed. "Now get off him."
Trixcia muttered in hushed tones, accusing Ren of having seduced the florist.
It seemed like as good of a time as ever for the sniper to approach Mitsan, so he decided to bring the florist along. At the very least, it would make the situation easier to explain. And maybe, just maybe, Mitsan would go easy on him. However, when he walked over to Lennox, Ren was greeted with a glowering stare and accusatory words.
"Do you need something, Crimson?"
He wondered if he was always that rude. Then again... Ren had deceived and abducted him, so he couldn't fault the florist for his growing hatred of him. He despised himself too, sometimes.
"You seemed upset, that's all, Blueblood. Anyway, my leader wants to see you if you've..." Ren glanced at Trixcia. "Recovered."
Soon after the pair entered the meeting hollow, Ren's fate rested in Lennox's previously tied hands as Mitsan interrogated the florist. He found himself puzzled at the extensive knowledge his boss possessed.
He was shocked by Mitsan's level of knowledge. Ren knew they had access to a lot of information thanks to Parliament's power, but this was well beyond his expectations. He had to act fast, or the florist might end up dead. His family would be threatened, if not targeted, all because Ren had thrown a spanner in the delicate clockwork that made up last night's mission. They didn't deserve to pay for his shortcomings, even if they were Veritas.
"...Now answer the question. How did you do it?"
He had to do something now, or it would be too late. "I don't think he knows, Sir. The whole thing was very spur-of-the-moment, and—"
Mitsan turned to give Ren a death stare. "Ren, did I ask for your opinion? If neither of you can explain yourselves, I'll have to resort to more... drastic measures."
Hesitation halted his mouth from moving. They couldn't truly mean that, right? But however deep Mitsan's convictions ran, the sniper wouldn't let his leader kill someone who hadn't wronged them.
At the very least, the florist's fate should be in Ren's hands.
"It was me, Sir. I had a moment of weakness and I allowed myself to be overcome by someone weaker than me," he said, explaining a smoothed-over version of the story. A fabrication, really. He would have to be satisfied with the wish that Mitsan wasn't as proficient at detecting lies as Trixcia was.
His leader raised an eyebrow. "And that's all that happened? He got a hold on both your guns and tossed them off the building, where they became unserviceable?"
"Yes." The redhead gulped. If his lies were exposed now, it would be the end of both of them.
"Well, if that's all, please step outside for a moment, Mr. Kendrick-Carson. I'd Like to have a conversation with Ren. Alone."
Lennox nodded and stepped into the hallway.
"Ren, close the door, if you wouldn't mind."
His heart was pulsating, struggling against its cage of bone and flesh. Everything about his current situation was wonky. He was doomed. He was trapped. Silently, Ren pleaded for someone to help him, closing the door as slowly as he could.
"Come here, Ren."
He noticed that they didn't use his last name... that had to be a positive sign, right? Ren left the doorway, taking the chair that Lennox had previously occupied. Now he was the victim of his leader's scrutiny.
Mitsan twirled a knife around their finger as they spoke. "When I didn't hear back from you and had to learn what happened from someone else, at first I was enraged beyond belief. I thought, how could the one I raised like a son let me down so completely? I gave him a chance, despite everyone else's opinions." They stopped to admire their dagger, twisting their wrist to see every angle of it. "And yet he let me down. Perhaps I was wrong about him. About you, Ren."
"I... I'm sorry, Sir. I fully intended to—"
"When put next to results, intention means nothing, Ren. I called for the death of a man, and you bring me the life he has brought into the world. You are a sniper. You should be laughing at the idea of mercy," Mitsan spat, stalking towards him.
"Wait!" Ren scrambled out of his chair, falling to his knees. Ungraceful as it was, still he clasped his hands together. "I know I can make it up to you! I know I brought the son of the target, but please, Sir. I'll do anything to fix things. Just name it, and I'll do it!"
Ren felt the faint pricking of tears at the corner of his eyes as he bowed his head. "I'll do anything... Please just let me stay."
"That's enough, Ryker," Mitsan cut in.
He realized that this was the end. He was going to die. All his effort... his begging... it had been futile. Intention really did mean nothing. Ren watched in horror as Mitsan drew closer and closer, twirling their knife until it came to point at his neck.
"I should, by all means, slit your throat. If it were anyone else, I would have killed them the instant they came into this room. But it doesn't matter. Because regardless of it all, I still love you. And I know that you can redeem yourself, given time." His leader smiled.
Such a smile was so comforting that Ren wasn't sure it was real.
Mitsan crouched down and enveloped him in a hug, whispering low in Ren's ear, "Don't disappoint me again."
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𝐆𝐨𝐭 𝐚 𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐠𝐨 𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫? 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐢𝐭 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 --->