The Winter Ball (12.6)

Leon knew he shouldn't have run off on his own. Logically, his mind had screamed that at him as he did exactly that, run off on his own. He knew he was going to get his ear yelled off for it but maybe, just maybe, it would be worth it to follow that man.

He knew that man. He recognized him. And it made his entire body tremble with rage.

You.

As he followed the white-cloaked figure, sprinting to catch up, he noticed that they were heading away from people. Was this on purpose? Was this a trap? Leon's grip on the sword in his hand tightened.

Even if it was…If he could stay alive long enough to get information…

He realized that by now, they were in a huge hall above the main floor of the castle. The cloaked figure had stopped entirely, facing away from him. Then, Leon heard the man chuckle, "Song, You left your comrades' side to run after me. I wonder why that is?"

"Drop the act, Dr. De Luca. Or should I say, Arsenio?" Leon growled, his grip on his weapon tightening, "Don't play dumb with me, you know exactly why I followed you."

The older man laughed and pulled the hood off of his head, turning to look at Leon, "You're much further along than I thought you'd be. I must congratulate you, Leon, you always wanted to surprise me, didn't you?"

"That was a long time ago," Leon responded, gritting his teeth, "I was naïve, I was practically a child, and you took advantage of my innocence."

Arsenio hummed, "Well, even for a sixteen-year-old, you always had an understanding of the situation in a way none of the other children did. The closest was Manon, no? Although, we did certainly manage to keep you both in line…"

"You threatened to kill her, my sister, my brother-in-law, and my boyfriend. It didn't matter what kind of understanding I had of the situation, you blackmailed me. You used my fear and my skills to hurt everyone I cared about," Leon growled, "I might have looked up to you back then, but I lost all respect for you after I figured out what you were all really doing."

Arsenio laughed at this, walking towards Leon, "Ah, I did quite like you when you were an obedient assistant. You were so easy to use. After all, the hell you've put yourself in is one that you only have yourself to blame for," He held Leon by the chin, tipping his face up to force him to meet his eyes, "Although, you're much more interesting now that you're not just mindlessly complying to us out of fear. I wonder what caused that change…"

Leon glared back, not tearing his eyes away, "You were never going to give her back, were you? Even by the time I had signed the contract to join you, there was no way to get her back, was there?"

The other man clicked his tongue, "Ah, Chaewon Song. Did you know, the only reason we even had you join us was to take her place?" Leon flinched at this, "We made a good call though. We couldn't have been this successful without you. Oh, and Manon, I suppose, since you both worked together. Tell me, how did it feel? Being the reason for so many people's pain? How did it feel to watch innocent people go through hell because of what you helped us do?"

"Shut up. Shut your fucking mouth before I shove a bullet down your throat," Leon threatened, his hand shaking, "This…This wasn't my fault. You told me that I could save them, that you would leave them alone. You said they would all be free, you said I'd get my sister back—"

Arsenio laughed softly, "But it's only your fault that you believed that. Really, Song, shouldn't you have known better?"

"Maybe…Maybe if it hadn't been you…" Leon said shakily, "Maybe, I would have known. You knew that I trusted you, that I looked up to you. You went out of your way to make me…To get me to trust you. To make me comfortable with you, comfortable enough that I accepted everything you said."

The older man hummed, "I suppose that could have been the case. Although, I very vaguely remember a certain time when you were arguing with another boy. He warned you not to trust me, didn't he? Why didn't you listen to him, Song? Why did you let us get to him?"

Leon lurched back, stumbling slightly, "Shut up, shut up, I didn't—I didn't let you do anything to him—" But Hyunwoo had warned him back then. And he hadn't listened. He hadn't listened and because of that, Hyunwoo…

"Oh? How ironic. You think you didn't let them do anything to him and yet, you failed him back then and you failed him three years ago," Leon seemed confused at that, "But I think I'll leave that to him to tell you. It would break you more to hear it from him. In the end, Leon Song, you trusted me more than your boyfriend, didn't you?" Arsenio smiled a pleasant smile that made chills run down Leon's back.

"I didn't trust you more than him," Leon spat out, "I was too scared of you to go against what you said. You…If I had listened to him, you would have killed Chaewon, Elliot, Risá—You would have killed him for God's sake, what was I supposed to do?!"

Arsenio sighed, "I suppose fear and admiration can go hand in hand…If it was admiration, of course. I always wondered, was there something more underneath that admiration? You were always looking for my attention."

