I sigh, kicking the man into the grave. "Damn Pledge, you ask a lot of questions. They're for when we get bored- I mean killed. This ones Ro's, then mine, then Kurai but I think I might have to change up the order." I add, putting my hand to my chin in thought. "I guess, you're gonna need one too."

–_–_–_–_–_–_–

Phase Six: Life

Though it was dark I could tell she was staring at me, waiting for me to say Oh, I'm just kidding. It's not going to happen though. "D, you're sick aren't you?"

"No sicker than necessary." I answer. There's another pause. "What you don't wanna be buried next to us for all eternity? I can dig your sister one too if you wa-" Elise forces her eyes shut and cocks her hand, before lingering it forward. I hear a smack. Then the pain starts to set in, in a sharp sting.

She open an eye and looks worried, scared for her life maybe. "Damian, I'm so sorry. Why didn't you make me Phase through you?"

I rub the left side of my face. Ow... "I don't know. I kind of felt like I deserved it." I answer with a shrug. "You don't seem like the type of person to randomly slap the shit out of people."

"I just don't want to think about my sister dying. That's why I came here."

"That's fair, but next time I might not be so willing to take the hit. Get it?" She meekly nods and I pat her on the shoulder. "Good. Now lets head back inside. If this guy's still here in the morning I'll take care of him." Knowing what I mean, Elise just turn and walks back into the house. I follow after kicking a bit of dirt onto the guy.

I didn't notice it until I was back inside but it's a bit cold outside. It made me more grateful for this rundown house. A bit of a draft but still warmer that the street. As Elise heads back upstairs I plop myself back down on the couch this time taking a knife from the drawer. Before trying to sleep I let my mind wander. If not for my friends I would've died tonight, though I guess a lot of our nights go like this. Back when I first got out of Division I never thought about words like friend or our, it was always me and my. It was three years before I met Zero. But that was it. It was always just me and him, battling Division until I got hit or Z lost too much blood. Then we became better than that, I got better at Phasing so some guy with a knife couldn't just impale me and Zero got better with close combat so he wouldn't need to bleed out all the time. My older brother and I decided if we couldn't tear Division down we'd be the reason for their small headaches at least.

And because of that we found Kurai. After the initial awkwardness of her cowering in fear of us she really boosted the general moral of our group. I stop fantasizing about Phasing myself into hell. Zero was pointlessly cutting into himself less still leaving only the NO had carved into himself weeks prior. And the one I'm most grateful for is Kurai being able to sleep without crying about her family. I guess staying up with her is what earned me my nickname.

But now there's Elise. I don't know if I agreed to help to make someone at Divisions day harder, for Elise herself or because I undisputably owe her sister. With that thought on my mind I fall asleep to undoubtedly have some nightmare full of self-discovery.

–_–_–_–_–_–_–

"Though I don't take children, a few of my superior's and colleagues think otherwise." Carver claims, looking to Viktor. "That is why you're here- toserveDivisionandlivealifehigherthananexperiment-" The memory fast forwards as if skipping to the best scene of a movie. "Youdoyourjob,yousurvive.- I have some the best Watchers in the world monitoring each of your actions. If you think you can outrun the future, perhaps you lack the intelligence this program requires." It was the first time I was face to face with him. The man who as far as I was concerned ran Division. I was still young then. Nowhere near ready to fight. The day of my enrollment into the agency. He was the reason I was there in Division, and to be even more specific the reason I was in there little training course.

I live to kill him.

–_–_–_–_–_–_–

Upon waking up, I shiver. I instantly grab the knife I went to sleep with and turn to the window. Elise is stood there looking outside towards the back yard. "What still considering the grave?" I ask.

She jumps at the sound of my voice. "Good morning." She says with a sigh. I nod to her and she turns to look back out the window. "Your friend from last night is gone."

"Good, I wonder if he'll tell anybody what he saw..." I wonder to myself I look around the room finding it empty. "Zero and Kurai?"

"Kurai said she had to meet a friend near that Amity place and Zero wants you to meet him outside." She looks at me as if trying to guess what it was about. I myself don't even know. What's weirder Kurai having a friend that isn't me or Zero initiating a conversation? I joke to myself. Elise coughs and I notice she's looking a bit pale. Luckily not nearly as pale as when I first met her but enough to be a concern. I look around the room spotting a bit of rotting wood. The house isn't exactly prime real estate and heating is an issue. It's probably a cold.

