This is another story that had been forming in my head for quite a while. I decided to take a break from The Young Soldier's Mask and work on something a bit easier. As the title states, this is my "What If" scenario of how Killzone 2 would've ended if Rico hadn't killed Visari. Of course, it will have all the familiar characters in it (Sev, Rico, Narville, etc.) and maybe some original ones as well. Also, I slightly altered the part where Garza dies to where his death wasn't Rico's fault, so that maybe you can be a little more sympathetic to Rico. Anyway, read the story, tell me what you like and what you think I should work on. Enjoy!

Staff Sgt. Rico Velasquez

We did it. We finally put him down. My partner Sev and I loomed over the corpse of Colonel Radec, the sadistic, heartless bastard who massacred thousands of brave men and women of the ISA Army. Over the past four years, those murderous, red-eyed animals, the Helghast, had stolen far more from me than I could've ever imagined: my first platoon of men back on Vekta; Garza and Natko, two of my best soldiers; and Jan Templar, the greatest war hero who our planet would ever know…and the only officer I could ever trust. Now, in just a few minutes' time, all their deaths will be avenged. The man responsible left with his disgusting mutant organs hanging from his blood-stained, bullet-riddled corpse on the floor. Scolar Visari, the Helghast' so-called "emperor", will be mine.

After I spat on Radec's rotting corpse and quickly reloaded my LMG, Sev and I raced down the final hallway to Visari's throne.

"Killin' that son-of-a-bitch for Jan was a good start." I snarled.

"Now where's Visari? I wanna break that motherfucker's face myself. Time to finish this thing now."

As we neared the Emperor's hall, we came across a whole pile of dead Helghast troops just beyond the entrance.

"Looks like they killed themselves", I assumed. "Classy. Saves me the effort…or maybe that sick fuck Radec killed them for practice. Either way, they got what they deserved."

I didn't care how they died; to me, a dead Hig is a dead Hig, and Visari will just be one last dead Hig to add to the bodycount.

I quickly turned to Sev and called him. "Come on. Let's go collect their boss."

We reached the end of the hall and entered Visari's enormous throne chamber. The entire room was a giant, empty cavern with little inside it except two gigantic Helghan triads on the floor and the ceiling, a large mural of a Hig soldier standing behind a group of "patriots", and two flights of stairs on either side leading up to a small executive desk on the far side of the room. The man himself was standing with his back turned, staring out through his windows at his ravaged, desolate wasteland of a city. There were no soldiers, no bodyguards, no one left to fight who we hadn't killed already. It was just me, Sev, and Visari, and I swear to God, one of us wouldn't be leaving this palace alive.

Sev raised his assault rifle at Visari and started to carry out the ISA's pointless "arresting protocols".

"Scolar Visari!"

He paused for the man's attention.

"Scolar Visari, I'm placing you under arrest under Article 27 of the-"

"And who are you, soldier?" The Emperor spoke in a harsh, guttural voice that was full of the same narcissistic Helghan hubris that drove his soldiers to kill us.

"Sevchenko. Sergeant 1st class."

"A sergeant? They send a sergeant to take Visari? Are your leaders all really so…afraid?" He slowly walked down the left flight of stairs and stopped in front of us.

"War's over, Visari," Sev spat back. "You lost!"

"Really, sergeant? And who won? The cowards who commanded you and your comrades to come here and die? The Helghast have lost nothing! We fight for who we are! We wear our wounds like badges of honor! Helghan is ours, and we will die before we let it fall to plunderers."

Typical fascist pig. The old bastard is either delusional or a big fuckin' narcissist. Visari knows that his army's failed him, he knows that he's lost, he knows that the ISA are on the verge of winning this war, and even then, he still looks down on us Vektans as "inferior beings ripe for destruction."

"That is why" Visari continued, "Your leaders dare not make a martyr of me. Your fleet burned…your friends butchered…and you become a hero for saving my life? Does that sound like a victory to you, Sgt. Sevchenko?" He stepped in front of the large mural I mentioned earlier.

"Son-of-a-bitch.", I angrily muttered. Every word—every single repulsive, self-serving word that came out of this motherfucker's mouth made my blood boil furiously. I just had to kill this man. No, I needed to kill him! I will never be able to rest until this coward's blood spills all over the floor! I tightened my grip on my machine gun, preparing myself to slaughter Visari.

Sev spoke once again, "Good men have died. People have died—on your side, as well as ours! I'll see you rot in a cell for it! You'll pay for what you've done!"

