Disclaimer: As always, I do not own Fire Emblem.
Enjoy!
A Game of Roulette
Troublesome.
She was tireless, sleepless, restless and most of all, troubled.
All she could do was stare up in the darkness that was of her bedroom. Taking a glimpse at the digital clock next to her, she saw it was a little past one. This time was supposed to be used for sleeping, but instead she laid with her thoughts boggling round her head.
It was finally the day to make her decision of whether she chose to leave Joshua alive or dead.
The past six days had had its ups and downs. Many of which consist of Joshua leaving her to attend business meetings and interviews. With nothing to do she had to fend for herself with mindless television. But his long periodic absence was made up by coming home and enticing her into long hour conversation about everything from the ranting of his daily activities to random topics irrelevant to their lives.
They had once engaged themselves in a three hour long discussions on whether the behavior of outer space life was hostile or friendly with Marisa taking the side of hostility and Joshua taking the side of friendliness.
After a rather heated argument, they've both come to terms that outer space life were both capable of being approachable and destructive.
Thinking back, she thought how such a topic of conversation came to be, same goes for the other various ridiculous conversations they had.
It was silly yet fun and engaging.
They did not only just talk; Joshua continued his lessons in cooking. After having to make the alarm detector go off many times, she knew how to bake chocolate chip cookies, prepare toast and eggs, make spaghetti and how to properly cook chicken.
She couldn't have asked for more, but Joshua took a further step and taught her how to do the laundry. She never knew the importance of separating whites from colors, or how to properly wash certain fabricated clothes.
Even though she only knew the basics of it, she felt she was well on her way to become…
A woman?
Perhaps.
There was one thing they chose to stir away from talking about: their past.
Though she knew bits and pieces of it from previous discussions, she never fully knew too well in detail of what led him to his troubled teenage years to his disappearance early on and to where he stand right now.
She wanted to know, especially on the detail of him having previous assassins target him and what he did with them, but she could never fully bring up. She had tried, thrice, to subtly bring the topic in her conversation, but Joshua always found a way to avoid it.
He was hiding something that was for sure.
In turn, she never fully discussed her past with him.
Turning to lay on her side, she let out a sigh. In less than twelve hours it was decision time.
She probably would have come a decisive path if it hadn't been for a thump that sounded in the midst of the night.
A thump in the middle of the night. Marisa immediately sat up in bed. It was an odd thump; it was recognizable, yet indistinguishable.
Recognizable in that it sounded like the window to the room below her's. Indistinguishable in that the window should not be sounding like it had.
What was more was that it was the middle of the night, and unless Joshua was feeling hot in his sleep, why open a window whose room is below yours?
This was something she would have to investigate.
She threw on a sweater to cover the tank-top she wore to bed, and took in her hands a meter long metal rod, something she kept by her bed for protection.
Quietly, she made her way out the room. She took not too long to let her eyes adjust to the darkness with the help of street lamps shining through uncovered windows.
Passing by Joshua's room next to her's, she took note that it was closed, a sign that he was sleeping or was to be undisturbed. She took small quiet steps to the stairs.
She stopped at top of the stairs when she heard a series of shuffling from the downstairs area. She listened to hear any more, but it was quiet.
She lowered the rod down. Maybe it's just the house creaking. Or it's haunted.
Turning, she bumped into something soft yet firm, enough to let out a gasp and raise the rod up in defense.
"Marisa!" Was what she thought sounded out to be Joshua's voice in a whisper.
"Joshua?" Marisa replied trying to make out his silhouette.
"Was that you making those sounds?" Joshua asked, eyeing the rod in her hands.
"No. I heard it too." She responded as she lowered the rod down to her hips.
"What do you think it is?"
"Don't know. Maybe something got knocked over."
"Or it's a burglar. Or a ghost. Or maybe a serial killer!" Joshua said in an eerily voice.
Marisa rolled her eyes. "Maybe. We'll never know if don't check it out."
Joshua took the lead and carefully maneuvered his way to the source of the sound in darkness. Marisa followed closely behind him, her metal rod at bay.
They reached the room with no suspicious acts so far in the journey, except for the door in the room being ¼ open.
