Wolf Without Sin

It's been awhile since we got captured by the Scarlet Vipers, and we can't see anything because they put a sack over our heads before shoving us in the back of a truck. And now, after what felt like about an hour and probably another half hour, the truck stopped and the mercenaries dragged us all out from the back. They started leading us somewhere, which I figured would be into a building, and as we entered, all I could see was red light coming through the sack covering my head. 

We were halted to a stop somewhere, and I can feel Izzy, Thanan, and Liz standing right by me side by side. "Take them off," a mysterious voice said. I know that voice from anywhere and this is not gonna be good. As the mercenaries took the saks off our heads, we saw nothing but red in the room we are in, and not only that, but a woman sitting on a comfy chair.....Talia.

"It's been a long time....Beta," Talia says, as everyone looks at me from the fact that she said my nickname, since nobody ever calls me by my nickname. "I see you got half of the crew together," she says as she looks at all four of us. "You know it feels like it was yesterday when we both ran away together don't you think?" She says as she looks at me with a smile. She gets up from her chair and takes a closer look at me, after a few seconds she slaps me, probably at the fact that I haven't looked at her since I got in here and had that sack taken off.

"Why aren't you looking at me?" she asks as she stands in front of me waiting for an answer.

"I don't know you anymore...not after what you did," I say without even looking at her face, because all I saw was a snake dressed in red. She crosses her arms and tilts her head from the fact that I'm disrespecting her by not even looking her straight in the face.

"Well I gave you all a choice, you're either with me, or against me," Talia says. 

I scoff from her words, and she raises her eyebrows. "You're just like the rest of them and I'm glad I wasn't with you long enough to see you become this snake," I say. 

She gets angry and slaps me for a second time, and Thanan, Izzy, and Liz try to do something,  but the mercenaries hold them back at gunpoint. I signal them to not do anything and just stay put since it's me she wants.

"You know you could've had all this! But then you decided to turn your back on me and try to live a normal life even though the world has gone to shit!" She shouts as she raises her arms, waving them to show how everything that's in the room, could've been mine. But this was and still is not the kind of life I want for me and my family. All I wanted was to live in peace, but I couldn't do that when everyone of our members are left around without somebody to take care of them.

"You knew I wanted a normal life but you didn't listen, all you wanted was power," I counter. 

She looks at me, getting ready to slap me for the third time. "Power is what killed this world," I say as everyone around start to look at me and wonder if it was really power that caused Earth's ruin. 

The room was filled with silence until Talia killed the silence. "Well guess what, you can blame politics for that. They didn't know how to control power because they were too weak to do so," she says calmly as she sits back down on her comfy chair. 

"But us? We are not weak. We are stronger than ever! We are the power of this nation and will restore a new dawn to this world. We will be remembered as gods, and people will embrace us for the accomplishments we did to make this world clean from chaos! They will know our name and forever remember it to remind them that we are the masters of our own destiny!" She shouts as every mercenary in the room roars in approval. And as they do she orders the mercenaries to take us away," put them in the cells and we will decide whether they live or die," she orders.

As the mercenaries take us away, but before they can push me out of the room, I stop and turn back to face her, to ask Talia a question. "Wait...i want to ask you something," I say, and she orders the guards to halt, and they stop pulling me away. 

"Alright.....ask away," she says as I walk up to her with the two mercenaries following behind me. 

I pull out the necklace she left me and raised it up in front of her. Talia's eyes go wide from the fact that I showed her the necklace I gave her. "W-why are you showing me this?" she shudders.

I look her straight in the eyes and ask,"Why did you come to my house?" I ask. 

She blinks a couple times and tries to talk, but can't find the words to do so, so she orders her mercenaries to take me away as she buried her face in her hands. As they take me away they lead me downstairs to where the cells are, and once we make it down, I can see that the rest of the group was already in their cells. As they were about to put me into a cell, I stopped moving, and stood in place. They try to push me into the cell, but can't, so one of them gets ready to hit me with the stock of their rifle, but as they were about to swing, I dodge it and pull out my karambit. I slice both the mercenaries legs and necks at the same time at full speed, and they both drop down dead. I searched their bodies for the cell keys, and when I found the keys, 

I unlocked the cells that Izzy, Thanan, and Liz were in. 

