Regeane's POV

As soon as I walked a good distance away from him, I took out my phone, dialing a certain number as I placed the device on my ear expectantly. The feminine voice on the other line answered, relief lacing their tone. "Sorry if I wasn't able to meet you, I kinda got held up."

"Save the excuses for later Eva, where are you now?" I whispered sternly.

"At the next alley way on your right, take a left turn and I'll be there, along with our party guest."
When she finished, I hung up and once I reached the alleyway specified, I made the turn, walking stiffly as I neared the left corner. After taking the left, I was met with the sight of a blind folded and gagged man tied up with mounds of duct tape, and the person I was calling just moments before. A lithe woman, shorter than me with a thin, red top and black tangtop underneath, wearing black skinny jeans and leather combat boots. To top it off, she had short, fiery orange hair and brown eyes that gleamed with impatience as she tapped her foot rhythmically as she stated. "Took ya long enough."

I greeted her with a raise of an eyebrow. "Excuse you, if my memory serves me well, you told me to meet you at 'The Misty Hex'. If anything, it took you long enough to contact me that you decided to change rendevouz at the last minute."

"Not my fault I got sidetracked. Mister Duct tape here tried to escape, I kinda had to deal with him first." She replied casually, making an indication by kicking the man with her boot a little too hard. "He put me through a whole lot of trouble, hence the reason why I took so long."

I nodded nonchantantly, reasoning. "No need for justifications, what's done is done. Now to focus on our little guest."

She smiled, a little too happily for my taste, and knelt down next to our guest's ear level so he could hear. "Alrighty bub, when I remove this gag, you'll tell us what we want to know, anything otherwise, and I will hurt you. Badly." And with that, she grabbed it and ripped it right off, causing the man to take a large gasp for air and faintly groan in pain, but still left the blind fold covering his eyes.

Unfortunately, the only thing that came out of his mouth was rugged, but very audible. "Fuck you."

My accomplice, shook her head in disappointment, but smiled when she simply raised her fist and brought it down on his face.

"What'd I just say bub, choosing your next choice of words carefully will be the smart thing to do, choose wisely."

After recovering, he spat out a small amount of bloody saliva, replying. "I ain't telling you nothing! You bitches can't do shit to me, you need me alive!"

A cowardly move for someone in his position. Impatiently, I stated bluntly. "A fair point, but the only ones who gets to claim anything is us, and it is certainly not the blindfolded man at our mercy."

He became silent, allowing me to continue. "You are correct, we do need you alive, for you have information we need...but let's be honest, if you waste our time by neglecting to give us what we need, then we'll use our precious time to find someone else, which would then make you a waste of our time. Now my accomplice here is an impatient person by nature, I on the other hand have more tolerance for waiting then she does, but it certainly doesn't mean I can wait forever. For the more time you waste by insulting us, the less I am inclined to wait and insist my partner to not get rid of you. Trust me when I say this, you take away my precious time...I'll take away something precious to you."

I motioned for my orange haired accomplice to hand me a thick, combat knife, holding it close to our victim's throat as I whispered, "First, for insulting me and my friend, I'm going to rip out your larynx so that you will be unable to scream in pain or cry for help when my friend here is done with you. Then I'll slowly cut off every finger, one by one so that you feel every bit of pain. Right after, I'll remove every limb, from the least important to the most important so that you will continue to live as I take everything from you while the only thing you get to keep is pain and suffering, and the ungranted wish to die right then and there. But alas, it doesn't stop there-"

The blindfolded man, trembling and sweating all over now, stammered hastily. "WAIT, I'LL TELL YOU! Just please don't cut anything off!"

I smiled, taking the knife from his skin. "Good choice, I do hate getting myself dirty..."

I knelt near his ear as I finished. "Afterall, you'll be doing yourself and I a favor by telling me, but I suggest you say it quick...my friend's getting antsy."

She flashed me a smirk, pulling out a gun and tugged the trigger as it made a distinguishable clink sound. "And I have one hell of an antsy trigger finger."