"Wait." Marisa whispered as she stood on the opposite side from with the rod raised.
"C'mon." Joshua scoffed. "It's probably nothing."
He swung the door open and turned on the lights. Marisa followed right after him, ready to bring her rod down at whoever (or whatever) was in the room.
Except, there was nothing. The window was closed shut, none of the boxed laid in the room seemed to be disarrange. Nothing out of the norm.
"Huh. It was nothing." Joshua softly grunted as walked to the middle of the room and inspected it with his eyes.
"What made that sound though?"
The deployment of the question couldn't have been any better as Marisa was abruptly up from the ground by a pair of arms wrapped tightly around her neck.
Nearly tippy-toeing the floor and breathless, Marisa remembered the metallic rod in her hand and took half a second to bring it up to where she would guess the head of her assailant would be.
With a groan to indicate her successful target, she was brought down on the flats of her bare feet, gasping for air.
"Come on!" She heard Joshua shout as she was taken by the arm and dragged out of the room, not before taking a look at her assailant on the floor.
His face was in twisted in agony from the mark she had made plain sight on his forehead. Being bald, Marisa could see that bruise had extended a little further back on his forehead. Other than that, he was a well-built man; structurally tall and wide, with a skin tight black tank to show off his rippling muscles. Seeing the arms that were wrapped around her slender neck, Marisa took a gulp to consider she was lucky to still be breathing and not crushed and disfigured to what those arm were capable of.
"Don't worry; I've been in situations like this." Joshua said as he led Marisa through the hallway leading to the entrance lobby of the house.
"I keep the weapons upstairs. When we get there, I'll—"
He was cut off mid-sentence from the sight of two more intruders standing between them and the stairs.
Although they were much scrawnier than the previous assailant, they both held two armed pistols directed at them. They both wore the similar outfit as the other intruder, as for personal attributes, one had a distinctive tattooed cross below his right eye and the other wore a black beanie, his chestnut hair just peeking out below. They couldn't look over the age of thirty.
"Drop any weapons you have and get on the floor." The one with the tattoo instructed.
Joshua shot a look at Marisa, seeing that she was the only one that carried a weapon. She made no hesitation to drop it to the floor, causing a loud clang. Almost in sync, they both raised their hands and slowly made their way to the floor.
"Well, I've never been this kind of situation before." Joshua said under his breath.
"Why don't you just save us the trouble and tell us where the files are?"
"Nah, I like having you guys go through trouble." Joshua retaliated with a grin.
"You forget I'm the one holding the gun." The man waved the gun inches away from Joshua's face to raise fear in his eyes. But Joshua did not react or so much as flinch at the man's threat.
Seeing the opposite reaction he wanted, the man turned the gun toward Marisa.
There was a twitch at the corner of Joshua's lips as he followed the direction of the gun at Marisa.
Marisa, on the other hand though, simply rolled her eyes.
The same regime had gone on for quite some time. With Joshua and Marisa both tied to chairs, the man with the cross tattoo under his eye (which was found out earlier named Jax) tried to maintain control over the two by waving his gun around their faces.
Joshua seemed to be unaffected by the protocol, only spinning circles around Jax and nip-picking at him.
In a situation like this, the one with the gun pointed at them would want to follow the assailant's orders, but it had been apparent that Jax didn't plan on killing Joshua any time soon lest he told him where these 'specific files' hid. Berg, the largely-build man who Marisa had taken a wack at earlier, was rummaging through the office desk looking for said files in front of them, while the other man, was elsewhere rummaging through wherever room in house.
This put Marisa at a disadvantage. Jax took the opportunity for Marisa to act as the damsel in distress, aiming the gun at her and threatening to blow her brains whenever Joshua chose to not participate. This, then would force Joshua to hint the whereabouts of the files they seek.
The thought at being shot and killed on spot didn't worry Marisa as she knew it wouldn't happen as long as Joshua followed their orders, but playing the role of being the one 'weakness' and disadvantage at Joshua's expenses annoyed her.
The only thing that was keeping Joshua alive was, well, him as he was the source for the hidden files. And the only thing that stood in the way of him telling the assailants the location of files was her.
If they found the files, surely they would kill them both.