Walking to the kitchen I grab two oranges. Tossing one to Elise. "When Kurai gets back we're going to find you some more clothes and shit. Otherwise you're gonna freeze when it really starts getting cold." She nods at the plan and I walk out the front door juggling my orange. The door closes behind me and I look to my right as the smell of a burning cigarette floats into my nose. "Sup?"

"Why're you back?" Zero asks.

"Oh, don't act like you weren't gonna miss me."

"I'm not fuckin' around, D." He refuses to look up at me, instead staring at his slowly burning cigarette. "You went to that shop to get Wiped of everything. You had no intention of staying here anymore." There's a momentary silence around the house, excluding the sounds of nearby streets.

I sigh and begin peeling my orange. The as the skin falls into a hole in the dark wooden porch I compose an answer. "Well after meeting Elise and hearing about her sister then meeting my own, I realized my past isn't going away that easily." I say, holding back a roll of my eyes. "Besides, you know Kurai would've brought my amnesiac ass back here anyway. That's probably why she came."

"You're sister? I thought you said she was long gone?"

"Yeah, I /thought/ she was. Turns out she works as a Stitch in Amity. And because of that the shop owner, Parity, tore me apart." I add.

"So you got your ass beat?" I could hear the smirk in his voice.

I bite in to my orange, stopping myself from sucking my teeth. "Hey, he's a Bleeder. I don't know how, but he slashed me with his voice instead of popping my head. Said it took practice."

"So you can't even Phase through a bullet, but this guy can choose how he kills you? Sounds like you got bitched."

"Yeah, I'll remember that next time you pass out from blood loss." I joke. He growls but stops seeing Kurai in the distance. She waves to us and I shout to her. "Yo, Ninja girl. Who were you talking to?"

"Nobody," She swiftly answers. "So what happen with the guy from last night?" Kurai asks, switching her eyes between Zero and myself.

I ignore her obvious evasion of my first question and answer hers. "Dunno, Elise said he was gone." A look of worry washes over her face and though small it was still clearly something. "Why?"

"It's just… didn't his pupils look a bit wide to you guys?" She asks, making a circle with her hand. "While I was out, I heard a rumor that one of Pretty Sam's regulars came buy a couple times while we were at the shop."

"That's bullshit. Why would Sam send a guy for drugs he knows we don't have? The deal was we leave Sam to his jobs, Sam leaves us to our jobs." I ask.

"Guess, he's gonna use that guy as an excuse." Zero answers coming off as a bit pissed. Shit! I curse to myself. Pretty Sam and Knightmare had a deal to stay out of each other's way. Now that we've attacked one of his usuals he's gonna make us look like we can't be trusted. If he tells the story we won't be able to ask anyone for help. And if he's serious about this war we're gonna need all the help we can get. Now we have to survive Division, the police and Pretty Sam and his Anybodies. "I knew we should've killed him. D?"

"Yeah." I swiftly answer with a nod. He passes both Kurai and I and walks into the house.

Kurai appears even more worried as she see's the look of anger on Zero's face. "Mr. Knight, what're we doing?"

"Me and Ro are gonna go talk to Sam and if that doesn't work will have to talk harder. We have to see him before he can start finding new Anybodies." There's a chance he already has, which means anyone could be out for our blood. I realize, looking at the people down the street. Any of them could've been Pushed into killing us. "Kurai, make sure you stay with Elise. Sam won't be after her unless he knows she's with us, but Division could show up at anytime." She nods and heads into the house just as Zero comes out. He puts his sheathed knife into the pocket of his baggy jeans and looks at me. "We're not going to fight him we just need to talk."

Zero tries to hand me two of my guns. "And what happened when you went to just talk with Bulletz? May he rest in peace." He adds with a dark laugh.

I look down at the weapons on of with having Bulletz engraved on the barrel. Not that he'll ever be using it again. "Yeah… Alright." I answer taking the guns. "But to be fair when you call yourself Bulletz you kinda deserve to die." I add stepping of the porch and onto the lawn.

"No shit." Zero says jumping the railing. And landing beside me. Though we are joking we're both guessing how this meeting is going to go. Too bad, I kinda respected Pretty Sam. I look up to a passing truck with Knightmare spray painted on the side. I didn't even wanna be the new crime lord.


Get ready to meet the local kingpin... Pretty Sam (the best mafia-style name I could come up with without being super cliche)!