Author's Note:
A continuation of Chapter 2 of the fic 'The Case Opened' by June Ellie.
If you haven't read that, go read it first. Otherwise this would be a spoiler for that fic and wouldn't make much sense XDD
Either way, I read that chapter and got hit by inspiration. Got June's permission to write what happened to Evan afterwards, so well, why not?
Also, June writes lovely TC fics with a lot of warm friendship between the agents, so be sure to check them out ^^
P.S. 'Giorgio's cousin Antonio Bruno' appeared in June's fic. I mistakenly thought that it came from my fic (Time Crisis: Retribution), but apparently not.
We just both gave Giorgio a cousin, and both named him 'Antonio' by pure coincidence! I'm amused X'DD
Anyways, just as clarification, this fic is meant to be related to June's fic and have nothing to do with TC: R. Enjoy! ^^
*Maximum levels of angst, dark thoughts and character death ahoy! I can be a horribly evil author when I want. You have been warned!
【Case Closed】
"What about Evan then? Don't you care about him? How do you think he's going to react when he finds out?" Robert demanded.
"Evan will get over it in time. He has much better friends by his side, and he will forget me soon enough."
That was what Giorgio had said. That was what he had believed, when he made his final decision to choose his family over the VSSE.
When Antonio Bruno, another survivor of the Bruno mafia Family, walked into Giorgio's life and held out a hand for him to return home, Giorgio had hesitated. He thought that the past was in the past, and that he had completely left everything behind in order to devote himself to law and justice. But the lost, crying child in himーthe part that had never healed from that fateful, bloodied night over two decades ago, had risen up to the surface, glad and relieved. And that child had taken Antonio's hand, choosing to rebuild his family's legacy, even if it meant throwing away and destroying the VSSE in the process. In the mafia, the Family and its honor was everything.
Unfortunately for Giorgio, a slip-up had resulted in his plans and operations being discovered by the VSSE agent Christy Ryan. The report made its way to the VSSE and soon, the agents Robert, Luke, Marc, and Keith had gone after him, resulting in an unavoidable shootout that led to his death.
The news reached Evan only when everything had calmed down and when all the reports had been submitted and verified. Only after he had heard the rumors and seen omen-like nightmares. Only after he had shouldered the guards aside to bang at the VSSE Director's door, so that he would be allowed to know what had happened during the top-secret mission.
Contrary to Giorgio's belief, Evan was devastated when he learned about his partner's actions.
Five years after the incident, abandoned warehouse, Rome, Italy 22:17
A crumpled paper in hand, Evan paced briskly into the warehouse, his unkempt hair and rags of a coat billowing lightly in the cold night wind. The faded colours of his clothes showed signs that beneath all the wear and tear, there was once a cheerful, handsome young man. But that was all a long lost memory nowーdead and gone with Giorgio.
His once bright and warm eyes were now cold and dull, showing nothing but hatred and a desire to kill. His figure, once fit and muscular, had become lean and bony from his lack of appetite. Eyes that had cried until they couldn't anymore were dark underneath, reflecting how much he had avoided sleepーavoided having to see Giorgio leave him and die over and over and over again.
Giorgio...
It had not been easy for Evan ever since Giorgio's death. The news was a burning stake driven in through his heart at full force, with no sign of mercy. And Evan had screamed so loud he could've deafened the entire VSSE HQ.
He had then told himself to be strongーtold himself that things would happen that were out of his control. He held on for awhile, but needless to say, he didn't last long. The nuclear bomb that he had forced himself to bottle up only multiplied in strength from the pressure, and he had exploded spectacularly, destroying everything in reach.
First he had blamed the incident on Keith, being the one to pull the trigger on his precious partner. But Keith had left the VSSE after his recovery, so Evan blamed Robert, Luke and Marc, for not stopping Keith. When he was then strapped to a bed with a straitjacket and given high doses of daily medicines for trying to shoot Robert in the VSSE HQ lobby, he couldn't comprehend why. Then he blamed Christy. But oh, he remembered that she was gone, too.
Having no one to avenge Giorgio's death on left him utterly frustrated. Sadness had evolved into a full-blown anger that tore at him from the inside, tightly constricting his body and mind, possessing him and controlling his every action. Soon enough, continuously failing all of the VSSE's health and mental checkups, it was decided that Evan was unfit for missions, resulting in his discharge from his job as a field operative. He had been told to return to his homeland and get a steady, lighter job to take his mind off of things, and then maybe return to the VSSE once he had recovered if he was still interested.