Marisa could see Joshua was trying to stall time. Although the destination of the time to be stalled was uncertain, she managed to found a loose thread in the rope tied around her wrists and have been picking at it with her fingers in hopes of loosening it.
She tried to make it inconspicuous and chose to not say a word through this ordeal. From what she observed and gathered so far, it was apparent that the three men were looking for files labelled 'voting forms.' As much confusion there was on Marisa's part, Joshua was equal in the likes, asking why the files were needed.
"Of all the days to call in a hooker." Jax commented as he eyed Marisa.
"She's not a hooker." Joshua defended.
After giving Joshua a rather dubious look, he turned his attention to Marisa, the gun still aimed towards her and his finger held steady on the trigger.
"Then what's your business being here?" Jax questioned.
"That's none of your business." Joshua responded.
"I asked her, not you." Jax hissed. Before continuing, he pulled out a pack of convenient store brought cigarettes. He took one to his lips and lit it up.
"You're quite the talk over at the place."
"Oh really." Joshua replied uninterestingly.
"Yeah. You've killed a handful of our guys already." He paused to blow a puff of smoke out. "'Course, that stops today. But I wonder, how do you do it?"
"You have me mistaken; I've never killed anyone."
"Liar!" Jax roared, startling both Joshua and Marisa, as well as Berg, who paused in the rummaging to look up at his partner.
Running a hand through his spiked raven black hair, he glared at Joshua. "Remember a Randy Spelburg?" He asked gravely.
Joshua took a moment to try to remember. "Should I?"
"You should very well. He was my best friend, killed two years ago. By you."
"I told you, I didn't—"
"Ah, I see. He was just another one of your torture victims."
"Tortur- What are you talking about?"
"Stop playing dumb. I know, everyone knows what you've done to them, you sick bastard." This left Joshua speechless, leaving Jax to continue.
"You put on this what, cool, professional demeanor for the public, and then on your spare time you go and beat people to bloody pulps. Oh, if people only knew the real you."
"Whatever they're telling you, whoever they are, it's not true."
"Shut the hell up." Jax came up to Joshua and brought the gun across Joshua's face, twisting his head to the side from the impact.
Marisa winced silently at the hard thud made from impact of the gun on Joshua's cheek.
"I didn't mind when Tal didn't come back, or Elic. But Randy… He was supposed to meet up with me that night." Jax leaned over to pull Joshua's head up by grabbing a clumpful of his hair. He then brought the gun across his face once more resulting in a groan escaping from Joshua's lips.
Marisa worked fast at loosening the rope. She could only imagine the pain Joshua must be in. The sound of it even hurted her.
"He was a pro, I'll admit. A King who's been spoiled his whole life wasn't going to be problem for him even if it had been for the others. But he never showed. The autopsy showed he was beaten in every possible way. And by who?" Jax crouched down to meet Joshua at an eye level. But with Joshua's head turned to the side, still in pain from the last assault, Jax brought his head to face him with the side of the gun rested on his cheek.
Sitting beside Joshua, Marisa could see the marks on the side of his face made from the gun. The first mark was bring pink while the second was red stretching from the hallow of his cheek to the corner of his lips, causing it to swell up and draw blood.
"If you're going to kill me, just do it now. I'll tell you where the files are." Joshua said, his voice masking the pain he was in.
Marisa immediately snapped her head towards him. Was he going to give up so quickly?
"Just let her go." He nodded his heads towards her in acknowledgement.
She started shaking her head. "No." She said faintly which went unheard as Jax broke out into laughter. He took one last puff of the cigarette before flicking it to the floor near Marisa. He walked over to put it out with a stomp from his boots.
"Is she of some importance to you then? She must be if you want me to let her go. So... What say we call ourselves even?"
Marisa was unsure of where he was going with this, but telling from him menacingly approaching her, it wasn't good.
"You tortured and killed my best friend, so I'm going to do the same to her. And you're going to watch."
A tingle went up Marisa's spine as she watched him take out a combat knife from his assorted belt. Her fingers worked fast at the rope. She wasn't sure how far she had progressed, but telling from the thin the thread had become, she was literally inches away from freedom.
Before making his way to her, Jax twirled Joshua's chair around to fully face her. He headed over to Marisa and cupped her face harshly into his hands.