"Man your ex is mean bro," Thanan says as he gets out of the cell. They all look around to see if there's any more guards around, and it seems the coast is clear. 

"They took our weapons and put them in the armory upstairs, they keep all sorts of weapons in there, but we gotta put in a code to get in," Izzy says. 

Liz raises her hand and answers when we look at her. "I know the code to the armory, I saw one of the mercenaries type it in when they were taking us to the cells," she says. 

So I gave Izzy my second karambit I'd hidden, and we made our way upstairs without being seen. As we quietly made it to the armory, there were two mercenaries guarding the door, so we had to cause a distraction.

"Alright, I will throw an object across the room and lead the mercenaries away from the door, and once they look to go see what it was, me and Izzy will take out both of them,.....but quietly," I whisper. Izzy nods in agreement, as does Thanan and Liz, so I grabbed a small clock on display nearby a cupboard and threw it across the room. It made a surprisingly loud noise as it hit the floor, well at least loud enough for the guards to go see what it was. So when they got up to go look at what it was and walked away from the door, I signaled Izzy and we both walked up behind both of them quietly, and in a countdown to three seconds, SLICE SLICE, we cut both of their necks.

Then, I signal Liz and Thanan for them to come and Liz starts to type in the codes for the door. "So.....how was everyone's day?" Thanan asks. Izzy gives him thumbs up and I just shrug as Liz ignores him as she puts in the codes. The door opened, and when we entered, we saw a variety of different kinds of weapons lying around, including our own weapons. We grabbed our weapons and backpacks with our supplies in it and added a few more weapons we spotted, as well as ammo. 

"Oooohhhhhh, my butterfly I missed you," Liz says she hugs her Barret 82, customized in pink and yellow, and obviously butterflies. When I was done packing I saw a katana that I liked very much, so I took it, and we all left the armory when we finished packing.

"I heard the guards talking about armored humvees in the garage near the entrance outside," Izzy says as we head to the side door and look out the windows to see if there's any guards.

"There are two mercenaries at the main entrance gate and there's just one guarding the door to the garage," Liz says as she examines the area to see if there's any more guards."Yea, that should be it," Liz says. 

We all huddle up near the door before we make a move. "Alright Izzy, you take out the mercenary guarding the garage door, but do it quietly. I'll take out the two mercenaries and open the main entrance," I explain. Izzy nodded in agreement, so they went to the garage door and hid next to the dumpster and waited for me to get in position. I silently walked through the crates next to the main entrance, then I stopped and crouched down. As I peek around the crate, I see the two guards, they're are sitting in a small booth where the controls to the gate are at. So I grabbed a rock and threw it at the window of the booth. One of the mercenaries heard it, and they came out to see what it was. They head to check the crates, which is where I'm at, and as the mercenary makes it to the crates and looks inside one of them, I sneak up behind him and SLICE his throat without a sound, which signalled Izzy to take out the guard at the garage, which she successfully did. 

While they entered the garage, I went to go take care of the other mercenary in the booth. I quietly walked in without him noticing, and I covered his mouth and SLICE, I cut his throat. After I did that I looked at the controls to the main gate and saw an "open gate" button. When I pushed it, the gate opened, and so did the garage, Izzy and the others came out with an armored humvee with a turret on top with Izzy driving. She stops at the booth and signals me to get in the front, but as I'm about to get in, a group of mercenaries came out from the front door and saw me. They shouted for the alarm and started shooting at us as I got in the front seat and yelled for Izzy to drive. Bullets started hitting the humvee as we made our way out and onto the main road.

"BROOOOO, I can't believe we made it!" Thanan says with excitement. 

Liz nods in agreement, "I'm just glad we got out of there....alive," Liz says with relief, as she lays back on the seat. 

"Well since we got an armored humvee, we should-" BANG, a gunshot interrupts Izzy as she was about to finish her sentence. We look back to see what it was, and it's the Scarlet Viper mercenaries chasing us. 

"Thanan, I want you to man that turret on top of the humvee," I say as Thanan gives me a surprised look. 

"WHAT?! No! I can't, what if I get shot in the face!!!" Thanan exclaims in a panic as he covers his face. 

"DAMMIT!!, Let me do it!" Liz shouts. I nod in approval, so she puts her mask back on and goes up to the turret and immediately starts firing. 