It had sounded like a beautiful idea at first, so Evan had gone home with a little hope. But things had only gone downhill from there, Giorgio never leaving him in his dreams. In fact, Giorgio was there all the time in his mind's eye, whether he was awake or asleep, and Evan almost laughed at the irony. The more he tried to forget and run away, the more the memories haunted him.
He didn't even know that he was this attached to his late partner, considering how they had never gotten along when they had first met. He wondered if it had something to do with how much they had been trained to sync up to increase efficiency during missions. It was like Giorgio was a part of his program nowーa major part of him that he couldn't possibly live without. Whatever he saw and did always felt like it had half of it missing.
As a result, days at work had him always spacing out involuntarily, causing him to fall from jobs to worse jobs until he hit rock bottom. Life pushed him around, shoved him off the edge to the ground, stripped him of everything he had, and then cheated him and took even more.
At night, Evan would lay either in the streets or under a borrowed roof, exhausted but awake, just letting silent tears that hadn't stopped flowing after three years roll into his pillow. Death laid with him every night, caressing his weak frame lovingly with cold bony fingers, trailing sweet kisses up his neck and ear gently, whispering comforting promises that everything would be better on the other side, sometimes in Giorgio's voice. Someone might as well take a photograph of Evan right now and title it 'Misery', because he had become the very image and personification of it.
His days blurred into each other, and he lost track of time, life and himself. The only thing he had that he could hold onto was Giorgio. Everything hurt and he only wished that he had someone to blame, someone whom he could take it all out onーAn evil black sheep whom he could simply shoot down and then all this pain would magically vanish.
How could they have killed Giorgio and gone unpunished?
His desperate brain ran itself through the painful memories again, remembering Giorgio's sincere and kind smile before he left, picturing the shootout in the warehouse, watching Giorgio die, rereading all the emotionless mission reports, watching himself scream and cry and break into pieces in the Director's room, recalling Giorgio disappearing from everyone's thoughts after they had marked the case as closed... And then it hit him.
Antonio Bruno.
If only that accursed demon hadn't walked into Giorgio's life, hadn't seduced him away, hadn't survived at all, then Giorgio would still be alive, and Evan wouldn't be experiencing any of this right now. He and Giorgio would continue being one of the best duos in the VSSE, strong and happy and golden.
A spark of sudden anger and determination that he had long lost burned and rose from the ashes deep within him. For the next two years after the realization, Evan had become somewhat of a mad wolf, hunting down any shred of information on Antonio no matter what it cost.
He found out that after Giorgio's case, with the VSSE hot on his trail, Antonio's plans had quickly fallen apart. He had lost all his men and managed to escape, but was never heard from again. Any possible harm gone, he was removed from the VSSE's list of top priorities, his case left to the general police. Some more persistent information hunting after that had led Evan to Rome, where Antonio was thought to have hidden.
So he had gone there immediately, and when he finally met the man in a rather shady pub in the city, he roared enough to scare everyone out of the building. He would have turned the entire pub upside down with his bare hands if he could have Antonio's head.
But unlike the other suspicious people in the pub, Antonio had neither been scared nor perturbed. He had put down his drink gently, turning to look at Evan with surprisingly, equally soulless eyes.
"Evan Bernard, isn't it? I thought you'd come," Antonio had said with a flat tone, devoid of any signs of life. "I have some business with you as well. Other people need not get involved in this. Meet me at this address tonight and we'll settle this once and for all. Just you and me."
Evan was then handed a piece of paper with a specified time and place written on itーcrumpled, yellowed and torn at the corners, as if Antonio had been carrying it around for years expecting to pass it to him when this day came. Seeing reason in Antonio's argument, Evan had simply snatched the paper roughly out of his hand, turning around and storming out of the pub.
And so here he was now, walking into the warehouse that Antonio had specified, boots crunching the million broken shards under him, crumpled paper in hand. The warehouse was huge. Once a well-lit, well-used location, it was now dark, derelict and broken, very much a mirror of himself. Sure enough, Antonio was there as he had promised when he reached further in.
"Evening, Mr. Bernard," Antonio greeted professionally, "You don't look too well."
"You either," Evan replied, stopping in his tracks and studying the man.
Being a cousin, Antonio was the spitting image of Giorgio, and Evan's blood boiled at how much of a mockery it was. Why couldn't Giorgio be the one standing there instead of him? Anger and hatred burnt again in him, and he had never felt more alive.