"I'm going to make sure you burn this into your brain when you're in hell."
With the knife inching towards her, Marisa worked friskily at the rope, jerking her arms around as she carefully eyed the knife. She stole one glance at Joshua in her peripheral vision; he was injured, that was apparent, but his face was welled up in not pain but almost sadness.
Before turning her eyes back to the knife, she saw him mouth the words "I'm sorry."
No! I just need a few more seconds…
The knife made contact with her cheek; she could feel the cold object press hard against her skin, ripping it open. At that point she had given up and closed her eyes for her doomed fate.
"Hey Jax…" Berg said suddenly. "You have to take a look at this."
The knife suddenly lifted from her face. "What? What is so important that I have to stop what I'm doing?" Jax yelled.
Her plead had been answered and Marisa took the advantage while Jax faced the other way.
"That woman... She's as assassin."
As on cue, Marisa pulled her arms up hard, in hope that the rope would tear away at one pull. Luckily it did. In the split second for Jax to face her again, she pulled the gun out from his belt then punched his arm at the elbow, sending the knife to fly across the room.
She pulled Jax into her arm, her arm tied tightly around his neck then pulled the gun in Berg's direction seeing that he had reached around for something. With no hesitation she pulled the trigger on him, twice, before turning it to Jax's head.
In the loud range of the two shots fired, she thought she heard someone, presumably Joshua for she did not feel Jax's throat vibrate, yell "don't kill him."
She made her eyes to Joshua to look for some assurance that it was indeed him who shouted.
"Don't kill him." Joshua said as he shook his head.
So it was him.
"Hey guys, I heard two shots. Wh—" The third man, who was unidentified to Marisa, entered the room. Seeing Jax held hostage, he raised his gun at them.
"Drop it or I kill him." Marisa ordered. She cocked the gun to show she wasn't playing around.
After a couple of seconds of intense staring, the man complied. He dropped the gun and slid it toward Marisa.
After taking the gun under her foot, she ordered the man to untie Joshua who then turned on him to tie him up. All while in the process, Marisa tied Jax up not with the weak rope she was tied up with, but a couple of spares the men had brought with them.
With the two tied, Joshua went to pick up the gun that had been slid to Marisa.
Suddenly, Jax gave out a hearty laugh. "Isn't that a little degrading for you? Having a woman fight your battles and an assassin none less."
"Who sent you?" Joshua asked, ignoring the man's comment.
"I wonder; is this how you killed the others?"
"I've told you: I haven't killed anyone." Joshua remarked sternly. He turned his head to view the dead body that laid behind the desk. "I apologize for your friend though."
Although it was strange to hear Joshua apologize for the man's death, especially when it was her who shot him and she was certainly not feeling remorse for shooting the man. But she believe that by showing empathy, Joshua would surely find the information he wanted.
Jax scoffed. "That bumbling idiot wasn't a friend, just a guy who was put on our team. Wasn't all too bright... Whatever, you put him out of his misery."
The man beside him started to chuckle.
"Hey now. Friend or not, stupid or smart, he was still someone. Possibly an important being in someone else' life."
"Are you sure you should be saying that kind of stuff after what you've done?" Jax retorted snidely.
Joshua took the moment to let out a long, and rather exasperated sigh as he squeezed the bridge of his nose. "What do you think I am? He asked finally. "Some sadistic murderer? Well, I guess I'll live up to my title then."
He reached over to his desk drawer and pulled out a revolver. Being a weapon junkie, Marisa recognized it to be a Welbey revolver.
"Let's play a game, one of my favourites." The men, as well as Marisa watched Joshua as he emptied the bullets out of the gun's chambers, leaving just one. He spun the chamber hard, snapping it shut with a flick of his wrist.
"You know of Jehanna roulette, don't you?"
Anyone who was a fan of gambling or perhaps mobster films knew, especially Marisa who fell in the former category.
"I'll take a shot at each one of us and we'll see where the bullet aims up in. There's a 1/6 chance we'll get bullet." Joshua explained after hearing no response from the men.
"You may want to stand back." Joshua gestured to Marisa.