As Izzy drives, a rocket flies past us, hitting the side of the road. "HA, u missed!" Izzy says as she's driving, I grabbed my modified m4a1, leaned out the window, and started shooting at the mercenaries truck. It has armor, so I aim at the tires, BANG BANG BANG, the tires pop and the truck loses control crashing onto the side of the road.

"One point for me," I say as I look up at Iiz. Her eyes go wide from the fact that I took out one of the trucks, so she starts shooting the turret with dangerously sudden accuracy. I don't know how, but this became a contest, as we started shooting the trucks to see who could destroy the most. BANG BANG BANG, she destroys one. 

"One point for me, HAHA!!" Liz says as she laughs from the fact that she destroyed one. And the more we shoot the less mercenaries there are chasing us.

Another rocket flies past us on the main road, but we drive through the explosion. "Missed me again!" Izzy shouts as she continues to drive. 

We continued to shoot back and destroyed three trucks, but there was still one left. Me and Liz looked at each other, who's gonna destroy it first? So we both started shooting at the truck at the same time, causing it to explode,"huh?...looks like it was a tie!" Liz shouted as she got off the turret, "I'll win next time!" Liz says. 

I just scoffed. "Good luck with that," I say with a half smile.

As we are on the road, we look at the map while Izzy is driving. "So where are we heading?" Izzy asks. I look at the map to see where New Eden is, which is about half a mile away. "Looks like we were going the right way, New Eden is half a mile away," I say as I point straight. Izzy nods and the rest of us just chill and talk. 

After half a mile later, we finally made it to New Eden. We stopped the humvee near the walls as we came up with a plan on how we were gonna go in there without our weapons getting spotted, which gave me an idea. "Izzy, tuck this karambit in the back of your pocket and keep it hidden," I say as I hand her my spare karambit. Liz tucks her huntsman knife in as well, and as for Thanan, he can just use his fists. "So is everyone ready?" I ask as I look back. Everyone nods their heads and I tap Izzy's shoulder to go right in.

When we approach the gates, the guard inspects our humvee and doesn't question us about the turret we have on top. They probably think we are hired guns since it is common for someone inside New Eden to hire out of town mercenaries. 

After the guard is done inspecting the humvee, he signals the gatekeeper to open the gates. The gate opens, revealing an enormous city surrounded by freshly cut green grass and an assortment of tall trees and blooming flowers. Picturesque buildings, including houses and shops, were lined up neatly next to each other, and the roads were noticeably paved to perfection. Crowds of people were roaming around without worry on the streets, carefree smiles on their faces and chatting happily with the people around them. We all looked upon the beautiful city of New Eden in awe. 

As we drove right into the city, we slowed the humvee and looked around like tourists on a tour bus. "Woowww this city is amazing!!" Liz says as we stop by a gun shop. All of us get out of the humvee and stretch our legs after a long ride.

"We're stopping for a while, we'll split up into two. Liz, you're with me, Thanan is with Izzy, and remember to be careful. The city may be beautiful, but that doesn't mean there's not gonna be trouble around here," I say as they all nod. Thanan and Izzy split from us and go into the crowd, while Liz and I enter the gun shop to look around.

As we entered, we looked around the shop for ammo. There is a merchant in the shop, a woman standing at the counter putting bullets in a magazine. Her hair is braided, and she's wearing an army tactical vest with a black shirt underneath. She has tattoo of a women, a rising sun, roses, an angel wing with a roman numerals on it, and a clock mixed together, with a full sleeve around her arm, black tactical fingerless gloves, tan cargo pants with combat boots, a white military shemagh around her neck, and a condor tornado tactical leg holster to hold her FNX 45 tactical.

"These guns are beautiful, did you modify them yourself?" Liz asks. The merchant stops putting bullets in the magazine and nods her head in response. "And invented some mods for them to make the guns even stronger," she replies. After we gather up ammo supplies from the shelf we bring them to the counter to purchase,"You guys aren't from around here huh?" the Merchant asks as she puts the ammo and supplies in a duffle bag. 

"You can say that,'' I say while Liz nods her head. Right after the merchant is done putting everything in a bag, she looks at both of us like a hawk stalking its prey. So I decided two can play that game, and after a one minute stare down, she blinks. "YAY!!!" Liz shouts as she jumps in the air from the fact that I won a staring contest. 