"For what!?" Visari roared, "For giving my people pride!? Purpose!?" He turned towards the mural and raised his arms in front of it. "We've built this great nation from nothing!" He lowered his arms and faced us once again. "Take me, and Helghan will dissolve into chaos! The ISA war machine…"

At that point I wasn't even listening to the bastard anymore. I couldn't stand another word of his little "speech" without completely losing my shit. He turned and walked toward Sev and I again before getting close into Sev's face.

"YOU HAVE NOT WON! Visari barked. YOU WILL NE-"

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!"

*TWACK* I slammed my right fist into Visari's jaw, knocking him onto the floor. I screamed, "How dare you spout that self-righteous, egotistical bullshit in my face!" I stomped towards Visari and planted my foot on his neck. I stared into his cold green eyes, arrogant and defiant as ever. "You send thousands of soldiers to do die doin' your dirty work—you launch a fuckin' NUKE against you own city and you're callin' us the fuckin' cowards!? This is where it ends! I've seen too many good men die in this war to let you crawl away alive!"

"Then finish it, soldier." He wheezed. "Kill me. Take your revenge."

"As you wish, 'my lord'."

Finally. This is it. The one moment I've dreamed about since we'd landed on this Godforsaken planet. I pointed my LMG at Visari's wrinkled face, my finger craving to pull the trigger. Just one shot and the Emperor's brains would be splattered all over the floor. Templar. Garza. Natko. All their deaths would be avenged. Nothing was gonna ruin this moment. Just. One. Shot.

"STAND DOWN, RICO!"

I quickly turned around and, to my horror, found Sev pointing his assault rifle right at me!

"Sev! "What the Hell are you—"

"STAND! DOWN! "Do not kill Visari! Our orders are to take him alive! You know that!"

"Fuck our orders! You think I'm gonna let this worm walk away while he's still breathin'!? After all the shit he's put us through!? All the men and women he's put under!? Besides, you wanna see him die just as much as I do!"

Sev retorted, "Yes, I wanna see him die too, Rico. But not here! Not like this! There are more people in this war than you and me! Right now, there's thousands of brave ISA soldiers who lost something precious to them on four years ago on Vekta! That sick fuck Visari is a war criminal that's responsible for the slaughter of over 40,000 civilians! Men, women, and children are fucking dead because of this him! All of the Vektans who died in this war died so we could have a chance to avenge what Visari did to our planet! That's why we need to arrest him, Rico- so that he'll be forced to answer for his crimes in front of the ISA court! And then, once his trial's over, then we execute him, so that all the people who survived the Invasion can have the justice they want! If you kill him now, Rico, you'll take that justice away from them! From all of us! Would you seriously want to do that?"

Dammit. Sev had a good point. If I fry Visari here, I'd completely undermine everything our soldiers fought and died for. I would be known as the one asshole that not only failed to follow his orders, but completely fucked up our entire operation, and caused many more good men to pay the price with their lives. On top of it all, the ISA High Command would become so infuriated at my failure that they'd certainly court-martial me for assassinating an unarmed prisoner and have me executed. Reluctantly, I lowered my LMG, lifted my boot off of Visari's chest, and jerked him off of the floor by his uniform.

I slowly walked towards Sev on my right and snarled "The only reason I'm lettin' that bastard live is because you told me to, so do whatever the fuck you want with him. I'll meet you outside." Orders or not, I was still pissed off over the fact that that pompous coward Visari is still alive, but at least he'll get his due punishment when we haul him back home. I stopped at the huge, gaping exit on the south side of Visari's chamber and waited for Sev to arrest his ass so we could finally wrap this war up and go home. As I stood outside the chamber, I took a long look at the large battalion of ISA grunts stationed downstairs. Like me, all of them were waiting eagerly to bring the "Emperor" to justice for what he did to us. I quickly replayed one of Visari's boasts during his little "speech" to us: "Your fleet burned…your friends butchered…and you become a hero for saving my life!?" Strangely, I began to feel a small smirk cracking on the left side of my face. Visari was right about one thing: by saving his life…I did become a hero.

Rico Velasquez
November 2359
Pyrrhus Remains, Helghan

All right! That's the end of Rico's side of the KZ2 Alternate ending! Please, comment and review this story and tell me its strong points and what I need to make stronger. Personally, I thought that the ending may have been the weakest part of it (writer's block), but nevertheless, all constructive criticism is allowed.
WARNING: FLAME COMMENTS AND TROLLING WILL NOT BE TOLARATED!