She hesitated to move. The idea was absolutely ludicrous! The man was practically putting his life at stake with a random bullet. But with Joshua's eyes hounding her to stand back, she stood at the opposite side of the room.
"We can stop anytime when you want to tell me anything."
Again, with no response from neither men, Joshua lifted the gun to his head which nearly made Marisa flinch.
"I'll start." He made no hesitation to pull the trigger.
Marisa darted her eyes away from him, expecting to hear a loud boom but instead, there was click.
He then pointed the gun to the man with the beanie who had yet to identify himself.
"What's your name?" Joshua asked.
"Alec." The man responded, showing no fear with the gun aimed in his face.
"Well? Care to tell me anything?"
Alec shifted his eyes at his partner, Jax, who made no gesture at him.
"Bite me." Was his response.
Joshua pulled the trigger.
Again, Marisa anticipated for a loud boom followed by a splatter of crimson all over the room, but again, there was just a click.
"Hm." Joshua merely shrugged before turning the gun to Jax.
"I ain't scared of you." He said.
"Good. I wasn't aiming for that." Joshua retorted. "So? Nothing outta you you too?"
Taking Jax's silence as an answer, Joshua went on to fire the gun.
A click.
"That's... Three out of six now?" Joshua asked. He took the gun to his head.
Marisa's heart immediately started to pound faster as she watched him take the gun to his temple. With half the chamber already fired and no appearance from the bullet, the chances of it hidden in the remaining chambers have increased.
Again, no signs of hesitation was shown in Joshua's action as he went to fire the weapon.
A click.
Marisa's heart settled a bit, but watching how Joshua could so easily fire an armed gun to his head was uneasy. Almost as if he was confident the bullet wasn't in the value chamber.
Unless he knew exactly where the bullet was when he randomly snapped the chamber shut, this was a very risky and dangerous game he was playing.
"Alec?" Joshua addressed as he pointed the gun to him. He only returned with a hard gaze, the same he was looking at Joshua with.
Joshua waited longer for a response from the man. The only gesture he made was shift his gaze over to Jax, who only returned with a comprehensive look.
"I'm going to assume you guys are close friends?" Joshua started.
"Wouldn't you like to know." Alec said coldly.
"I would, actually."
"Screw you. Just shoot me already!"
"Bang." Joshua said in sync with the click fired from the gun.
Empty. That just leaves...
"Feh... What are the odds..." Jax scoffed.
"Well, would you look at that. And it's one out of six." Joshua remarked. "Last chance to walk out of here. Want to own up to anything?"
"Whatever. I'm already a dead man walking."
"And what do you mean by that?" Joshua questioned curiously.
The man fumbled with words for a bit, only voicing inaudible sentences before he closed his eyes. "What are you going to do with Alec after you kill me?"
"What do you want me to do?" Joshua answered.
Alec turned to his friend to give a look filled with confusion and sadness. "Jax..." He said quietly.
"I'll let him go. Right now if you want to." Joshua cutted in.
"I believe I'm better off dead." Alec responded.
"I don't understand. It seems as if you two want to dead."
The two tied men both looked at each other but said nothing.
At this point, the situation had turned hopeless, so Marisa thought. Both men were hesitant to say anything and it seemed as if Joshua was also hesitant to fire the gun. If she were in his position, a little physicality should do the job right up. She was about to step up to take Joshua's place when he spoke these simple words.
"I remember Randy now."
These simple words were enough to gather Jax's, Alec's as well as Marisa's attention.
"He's dead, you say?" Joshua asked for confirmation.
"Yes. By you." Jax hastily reminded.
"That's actually unfortunate... " Joshua said, mainly to himself as she cupped his chin with a hand and started pacing a few feet from his standing.
"What is he going on about?" Alec asked.
"Gentlemen." Joshua quickly addressed. "I'm sorry for your friend's death, as well as the others you've mentioned. But I did not kill them."
It sounded much like a declaration or an announcement, much like many world leaders sounds like when talking to the media press. Usually with statements such as this, applause would be sounded. But talking to a couple of already angry and tied-up dangerous assassins, an applause from them is least expected.
"You... Bastard." Jax sounded. "you can deny and lie all you want, but we know the truth."