The merchant smiles and shakes her head,"Not bad, what's your name?" she asks plainly.

"That's none of your business" I say as the merchant raises her eyebrows and looks at Liz. "What about you?" She asks.

Liz looks at me and then back at the merchant. "My name's Liz, it's nice to meet you," Liz says in a polite manner, and the merchant smiles in return at Liz's politeness.

"My name is Grace, I'm the owner of this shop and the inventor of these weapons," she says, gesturing with open arms. Liz smiles and turns to look at me. I'm still waiting for her to hand over the ammo and supplies, staring her down with a blank expression. 

"Your friend here seems like an antisocial guy," Grace says as she glances at me, giving a half smile. 

But I'm still waiting for our supplies. "Yeahhh…, sorry that, he's not mean or anything, he just has trust issues with people he just meets," Liz says as she lightly elbows my shoulder. 

Grace laughs from the fact that I have trust issues, which is probably the most concerning problem on my mind ever since we came to New Eden. "What brings you to New Eden?" Grace asks. Liz looks at me for permission to tell her our main goal, and I allow it since we barely know our way around the city, giving her a nod. 

"We are looking for a couple of friends." Liz says as Grace tilts her head and wonders who we are talking about. 

"What're their names? I know almost everyone in the city," Grace says. 

Liz was about to say something until I placed my hand on her shoulder. "Cayden, Rin, and Maline," I say, as Grace's eyes go wide and she chuckles.

"Yeah I know them alright," Grace says with a smile. Liz and I look at each other curiously and then back at Grace. 

"Do you know where they are?" Liz asks as Grace nods her head. 

"Where." I demand plainly as me and Liz take a step closer.  

Grace looks at us before answering, then she pulls out a map from her pocket and lays it on the counter. "They are all scattered around the city," Grace says as she points out locations on the map. We all look at the directions she has pointed out. "If you want to find Cayden, he'll be at the Emerald Bastion, Maline is at The Onyx, and you'll find Rin at Serenity Keep," Grace says as she folds her arms. 

"Thank you!!" Liz says, but as we're about to head out of the shop, Grace pulls out her FNX 45 tactical as I turn around and pull out my nighthawk GRP Recon Custom, we're pointing our guns at each other. 

"Give me a reason....." I say as we're pointing our guns at each other. 

Grace looks at me with a serious demeanour and smirks, "What do you want with Cayden?" she asks as Liz glances nervously at Grace and I, trying to think of a way to calm the situation down. 

"Why do you care?" I say as we both look at each other with our guns aimed at each other. Grace sighs from the fact that this wasn't how it was supposed to play out. 

"He's my boyfriend," she says, while Liz gasps as her eyes go noticeably wide. 

"He's our brother," I say as Grace's eyes go just as wide as well.  

She looks at me for a few seconds, then she puts her gun away, as do I. "So you're not here to kill him?" Grace says with a confused look, so Liz and I tell her about our group and how we all got separated. 

"I'm sorry to hear that, it must've been hard for you to keep them all safe," Grace says sincerely. 

After we told her about bringing the group back together, she wanted to help. "Hey,....how about I help you guys look for them…,It's the least I could do since I pointed a gun at you guys and almost killed you guys," she says with a nervous laugh. 

Liz and I look at each other for a few seconds, then motion for her to come along. She smiles and grabs her backpack under the counter and hopped over the counter. As we left the shop, Grace locked up the gun shop. As we head away from the gun shop, we make our way through the city on foot while looking at the map to see where we are going. 

"So Cayden should be at the Emerald Bastion hanging out with his friends, since I work today and we only hang out on my day off,.....which is also today," Grace says with a serious demeanor as Liz looks at her, silently chuckling from the fact that Grace and Cayden were suppose to hang out today but it was cancelled for some reason, which is why Grace was in the shop even though it was her day off. 

After about a one mile walk through the crowded city, we made it to the Emerald Bastion. "This is the place," Grace says as we all look at the building and its walls. 

"Looks like he's a bandit and still a marksman," I say as I look at the building. 

Grace looks at me with a surprised look from the fact that I know what he is. "How.....did you know that?" Grace asks tilting her head.

"Back when we were still a group, he was the only other good marksman besides Liz. They were both good, but Liz came in first when she shot a guy 10 miles away," I say as Liz smiles. "Headshot!" Liz says with a big grin as she points to the side of her head with two fingers to demonstrate. 