Antonio himself didn't look like he had been doing too well, everything from the pain of losing Giorgio, to the regret of his plans failing, to the shame of being forced to live in secret all expressed clearly on his tired face. Evan took a sick pleasure in looking at the man's suffering. Antonio wordlessly reached into his coat and took out something.
"Here," he said, throwing it at Evan, who promptly caught it.
A heavily modified, silver M1911 pistol.
"..." Evan studied it. A wistful look immediately flashed across Evan's face as his fingers curled around the familiar shape, his hand knowing exactly how to hold the grip by reflex. It was exactly the same model as the gun which had assisted him in all of his VSSE missionsーthe gun which the organization had confiscated upon his discharge. Several pleasant memories of his past golden age flitted through his mind.
"Thought you'd want to put in your all tonight, so I did my best and got that for you," Antonio said. "Giorgio told me once that your gun looked like that. I hope I got the right one."
In the meantime, Antonio produced another gun from his coat. A fully black pistol of the same model. Evan's eyes widened, recognizing it immediately.
"This is Giorgio's," Antonio confirmed, removing its safety lock and readying it. "I've managed to recover it and held on to it after his death. If you walk out the winner tonight, it's all yours. I asked people to place ammunitions all over the warehouse that you can pick up, so you don't have to worry about ever running out of ammo."
"..." Evan watched Antonio quietly. Giorgio was an honorable man, so he didn't find it surprising that his cousin was as polite and gentlemanly.
"I appreciate your efforts to set up a fair fight," Evan said, readying his gun as well. Then his glare sharpened. "Everything will be settled tonight."
And with that, they sprung into action.
Evan and Antonio shot at each other relentlessly, neither having lost much of their shooting skills despite the long period of not using them. Adrenaline shoved them awake from all their years of being in a half-dead state, bringing them back to their old selves just for this one fateful moment.
Evan cursed as he took a bullet in the arm, retaliating by placing one in Antonio's shoulder. The shootout went on and the two took more bullets. But being equally skilled and fighting on equal grounds, the scales of victory tipped indecisively to neither side, and neither was willing to give up. The fight carried on, and before they knew it, they had unbelievably used up all the hundreds of ammo that had been provided.
The two laid panting on the ground, exhausted, blood dripping from their bullet wounds. Evan looked to his side at Antonio, who had pulled himself to lean against a wall for support. That was the man who murdered Giorgio right there. Evan had come this far. He refused to stop.
Holding back the unspeakable pain that tore through his body, Evan dragged himself over to Antonio, forcing himself upright and wrapping his hands around the man's neck. With burning hatred, he tightened his grip and squeezed. Antonio choked.
It was then that Evan saw Giorgio's black gun lying nearby, no one holding itーGiorgio's hand never going to wrap around it again. A world where the two of them would stand together and point their guns in the same direction in order to protect world peace was no more. And then the most painful of realizations dawned upon him.
Even if he killed Antonio now, Giorgio was never coming back. Even after Antonio died, he wouldn't feel any better, and would just continue on with his previous life, following his set course of spiraling into empty nothingness. When Giorgio had died that day, he had unwittingly taken Evan's soul along with him.
His grip faltered and loosened. Tears that had long stopped flowing came back into his eyes. Releasing Antonio, Evan fell back against the wall beside him, overwhelmed with flooding emotions.
"Giorgio...!" He sobbed loudly, not even caring how messed up he looked anymore. "Why?! Why did you have to leave?!"
Having been released, Antonio reflexively pulled himself off the wall to distance himself from Evan. Trying to catch his breath, he studied him, alert in case Evan tried to attack him again. But after a good look at the broken man before him, and how much he cared for Giorgio, Antonio was slowly overtaken by pity.
"You..." Antonio started, trying to straighten himself, "I've always hated you... Giorgio spoke often about you and I thought that you didn't deserve such attention from him."
Similarly to Evan, Antonio's eyes began to well up with tears of regret. "But I see now... He means the world to you, as much as you've meant the world to him."
Evan wiped his tears, trying to force out comprehensible words between broken sobs. "What... What do you mean? Robert said that Giorgio didn't even leave me a final message upon his death. I don't even know why I still care about him so much despite that. But I do..."
Antonio watched him quietly, sadness in his eyes as he remembered events of the past. Collecting his thoughts and feelings, he then spoke up.