"Where's your source for such a strenuous lie?"
"The-" Alex stopped himself from saying much more than the lone word.
"I don't know where you heard all this, but let me tell you my side of the story. It's not like you have much choice anyways." Joshua said, referring to their situation of being tied up.
This ought to be interesting. Marisa's curiosity regarding his past experience with assassins was about to be told. She made herself comfortable by leaning on the desk Berg was rummaging through a few minutes ago. Never mind that his corpse still laid just a few feet away from her. Catching a glimpse of his dead body, she thought back on Joshua's words of the man still being a person and having some importance in another's life, despite his comrade's harsh words of him.
That's right: he had parents. Everyone has parents, that was a given. He probably had friends. One or two, everyone has some form of friends in their lives. Siblings. Extended family. A girlfriend or a wife.
... And I took that away from him.
"Ah yes, Randy... He was a nice man actually. He even apologized for having to kill to me." The sound of Joshua's voice broke her deep thinking and take her eyes off the dead man.
"He was waiting for me at my house with his gun ready. He was tricky; when I ran from him, he seemed to be one step ahead of me. But after the tiring game of cat and mouse, the table turned and it was I who had the gun on him."
"I offered him a deal," The same one he has with me, no doubt. "In exchange of letting me go, I'd help him turn his life around, turn the other cheek if you understand what I'm saying and I don't report him in. But he refused." Joshua paused to re-adjust his stance by perching himself one the edge of the other desk, smaller than the one Marisa sat on, situated in the room.
"At first I thought he was just a strong trooper, dedicated to the company wherever you guys are from. But... He seemed scared. Now that I think about it, a lot of them were scared. They insisted me to kill them..."
As Joshua took the time to gather himself, Marisa allowed herself to think of the possibilities of why a hoard of assassins would choose death than walking away scotch free. A sense of pride would come into play of course, but would one's pride be damaged so much that they would choose death?
Sure, a bit of Marisa's pride was bit off when she accepted Joshua's bet but that never made her want to die over it.
It was either she just didn't have enough pride as the rest of them, or they were truly afraid of something.
"In the end, he said he wouldn't come after me again if I just let him go. So... He left and I never saw him again."
"Then how do you explain his body turning up mangled and disfigured the next day? I saw his body, I saw it! You're just full of lies, you bastard!" Jax nearly roared.
"You're Jax. His best friend since you guys were in put in the same foster home. You guys met fighting over who could run the fastest. You went to school together, you stuck by each other through the toughest time, and your name Jax was given to you by him after your guys' favorite cartoon character."
The splur of words left Jax with his mouth hung open. He was neither denying or confirming these to be true.
"We spoke. For a bit." Joshua stated, authenticating his story. "Why he's dead, I don't know. But you have let me know: if there's someone after you, who is it? They could be the one who killed Randy."
Jax only hung his head, his face unseen, seemingly taking in all this information at his own pace. Joshua let out a sigh, an impatient one as he ran his finger through his hair, starting at his forehead.
"If we don't kill you..." Alec said very quietly, his voice barely a whisper. "They'll kill us."
The very solemn in Alec's voice jerked Joshua's head up. "'They' being who?"
"G-Grado."
The stuttered word peaked her high interest in what had gone out so far. Grado was the largest country on the continent and no doubt the strongest. With its large military bases and forces, it could be easily assumed that any forces that choose to go up against them would result in a tremendous loss. It had never succumbed to that though; Vigrarde, Emperor of Grado, got along with the remainder of leaders of Magvel , and was in fact in good ties with Renais. The reason for its large military base was simply stated by Vigarde himself that in case of any act of war was place on Magvel, they would be the first to come in defense.
The country itself was like any of the other cities on the continent; modernized, populated, economically up to par... Nothing too suspicious, seemingly.
"You work for the Government of Grado?" Joshua asked gravely. Of course this would be quite a turning point for him: finding the one who behind his wanted murder. Of course, it would be for anyone. This, was enough to wash the nonchalant attitude and snarky personality of Joshua's into affliction and dismay.
Without so much of a glance at him, Marisa could tell his was troubled by this new found fact.
Jax and Alec threw a look at each other. One that read that because they've slipped out a secret, there was no turning back for what they've already started.