All three of us entered the Bastion and saw a lot of bandits socializing and practicing their skills. We walked through the crowd of bandits until we finally spotted Cayden talking to his friends. He's wearing a leather jacket with a combat armor on both left and right arm, combat armor chest piece,green cargo pants with combat boots, fingerless leather gloves, tactical knee pads, and a black tactical holster to hold his Beretta M9A3 CO2 Air Pistol. We walk up to him and as we are, Grace speed walks up to him and slaps his arm. "Why didn't you tell me you had siblings?" Grace says as Cayden gives her a confused look until he sees me and Liz behind her. 

His eyes go wide, and he takes a closer look at us to make sure that it's actually us and that he's not high or anything. "I-is it really you guys?" Cayden says, his voice breaking from the fact that he can see it's really us. Liz smiles back and nods her head, and Cayden runs up to give us both a hug, and we hug him back.

He releases us from the group hug and backs away a step. "You don't know what I'd been through until I met Grace," Cayden says looking down, while Grace comes from behind and puts her arms around his shoulder. 

"I'm glad you have someone to be with," I say as I put my hand on his shoulder. He gives me a cheerful look to keep himself happy instead of sad. 

"We're bringing the group back together!" Liz shouts as Cayden's eyes go wide from the fact that we are getting our group back together after what happened, which I will tell you later after we get everyone back, and that leaves two more members: Rin and Maline.

"Seriously?" Cayden says with a surprised look as me and Liz nod our heads, Cayden looks at Grace and smiles.

He grabs his stuff and says farewell to his friends, and we head out of the bastion and make our way to the next location, "the Onyx", which is an underground base for a thieves guild. 

So we made our way through the city again, and luckily Cayden knew where the secret entrance was because he's got a friend who is a thief. We went into the entrance and through the tunnels. 

"After we get everyone we're gonna talk about our next move...and I'm buying everyone food," I say as Liz's face lights up with excitement. 

"OHHH!! Can you get me candy?!" Liz asks, I nod my head as she jumps up the air and gives me a quick hug, as we continue through the tunnels. 

Then, we found a guild in the underground base. It's filled with thieves wearing black and brown thief clothing with hoods on their heads, covering their faces. This underground guild has a small lake in the middle, a bridge, a lounge area, and a treasury room.

We walked through the guild and found the captain. "Excuse me, we're looking for someone named Maline. Have you seen her?" Liz asks as the captain points at the armory room. 

As we're about to enter the armory, the captain stops us, "What do you want with my best thief?" he asks as Liz is about to say something, I put my hand on her shoulder and motioned for her to get behind me as Cayden and Grace stand by my sides to let me know that they have my back. 

"She's our sister..." I say plainly as the captain raises an eyebrow and chuckles. 

"oh really?....well I figure you're here to visit or to take her back," the captain says as he rubs his hands. 

Cayden and Grace look at me for a second and then back at the captain. "Well if you're here to take her back then I'm afraid that won't happen," he says as he grips his pistol, and so do two other thieves as well. "You see, she's one of the best thieves I've ever had, she worth a lot of money to me," the captain says. 

Grace and Cayden ready their weapons, but I gesture them to not make a move just yet. "And you've mistaken me for someone who gives a shit," I say as I walk up close to the captain, right up to his face. 

"Aren't you a tough one eh.....Alright since you want her so bad, the price for her is 100,000 medallions," the captain says as Grace, Cayden, and Liz eyes go wide.

I clench my fist out of anger from the fact that he thinks of Maline as a product to his own collection. the captain seems to notice that, which gave him another way of getting her back. 

"Alright tough guy, how about this? Have a good old fashion fist fight, then if you beat me, you get to have her and if you lose...she stays here and I'll have her watch me torture the life outta you...deal?" The captain says holding out his hand. 

I shook his hand in agreement, and he led me, and a few other thieves who followed behind me, to a small arena where there were thieves and citizens in stands above, surrounding the arena. The thieves and citizens stood up and cheered as we both entered the arena.

"Alright ladies and gentlemen! Tonight, we have a new match! Between our captain and some kind of mercenary who had the guts to challenge our gracious leader!" one of the thieves shouted.  

