And so we met (Part 1)

Vito approaches Terra from a distance and before coming too close to him he asks, "So is this a private party?"

Terra turned his head around quickly as he almost got up from where he was, "Ah! You scared me. What are you doing out here!?"

"Well, I was curious when I saw you running around in the wilderness all of a sudden and I was half afraid you were going to Mars already," Vito shrugged as he got closer to him.

"Psh! Mars? That's a you thing and besides I will be going to space not a planet, who knows where the tournament will take place anyways?" Terra said. "I just wanted to get away for a little while to get some fresh air. All those people were suffocating me."

'Well if you don't like it you can give it to me,' Vito said to himself as he smiled. "How does it feel? Being the representative? Or the chosen one if you would prefer that."

"I prefer Terra. I don't believe a title would change much, in the end, I am still me." Terra smiled at Vito who was now standing over him.

"Hm... Terra have you ever killed anyone?" Vito asked.

"What?" Terra replied as the smile that was on his face dropped. "Why would you ask that... Vito?" he said with a quiver in his voice.

"I was just curious is all. So have you?" Vito asked as he was circling around Terra.

"Vito I-" Terra tried to speak before Vito cut him off, "Better question. Are you willing to kill someone?"

Terra now stood up as he took a step back from Vito, "What does this have to do with our conversation?"

"Ah, I see, you are confused. You see I have been thinking about this, maybe you are not ready to be the representative of this planet. I mean, I doubt you have the nerve to get any blood on your hands and there is bound to be a lot of killing in that tournament."

"You think representatives are going to gather for fun? It's a killing game Terra and I just want to know if you can play."

Terra's eyes darted away from Vito as he said these things, Vito noticed this right away and knew he made the right call, "Terra, Switch with me."

"Let me go in place of you and you can stay here, safe. I can protect you, I can protect you all. Let me be the representative."

"Vito what are you saying!?" Terra yelled. "We can't just change the decision that has already been made. And even if we could, I wouldn't give it to you. Because I believe that I have what it takes to win."

"Then can you kill!?" Vito asked harshly.

"If it calls for it," Terra answered.

"Then kill me!" Vito replied in a sincere tone just below yelling.

There was a silence between the two as Vito waited for a reply from Terra. But after seeing him stutter and flap his eyes in shock he decided to repeat himself, "Go on, kill me."

"I have no reason to," Terra answered.

Vito turned his head sideways at Terra and then realized that maybe he should be a bit more forceful, he just wanted Terra to realize he was not ready for such a thing and that it should be him that goes.

"But I want to kill you, so if you don't kill me now then you will die," Vito said.

"You can't kill me, Vito, you are not capable of that. You want to act tough but I've seen the face of a killer before and you don't have that look on your face." Terra took his stand and his resolve had surprised Vito. 

'Perhaps he is more qualified than I hoped to imagine. Regardless,' Vito thought.

*Click*

Vito had pulled out his gun and had it pointed at Terra. He undid the safety and placed his finger on the trigger.

"Your life is on the line now. What will you do? Will you fight!? Or will you stand there and die like a coward? If you can't make up your mind then give me the title," Vito proposed.

Terra's eyes were wide open, he was surprised to see that Vito had a gun, 'Maybe he will kill me if I don't act?' But after looking at Vito once more, he knew that it wasn't the case.

"Vito, you don't want to shoot me. I see it in your eyes, you are just as scared to pull the trigger as anyone would be to die. Your hands, they are shaking. And even though you have a gun you are asking me to attack you because you don't have the guts to kill me without reason-"

"Shut up!" Vito cried.

"Why won't you attack me!? I have given you chance after chance and you still keep talking! I have been through sh*t Terra, the type of problems that would make a person like me walk with a gun, and I survived all of that."

"Here I came with a mindset that I would be chosen and given a new path in life, one that would solve all my problems and you took it away. And now when I try to ask you to give it to me you want to talk and work things out despite having a gun pointed at you."

"I can't stand you!" Vito said as the gun in his hand was shaking.

"Vito," Terra said, "I have been through bad things too. Maybe even as bad as you. We don't need to fight about this, let's sit down and figure things out."

Vito had lowered his gun and with tears in his eyes, he stared at Terra who stood before him with the moonlight dawning on him.

"I'm sorry Terra, but I didn't come to talk."

*Bang!

A muffled sound of a bullet leaving its case could be heard as it flew through the air and hit Terra dead in his chest. Terra took a step back as he clutched his chest and fell to the ground.

"Do you have a reason now?" Vito asked. "Who am I kidding? I am talking to a dead man."

"I should be fine. If my hunch is correct, representatives are going to be killing other representatives from different planets. Meaning killing a representative isn't illegal and is actually more of an achievement."

"Then why am I disappointed that I did this? I thought I would feel more satisfied by taking over the mantle. Instead, I feel, guilt."

Vito bit his lower lip as he picked up the bullet case that fell from the gun. 'Leave no evidence.' As he was picking it up he heard a small noise from a bush that was behind him.

"Come out!" he commanded as he stared towards the source of the sound.