"Do you even know who caused the slip-up that exposed him to that agentーChristy was it?ーin the first place?" Antonio asked. Evan looked up at him in question. Antonio sighed, answering solemnly.
"Well, I'm looking at him right nowーThe man who never left Giorgio's mind, the man who repeatedly held his hand back whenever he was doing our missions, who distracted him enough to trigger a slip-up that would eventually cost him his life. Thoughts of you had never failed to prevent him from pulling the trigger against the VSSE," he said. "I've hated you for that ever since. Figured that if I waited long enough, you'd come looking for me yourself, and I'd finally have my chance to avenge Giorgio's death."
Evan's glassy eyes widened at the new discovery, tears welling up anew. He laughed an empty, broken laugh.
"All this time..." Evan cried, "All this time I've pointed fingers and hunted everywhere for the real culprit, only to find out that I myself was the one behind it. It's... It's not even funny! Iー I can'tー..."
That was it. Evan couldn't hold it anymore. All the dams that he had painstakingly set up over the years shattered in one single moment, his tears and emotions breaking loose like a great flood.
He cried and cried like anyone who had lost a loved one would. Antonio looked away, taking in a deep breath and pulling himself together before looking back to Evan, putting a supportive hand on his shoulder.
"No," he said, "No, Mr. Bernard. The more I think about it, the more I think that you can't blame anyone for this. Giorgio fought to protect everything that mattered to him. It's just a cruel twist of fate that all the pieces were lying in the wrong place at the wrong time. It's not your fault. And not anyone's."
"..."
Evan quietened a little. Antonio waited for him to calm down. The desire for revenge having completely left the both of them, they sat side by sideーjust two ordinary men with their own separate lives. Evan took in a deep breath, wiping away his tears to clear his vision.
"So... What now?" Evan asked, as if Antonio could provide him with a life-changing answer.
"Well..." Antonio replied, "I've asked a few friends of mine to clear this place up after we're done. They'll probably arrive soon, so I can ask them to bring us to the hospital. You can go back to your daily life after that."
"..." Evan contemplated his words. "Thanks, but..."
He sighed, leaning back and looking up to the ceiling. "I'm afraid I have nowhere to go after this."
"...Things can change in future. If you want, you can come and live with me until you feel better. No one will find us there," Antonio offered.
"Yeah... Maybe..." Evan said emptily. A look into his eyes and Antonio knew that Evan had tipped over and fallen well past the point of no return. He stopped asking, afraid for him and afraid for where the conversation might lead. But then Evan broke the silence.
"Hey, Anton, have a spare bullet for a man in need?" He asked, lifting his silver gun lazily and popping out its empty magazine. He pressed the gun's muzzle lightly under his chin, as if testing to see if he could find a good position. Antonio knew immediately what he was up to.
"...You sure about this?" He asked morbidly.
"Yeah." Evan's reply was short and without hesitation.
"..." Antonio looked at him for a moment. He knew that Evan's mind was made up, and that no one could pull him back now. Thinking that helping him was the least he could do, he sighed and decided to let go. Reluctantly, he reached into his coat pocket.
"Well, we did use up all the bullets, so I don't have any left on me. But there's a less messy and less scary way," he said. He took Evan's hand and placed a red pill in it.
"That's Giorgio's, too," he said. "He told me that you agents carry this around for emergency in case you get caught. You know what it is."
"Oh, little C! How convenient. Thanks," Evan said, glad that it should be over within seconds. He never thought the day would come when he'd actually feel thankful for the pill's presence.
"How about you? What are you going to do?" He asked Antonio.
"Giorgio told me to live on," Antonio replied, "I've promised him that, and I won't go back on my word. So... I guess I have no choice but to hang around and bear with all this suffering... Until my time comes, anyway."
"Giorgio has a loyal cousin," Evan remarked.
"And a caring partner," Antonio smiled back, "You've shown me your strong, unbreakable bond with Giorgio tonight and I'm touched. We might have started out on the wrong foot, but now, I don't mind seeing you as a brother."
"If you want, I can pull some strings and get them to bury you next to GiorgioーThat's probably what he'd want as well. Say hi to him for me if you see him on the other side," Antonio further said.
For the first time in so long, Evan smiled a real smile. He thanked Antonio and said his goodbyes, before closing his eyes and pressing the pill he held onto his lips. As he laid there, his face was free and blissful.
And finally, the case was closed.
【END】