The crowd boos from the fact that they think I'm some kind of rookie who will lose very badly, but what do they know? They're up in the stands thinking they know what a fight is when they've never even been in one. 

"You ready kid?" The captain says as he gets into a fighting stance. I just look at him and get in my fighting stance so I can get this over with. I'm able to read people's movements through their body language, predicting their movements beforehand, it's a trick I was taught when I was little. 

As the captain took a right hook at me, I dodged and swept his legs, which caused him to fall on his back. He gets back up and tries a left hook, which I dodged as well, then he went for a rapid punch, but failed when I countered every punch. He goes for a roundhouse but I managed to block it with my leg. And after many attempts to throw me on the ground, the captain gets frustrated and tries to lunge at me, but as he grabs onto my body, I manage to keep my stance. After several of his pathetic attempts, I decided to end this. He took a swing at me, and I countered it, punching him in the rib and face as he stumbled from the power of my punches. He tries to keep his composure, but can't, so he takes another swing at me. I grab his arm, stopping him from swinging at me, and I flip him over and to the ground. I got on top of him, holding him down with my knee on his chest, and started throwing punches at him until he bled. And after several punches, he finally submits defeat.

The crowd just stands there wondering what just happened, until a kid from the audience stands up and cheers, Everybody looks at the kid and starts cheering as well, and then the crowd goes wild chanting the name,"Wolf!" As I'm about to leave the arena, behind me, the captain pulls out a dagger from his pocket and runs up to me. As he got close to me, I did a Webster axe kick to his face, which knocked him out and caused the crowd to go even wilder, I smirked and headed out of the arena.

As I was heading out, I was wondering where the others went and was getting kind of worried, because I didn't see them anywhere in the stands, so I went to the sleeping quarters to see if they were there. As I went in I saw them and Maline talking. She's wearing a black jacket with a hooded cowl, black ninja trousers, ninja braces, and black tactical leather ninja tabi boots. I walked up to them to see if they were alright. Maline saw me and ran up to give me a big hug, "Thank you..." She says, her voice starts to break from the fact that she didn't like it here. 

"I figured you won?" Cayden says with a smirk. I nod my head and everyone starts to cheer, including Maline. After she heard about the fight, I told them what happened and how it went down, they never doubted my instincts. 

We headed out of the guild and made our way to our last stop,"The Serenity Keep." We walked through the city once more until we bumped into Izzy and Thanan. 

"There you guys are! We've been looking for you guys everywhere, what happened?" Izzy said, as I looked behind me at Cayden, Grace, and Maline, Izzy's face lit up with a big smile and she started hugging all of them, making it into a big group hug. Thanan and Liz joined in as well, and I was just standing there watching them with a half smile, until Liz and Maline pulled me into the group hug.

As we were walking I started wondering what Izzy and Thanan have been doing."So what have you guys been doing?" I ask plainly. 

Izzy and Thanan both look at each other and then back at me. "Well, when we were walking around looking for Maline, Thanan thought it would be a good idea to shop for some clothes and hair dye...which was horrible because he made me try on a lot of clothes," Izzy says as she looks at Thanan, who gives her a bright smile. 

"Awe come on Izzy, you looked good in them, especially that dress I picked out for you. Plus, I needed hair dye so I can change my hair color!" Thanan says as Izzy gives him a, "Don't even start with me" look. Everybody tries to not laugh from the fact that Thanan and Izzy had a "great" time. 

"It's already enough then it is that I have to see you with pink hair Thanan," I say as Thanan frowns.

As we were walking through the city, we were talking about what has been happening since we left home and that I had to fight for Maline's freedom in an arena. I told them how bad the captain lost and everybody just laughed from the fact that the captain was even stupid enough to go against me. 

"Can't believe you did that for me.." Maline says as she gives me a side hug. 

"All I want is for the whole group to get back together, plus, he treated you like some kind of product," I say as everyone pats my back.

After a short walk, we made it to Serenity Keep. 

"Last that I heard, she was a raider before she came here, and after she came to New Eden, she was talking about her group separating and how she barely survived out there," Grace says as she looks at us. 

As those words sink in, I could never forgive myself for the struggles Rin, Cayden, and Maline went through without anyone to look out for them. I hold back my tears without any of them noticing, because I want to stay strong for the family and not let them see any of my emotions. Liz puts her hand on my shoulder to see if I'm alright, I nod and keep a strong face.