Leon's face twisted, "You're fucking disgusting, I was a child—"

"I didn't say from my end, now did I? I only ever thought of you as an assistant back then, but did you only ever think of me as a mentor? Your boyfriend seemed to pick up on it more than you did, I think he was nervous. That I might do something to you, not that you'd leave him. He didn't seem the type to be jealous-"

"I never thought of you that way. I needed someone, and you were the only one there at the time, before Hyunwoo and Risá," Leon gritted out, "Either way, what, you're telling me that you were aware of how much I needed you, and you still used that to manipulate me? This makes this entire situation so much worse. Hyunwoo was right to say I shouldn't have trusted you. Even if you didn't feel that way about me, using a young boy's fascination, fear, and desperation to manipulate him is still fucking disgusting."

"As long as we are aware that it was your own feelings that were the root of all your problems, I don't mind you saying that," Arsenio shrugged, "Because in the end, it was always your fault. And now, you don't even remember how to stop it."

Leon pointed the gun in his hand at Arsenio, "Insult me all you want, I don't care. Tell me how to stop all of this. I know that you know."

"I don't know the details, that was something only you and Manon knew. Maybe that one other woman as well but of course, she won't be much help," Arsenio responded.

"That one other woman? What other woman?"

Now this seemed to really surprise Arsenio, "You don't remember her? I suppose it makes sense, you were very young, her situation was back when your sister was still with us…"

Leon didn't have time for this, he could try and figure this out later, "I don't care, tell me how to end this."

Arsenio stepped closer, the barrel of the gun pressed against his chest now, "Although, I'm curious. I've heard that people like you feel emotions very strongly. I wonder which one is stronger for you, love or hatred. Would you really be able to shoot me?"

"I didn't love you, you sick bastard—"

"Oh, certainly not in the way you loved your boyfriend or Manon. But you did love me. You loved me when there was here for you. Before you met your boyfriend and reunited with Manon, after your sister was gone, the only person you had was me. And in a way, you loved me. I think you owe me, Song. After all, I did save your life, no?" Arsenio smiled. Leon felt a phantom pain around his neck.

His hand wavered, and then became sure again, "You saved me only because you couldn't have me dying so early on, not when I hadn't done what you needed me to do. Even if I did love you for being there when no one else was, it doesn't matter now. You never loved me, so why should I care?"

Arsenio sighed, and grabbed Leon's arm, pulling him closer, holding the gun to his own head, "Then shoot me."

"...I can't. You haven't given me the information I need yet."

"I can't say I'm not surprised," The older man said, "You were always very emotional, I certainly thought this would be more of a moral dilemma for you."

Leon took a deep, shaky breath, "If you've seen the kinds of things I've had to see over, and over, and over…If you have to go through the same torture over, and over, and over…Morality goes down the fucking drain. I want you dead, every single one of you, but I can't kill you until I have the information I need. So, tell me how to stop this thing. Because I hope I've made it perfectly clear that I won't hesitate to blow your brains out."

Arsenio let out another sigh, "I understand, I understand. It's quite interesting, to see how you've changed and grown…But you already know that I don't know how to stop this, don't you? You were just looking for an excuse, but for what? To see me? To talk to me? To kill me?"

"Tell. Me."

"Hm, I don't think I can, really. After all, we all have the same problem, don't we?" Arsenio laughed at Leon's surprised face, "Don't tell me you thought it was just your people? I didn't think you'd forget this as well, but I suppose it makes sense. None of us can talk about it, no matter which side we're on. The only thing I can tell you is, in the end, only you or Manon can do it. And judging by the state she's in, we can narrow that down to just you. But are you sure you have the willpower to?"

Leon scoffed, "Of course I do. I promised I'd keep them all safe."

"I wonder about that…You will have a choice to make, Leonardo Song. And I don't think you'll be able to do it," Arsenio spoke confidently. He smiled as if there wasn't a gun held directly at his temple, "You try so hard to pretend you aren't one of us, that you were never one of us, but that mark on your hip says otherwise. You can try your best to hide it, cover it up, but—" As Arsenio reached to touch Leon's hip, he sensed a sudden, swift movement.

Within moments, there was a hand tightly gripping Arsenio's wrist, and Leon was being shielded. 

"Don't ever touch him again," Hyunwoo said lowly, his violet eyes gleaming with hatred.