"A guy dressed in smart clothes with a pair of glasses comes out from the bush nearby Terra. Cyrus Barnaby comes out from the bush that was lying close by to Terra's body.

"Cyrus?" Vito asked as his voice cracked from seeing him.

"You shot him. You monster. How does it feel to kill another human?" 

"Cyrus, it is not what it looks like," Vito said as his hands clenched the gun he was holding. He could feel his sweat crawling out as his grip over the gun loosened.

"It looks to me like you killed an innocent person because of your selfish ambition for power," Cyrus yelled.

"I didn't have a choice!" Vito yelled back, "I told him to relinquish it to me but he wouldn't, he was so stubborn, so stupidly stubborn. I needed this Cyrus, I needed it because it would help me, help solve my problems!!"

"You don't think there are a hundred or so people inside who have the same thought as you!!? But they don't go around trying to kill him no they are contemptuous of the decision and have decided to handle their issues without having to rely on such power."

Vito raised his gun at Cyrus as his hands shook with hesitation, "Don't make me have to do this again Cyrus, I am begging you. Don't make me have to kill again. Not here."

"What's wrong?" Cyrus mocked, "Can't kill two birds with one shot so you don't want to waste another bullet? or maybe you are finally feeling guilty for the action you shouldn't have done in the first place!"

*Bang!

The sound of another bullet flying had gone through to hit Cyrus but instead of falling down, he had remained standing where he was. 

'Did I miss?' Vito wondered.

Cyrus smiled as he saw Vito confused and said, "Maybe you should let out another, you probably missed the first one with how nervous you were."

"You!" Vito yelled, "What did you do to my gun? My aim couldn't have been off. You can only be standing if these were----"

"BLANKS?"

Cyrus smile had turned into a small burst of laughter as he said to Terra, "You can get up now." Terra groaned as he stood up,, his body a little relaxed from how soft the ground was. 

"You! You planned for this?" Vito pointed at the two of them.

"Well, I replaced the bullets with blanks yes but I never told Terra, I didn't have the time to do so, he was acting genuine when he spoke with you."

"Still look at you, Cyrus said as he patted Terra, "I didn't know you were such an actor. You almost made me believe that I failed to switch the bullets."

"Thanks," Terra said shyly with a hand on his head, "I didn't expect him to actually shoot and when he did I just kind of went for it. I was only worried that he would come and check on the dead body, in which case I would sucker punch him in the face."

Terra and Cyrus were now laughing as they spoke about how they each had planned to deal with Vito had things gone different, they were completely off guard and not paying attention to him.

Vito had his gun down, and he was in a state of disarray, the people he tried to kill despite not wanting to kill them were now in his face and laughing away at how bad he was at trying to kill people.

As this was going on another sound could be heard coming from the bushes, but this one seemed to have been further back as though someone were approaching them.

When the figure came to view, they had twigs and leaves in their hair and on their clothes, "Haa! Guys, this is where you've been? So you all decided to leave without telling me anything? No note or nothing, after we just had dinner together?"

"What happened to exploring the hotel or whatever that place is Mhm? Oh, I see, you guys wanted to have a guys night and leave me out of this!" The person who had came up and was complaining to the group was Edith.

"Sorry, sorry, we got carried away. But to make it up to you," Cyrus said as he walked up to her and whispered to her ear something.

When Edith heard this, she was a little flustered but she nodded at whatever it was he suggested.

"Vito," Cyrus said, "Let's get out of here. We should let these too get properly acquainted while the two of us have a chat," he smiled.

Vito though confused at what was Cyrus angle remembered that Cyrus did say that he wanted to have a private conversation with him about something, and he figured this was it.

He had already hidden his gun before Edith came so he had no problem walking you towards him and saying, "Sure."

As the two of them were leaving, Vito was paying particular attention to a question he heard Terra ask, "Tell me the truth Edith, how much did you see?"

"Mhm... I saw everything," she replied.

'Damnit.'

Vito and Cyrus began walking down the path towards a stream of clear blue water moving underneath a white and blue bridge over a hundred meters away from us.

They were just taking the path Edith had pointed towards so they never imagined that a place like this existed so close to the hotel. Vito sat down near the stream and let his feet dangle above the water. Cyrus laid back against the trees and fixed up his glasses, wiping them with a handkerchief from the pocket of his shirt.

"So how did you do it? Was I that obvious or did you always suspect me of being evil from the beginning?" Vito asked as he continued to stare into the forest across from the stream, he didn't know what was in there and he didn't care, he just didn't want to look at anything else right now.

Cyrus took a deep breath and sighed, he was looking at Vito's backside. "Not a good idea to leave your back open to the person you just tried to kill," he said. "But I am assuming you don't care about that right now."

"No, it wasn't that obvious, you play a good poker face that most people wouldn't notice. Unless they were me," Cyrus says.

"What? A person who doesn't mind their own business?" Vito retorted.

"No, a detective. Or just someone with a lot of time on their hands going on social media learning how to notice certain body languages so they can believe that they read red signs or understand people or be a psychiatrist. Idiots, it is not that easy." He mostly whispers that last part to himself.