We look at the fortified walls with soldiers at the top, guarding it with their AK-47s. We went through the main gates, and when we headed in there, we saw a manor mixed with a castle, which explains why there are walls surrounding it. There was also a medic camp for people who are injured and sick right next to the manor, so we went there to ask somebody, like a doctor or nurse, if they've seen Rin. 

As we were asking, I can't help but look at all these injured and sick people that got back from the wasteland. This is what war does to people and how power can destroy them. The more power someone holds, the more dangerous they are.

We asked doctors and nurses if they've seen her, but no luck. That was until we asked this one nurse in a supply tent. "If you wanna find Rin, she should be at Graygarden near the manor on the left side corner," the nurse says. 

We thank her and head straight to the Graygarden. When we made it, there were herbs all around and gardeners were picking them. We looked around until eventually....we found Rin. She was wearing a utility vest drawstring with a black long sleeve t-shirt under, fingerless wool gloves, airborne military pants with black combat boots, a combat medic belt with a holster to hold her FN Five Seven. We all walked up to her and as we were, I said, "Whatever happens, don't stop Rin from doing something she's about to do to me in a second," as everyone gives me a confused look and slight nods.

When we approached Rin, she turned around and Liz was the first to hug her, and then the rest of the group, except me, as I stood there and watched them get in a group hug. "Oh my god, my family," Rin says as she starts to cry, and everyone else starts to cry as well. The group hug lasted for a minute until finally they broke out of it. "I can't believe it's really you guys, I thought I'd never see you guys again," Rin says as she wipes her tears. 

Everybody starts explaining to her what happened and what's been going on, until she sees me. We both look at each other for a second, then she speed walks up to me and slaps me, then starts hitting me on my chest. "Do you know what I've been through to get this far!? You should've came with us when you had the chance!" She shouts at me and continues to hit me on the chest. 

I motioned the others to stop as they were about to do something. I slowly gave her a hug as she continued to hit me, but stopped after I gave her a full hug. I can't help but blame myself for this, she was right, I should've gone with them when I had the chance, but my mind was telling me not too. She was still crying and getting her makeup on me, which I didn't mind. "It won't happen again, I promise," I say as she looks at me. The others started to smile from the fact that all of us are here and together again. 

After I explained to her what we have been doing, we all went to a hangout spot called "Lockdown." We settled there and came up with a plan. "Now that everyone is here, there's things we gotta discuss," I say as I motioned Izzy to explain the plan. 

"Right, so our plan was to take over the lost empire and protect it from enemy factions because right now, everything is in chaos in the dark zone," Izzy says. Everybody starts to look at each other from the fact that taking over the lost empire would be impossible, since there are other factions controlling the capital. 

"If we are gonna take over the capital, shouldn't we at least have an army or something?" Grace says. Cayden seems to agree with her, and the others are still deciding if they wanna do this or not. 

"All we have to do is take out one of the faction leaders and that will spread fear among the others, so my first guess is the Scarlet Vipers since they already wanna kill us after what we did," I say. Everyone nods their heads, and I can see that Cayden and Grace are whispering to each other about something, and after they're done, Cayden clears his throat. 

"Guys, there's something I want to tell you.....Grace wants to ask you guys something," Cayden says as Grace gives him a "are you serious?" look, and Cayden chuckles from the fact that he was supposed to ask us something, but instead wanted Grace to do it. 

"I wonderinggg.....if it's ok if I can come with you guys on your adventure? I never been out of the city before so please?" Grace asks. We all look at her, and now they're all looking at me, including grace, waiting for an answer.

"Free country...stay or go, it's your choice," I say plainly as Grace smiles and hugs Cayden. 

We came up with a plan on how we are gonna strike the Scarlet Vipers, then Rin says something. "If we are gonna take the Scarlet Vipers down, I'll be the one to take out the leader Talia since she was the one who broke our family apart," she says with a clenched fist as everyone looks at her and starts to protest on who's doing it first.

Then, a woman wearing a blue robe and hoodie enters the hangout with two heavily armed female guards. We all stopped what we were doing when the hooded woman approached with her guards. "Pardon me for interrupting, but I have an invitation for you," the woman says. 

"Invitation?.....from who?" Izzy asks with a confused look.

"The Valkyries of Valhalla"