Arsenio stepped back, wrenching his hand free and laughing, "Well, here's a face I certainly never thought I would see again! Oh, and you've become quite the pretty one as well. You're just as possessive of your boyfriend as the last time I saw you."

"I'm not worried about him," Hyunwoo responded smoothly, "I just don't like the idea of a bastard like you touching a treasure you don't even deserve to look at."

"Hyunwoo…"

Hyunwoo looked back at Leon subtly, and squeezed his hand gently, intertwining their fingers, "Stay behind me," He said softly.

"How sweet. Now, I assume you're going to kill me? I must admit, I had always expected to be killed by Leon, not you. This is a nice surprise, you've chosen well, Leon. Beautiful and not afraid to get his hands dirty. If I had to say, I think he'd be exactly my type—" Arsenio nodded appreciatively, his eyes lingering on Hyunwoo.

"Don't you dare talk about him like that, you bastard," Leon went to move, but Arsenio put his hand up as if motioning for him to stop.

Then, he smiled, "Before you kill me, I would like to tell you that while we've been talking, there are about twelve snipers right now focusing on Manon. If she had her memories, then maybe she would have been able to predict it but, of course…"

Hyunwoo and Leon froze.

Before any of them could move, however, there was an explosion behind them. Hyunwoo quickly held Leon close to him, shielding him, however, the debris wasn't too bad that it would hurt him. Something landed right in between the two of them and Arsenio.

No, not something. Someone.

"Twelve snipers, huh? Aren't you a little overconfident?" Risále smirked, standing up, leaning on the spiked mace in her hand that was almost her height, "Hello, boys. Sorry, I'm a bit late. Had to clean up some trash lying around."

"Yeah, no, that's—That's completely fine," Leon said, a little bit breathless. Hyunwoo nodded, a smile on his face.

"Damn, she's hot," He murmured quietly.

"I'm so glad you agree."

Arsenio clapped slowly as the dust settled, walking forward towards her, "Ah, and she makes her grand entrance! It has been quite a while, Manon. Let me ask you, do you even know who I am?"

"Well, I'm sure that if you were someone I should care about, I'd remember your name," Risále responded, her voice light, but it immediately switched to a darker tone with her next sentence, "Although, I do remember always being wary of you. Doctor, was it? You were always around Leon. I never liked you, you know? Leon always seemed intimidated by you. Which put you in my bad books. You don't want to be in my bad books."

"You remember quite a bit, I see. Was it the safe that triggered a lot of your memories?" Arsenios asked.

Risále clapped sarcastically, "Ding ding ding, right answer! Took me a while to piece it together but I wondered why the safe looked so familiar. Turns out, it was because I was the one that created that type of safe! Seems like it came in pretty handy for you guys, huh? You really shouldn't have left the flash drive in there though, I would have thought a group of scientists would know better than to leave possible room for error. Did it really not occur to you that I might be able to open the safe?"

"I must admit, we certainly weren't expecting you to remember this much, Manon. That was a fault of ours. But the flash drive doesn't matter, after all, it's whoever gets to it first, isn't it?"

"Is it really, though?" Risále asked, leaning on one leg, a hand on her hip.

"Pardon?"

"After all, you didn't even bother to take into account that the Wings need much more than just to be found. Activating it is a whole different story, isn't it?"

This seemed to take Arsenio aback, and it shocked Leon too. Just how much did Risále know…No, just how much did she remember?

"We don't need to activate it," Arsenio spoke, "All we need to do, is to keep it away from your people."

And with that, Risále smiled, "Ah, so there is a way to use it that doesn't have to do with the weapon which you're all avoiding. Thanks for the information—Ah, I just remembered your name! Thank you, Dr. De Luca! That's all I needed to know," And with that, she raised her mace, "Leon, get Hyunwoo out of here. He didn't want to tell you before but his head injury is acting up and he might pass out."

"Hyunwoo, what the fuck—"

Risále interrupted him, "Get out of here, I'll deal with this bastard!" And with that, she rushed forward. Through the dust and debris that was rising, they could hear the sound of metal against metal. Leon had no choice as he felt Hyunwoo sag against him. The man had fallen unconscious again.

He bit his lip and looked back at where Risále was before carrying Hyunwoo, "You'd better come back to me, Risá!" He yelled, before running off.

Risále smiled as she heard the footsteps fading, "Always will, Leon," Then, she looked back at Arsenio, her eyes serious, "Now, time for me to deal with you, Doctor."