"Anyways, I was conscious of you because of that and the fact that your family and mine have a history. Your dad almost killed my dad. So I was very wary when I saw you walk into that building."

Vito had raised his head and turned to look at Cyrus, the expression he was making was that of one who was dead serious with what he was saying.

"It was 7 years ago, that my dad was investigating a case that had something to do with the involvement of your family, they were covering up something to protect someone who had relations with them."

"Your dad tried to ask mine to drop the case and mine said no, so he was shot in his own house while I was in the living room watching cartoons. I tried to plead for a court case against your dad and it was denied, meanwhile, my dad was comatose and still is to this day."

"I hated your dad, hated your family, and even tried to go after them. I dropped out of school, started learning to become a detective, and went after them. I didn't have a mum, she left my dad after giving birth to me, she said that the job was too dangerous for her to stick around and when she wanted to take me with her, they told me that I held my father's pinky soo tight that they were scared that if they used force to separate us, I would have hurt myself, so she left alone."

"Having lost both my parents so young, you can imagine what that can do to a kid, it leads one to become reckless and make dumb decisions, and in the end, they can destroy themselves if they can't find peace."

Vito listened to every word he said attentively and after hearing that, he asked him, "Do you hate me?"

"I did. All of you. At one point in life, I'm different now. I had a good mentor and a teacher who also was a mother figure to me. My father's ex-girlfriend and a commissioner at my father's workplace."

She loved him and though she didn't marry him, she took it upon herself to take care of me when I had no one else left. And she still visits him in the hospital to this day."

She let me pursue my fantasy of bringing justice to my dad and even pulled me out of missions that were too dangerous and gave me a much-needed reality check when it came to it. She put me back in school and set my life right when all I could see were the wrongdoings of this world that needed justice. My way."

"So no, I don't hate you anymore."

Vito turned around and faced Cyrus, he wanted to look him in the eyes as I said, "After all of that what was the point of telling me? What good would I know to do anyone when I just tried to kill you today?"

"Hope. Hope that you don't destroy yourself like I almost did. I know about your mum," he pauses before he continues, "and her death. It was terrible, to say the least. And meeting you here gave me hope to believe that I could try and keep you from being, a killer. I don't want to have a second generation of bad blood between the two of us, but whether you want that too is up to you." Cyrus answered.

"Why befriend me? From what I hear, it is pretty stupid to do so, my dad almost took away your dad's life, practically did and I almost took away yours tonight. And who's to say I won't do it ever again?"

He stares me straight into my eyes, walks to sit right next to me, and says, "Because I don't see killer within your eyes, and looking back now I assume my dad didn't see killer in your dad's eyes either before he was shot, that's why he didn't shoot first."

"He had a gun you know. I don't know what forced your dad to take those actions but I take it that he had to do it to protect someone he loved, that's why he came alone and did it by himself and I am assuming that something is going on right now that pushed you to try so hard as well."

"No one is born to be evil. The world just forces them to have to choose between options they don't even like. What about what they want? Anyway, I already chose mine and decided not to play that game of a cycle of hatred. And what will you do now? Will you still try and fix your problems by taking the easiest way out that you think you know? or will you try and look for another?"

Vito let out a small smile. "To be honest, I never wanted to have to kill someone in the first place and I still don't want to now, maybe what I thought I was good at, was limiting my abilities to see beyond my upbringing. you might be right Cyrus."

"Did anyone ever tell you that you are one good detective and maybe a psychiatrist?"

He quickly retorts, "No, do not call me that. No."

Vito chuckled and said, "I feel bad about tonight and a lot of things that led me here and I'm not really sure I can simply just say, I'm sorry and make it up to people. The world isn't that kind of a place. "

"But saying sorry might help you out more than you think," Cyrus replied. "Now let's head back and check up on those two."

"Why now?" Vito asked.

"Just come on," Cyrus gestured.

"Sure, but one more question. When did you change my bullets?"

"That? it was easy, it was when you went out to meet with Alex," he says.

"Wait what!? you were waiting outside? but how did you even know what gun I use and how did you have the perfect blanks?" This is serious, I need to know"

With a big fat smile, Cyrus says, "It's the same gun your dad used and I carry it too. Both with blanks and real bullets. I had made a plan with Alex to get you out of your room so I could make the switch."

This shocks Vito that he was that far ahead in thinking. "Wait you told Alex about this?"

On this one, Cyrus pauses for a moment and goes, "I told Alex you had a gun and that you planned on hurting Terra, but he seemed like he already knew this. He is perceptive."

"I'm sorry about your dad, by the way, I-"

Cyrus stops Vito there and says, "Don't be. It wasn't your fault. The mistakes someone else made don't have to be fixed by you, just because you know about them now. So let's go."

'Wow.. just wow. This guy is something, I'm astonished that he wasn't picked as the representative, he is amazing.' Vito thought

As they walked toward the place where they left Edith and Terra, Vito tried to get more information about how Cyrus planned this and what mistakes he made, but Cyrus wasn't telling.

As they reached the scene they were shocked to see Edith was on top of Terra and they were KISSING!?