He whimpered pitifully, and nodded, giving me the cue to begin. "Now then, earlier this week, a shipment was found at the harbor. It was full of weaponry, grenades, and even explosive chemicals. The men, shipyard workers who haven't done one illegal thing in their lives, found with the shipment were taken into custody, guilty for transporting illegal goods and substances...it wasn't them was it?"

The man fidgeted nervously, but nonetheless, shook his head. "Who framed them?"

"I-it was a group...group of men snuck there three days before, a-and replaced one of the cargo bins with a stash of weaponry. Th-they made sure that it was the same warehouse that would be checked three days after by the s-sanitary and p-property inspector. I was just the guy who played as o-one of the guards taking the surveillance, they paid me to do it!"

I contemplated the information. He told us what and how it happened, but not the reason, thoughts running through as I muttered my thoughts aloud. "Why go through such lengths then, and why condemn innocent men?"

Assuming that it was a question for him, he answered. "Stashing weapons in a place to be found was just a rouse, including finding the people to take the blame. It was a distraction so the IPD don't catch on to what's planned."

"Then tell me, who was responsible for this rouse, the frame, and this plan."

The man, now silent, said nothing as a response, simply trying to look away. I tsked in disappointment, bringing the knife back to his neck once again, pressing it against the skin hard enough to slightly cut open and allow a trickle of blood to escape. "I certainly hope you're hesitating because you need me to repeat the question, for I will repeat this only once...who hired you...who is the one behind this?"

I very audible gulp was heard, sweating uncontrollably as he muttered. "...Rubin...Lazano."

From behind, I heard Eva take in a shacky breath, not needing to look at her to know that she was very much surprised...Though, I did not share her initial shock. Now with the knife safely hanging from the belt notch, instead I pulled out another item. A small vile of a powdery herbal substance, the color of sunset purple, and immediately poured a certain amount of the stuff into my palm. "Since you have cooperated, I will let you live."

A sigh of relief left his lips, but it would be his last. "But I can't just let you go with the knowledge that you were just spared by interrogaters. So what I'm gonna do is give you a little something. Depending on the amount I give you, you will forget any event during the alloted time...so far, you have been here for approximately 15 minutes, so you get a fairly small amount."

Motioning for my partner to come closer, she stepped up and pulled back his neck whilst covering his mouth, hard enough for him to only be able to breath through the nose. Without hesitation, I put my palm right up to his nostrils, forcing him to breath in the the purple powder, all without letting any escape. After a few secons of holding it firmly in place, I then brought my hand back to wipe it with a spare rag I kept with me. I gave her a nod, and with the release of her fingers, she allowed the head to fall from her grasp, and like a chain reaction, the now unconcious man fell to the ground.

Taking him by the arms, Eva dragged him to one of the walls, plopping him down without a care and proceeded to cover him with trash and some unknown items I could not recognize due to the dirt that blanketed the surface. Once finished, she rubbed her hands from the remaining smudges, and with a grim expression, said. "If what he said was true, that means we are dealing with a very wealthy load of shit."

Freezing up, I immediately cut in. "We are not dealing with him. I am. You've already done your part, now I will take care of the rest."

"What!? But he is a dangerous guy Regeane, you can't take care of him yourself, you need-"

I whipped around. "You are right! He is a dangerous man, which is exactly why you can't get too involved! Unlike you Eva, I have experience in doing this, you do not! I will not allow you to-"

"WHAT?! Help you!? Well sorry if I don't have enough experience since I was too busy being left in the dark about this sort of thing! I want to do this! I want to help in any way I-!"

"You. will. NOT!"

At his she became eerily silent, her brown eyes wide. Taking a deep breath, I then explained, this time in a more quieter tone. "Eva, please understand. Getting too deeply involved, though may help the situation, it can also pose to be a great danger. If I did this on my own, I will not have to fear the possiblity of losing anyone in the process...not again."

Her expression became one of solemn, closing her eyes in both frustration and sadness. "You still gave June a chance..."

With that, she turned back to the pathway, walking away as she added "Forget I asked...Sis."

I watched as she got to the sidewalk, sighing as I thought. It's just so you can be safe...

After a few moments of standing in the dank space, I too exited the alleyway, with one focus in mind. I had to find the one responsible, to put a stop to it. And I certainly could not waste time feeling guilty about protecting my only family.