"I wouldn't say for the Government really..." Alec started slowly. "Well, more rather it's..."
"Either Yes or no." Joshua demanded.
"...I don't know." Was Alec's answer.
"We work for 'Underground Project.' It's a bodyguard training system." Jax spoke for the first time in a while.
"A bodyguard training system that makes its trainees assassin people?" Joshua said dubiously.
"I thought it was. Everyone did. We went through vigorous training: cutting connection from the outside world, constant abuse from the trainers, and boot camp-like activities." Jax explained, his voice hushed. "It wasn't until a year later when they assigned us the assignment to kill one of the Senators of Carcino, that I knew this was very wrong."
"But we couldn't leave. One reason being we were isolated on a platform building in the middle of the ocean, but because the contracts we signed beforehand was a ten year agreement. I remember that first mission, five guys refused to do it. And they were killed before our eyes. Not only is death is your punishment death if you refuse a mission, but if you fail one... That's..." Jax stopped mid sentence to shake his head. To shake his head of the horrible ideas and images no doubt.
"After that, we were assigned to kill other high class ranking people. I think we've killed more than a dozen people. But the number of men we lost... Do you know how many of us died? We started with 46 men and within the span of 5 years, we're down to 11. Well, 10 now." He made a gesture towards the dead corpse of Berg.
"So why didn't you just leave?" Joshua asked as if it was the obvious choice in any situation.
"You don't think we've tried? They have ways of finding us. And when they find us... Well, consider yourself lucky if you get a broken nose and a bruised eye."
"I see... How long have this operation been going on?" Joshua asked.
"Ah... I believe when we started, 5 years ago." Jax replied.
"And this is operated by Vigarde?" Joshua further questioned.
"I would assume so; the guards and everyone wear the official Grado uniforms."
"Hasn't it cross your minds that it wasn't me who killed your friends, but the people at your so-called 'training system'?" Joshua asked. After no response from the two, he continued. "I let them go, all of them. Death is the punishment for failure, you say? So maybe they were killed for failing to assassinate me."
"But... They said you were the one who one did that to them. Why would they lie?" Alec said.
"Huh... They wanted us to believe it. To fuel us up." Jax concluded. "Your case isn't the first to have happened." He referred to Joshua. "They want to get us mad to work harder. Damn it."
"I'm sorry to hear that." Joshua apologized.
He then shifted his body off the desk and started to pace the room, his arms crossed and his eyebrows furrowed into a troubled look.
The silence in the room only grew with tension, a slightest scruff in the room would have drawn everyone's attention to it.
Finally, turning to the two tied men, Joshua asked "who have you killed?"
The graveness in his voice was ominous, enough to raise the hair on Marisa's arm.
From what have been told so far, Marisa had gathered that the two were from a seemingly training system called 'Underground Project' operated by the officials of Grado. The two have said they, as well as the other participants were unaware of its true motives for training them. She was convinced enough that was the truth spoken from the men expressions. As well as telling from the undercover of the system (hinted in the name no less), it would be assumed that it was meant to be kept quiet. Further more, the exposure of the harshness and strictness of this training would be a disastrous downward in Grado's reputation. Their targets were high ranked people, that of which included Joshua, who had quite the run ins with some of their men. After killing their own men, they blamed Joshua for the responsibility of their death.
Why Joshua, along with their previous victims, were targets, was unclear.
The question Joshua had asked was somehow irrelevant and rather, abruptly brought up. Marisa felt they had gathered all the information they needed. What should be asked was what were they going to do now they had what they wanted.
That said though, it got Marisa thinking about her mission to assassinate Joshua. If the 'Underground Project' men were so well-trained, why ask for another company to do their job? Perhaps given Joshua's ability to fend most of them off, they got desperate and called in for outside help.
But what of their more recent kill, Princess L'Arachel? Given the reports and known knowledge through the media, she did not seem the type who could defend herself well.
Just when she thought she was clear on everything, more questions are brought up. Troubling questions they were.
"I told you: we were given over a dozen people. You can't expect us to remember all of them."
"You're right, I can't." Joshua easily dismissed, "but would my mother, the Queen of Jehanna be on your list?"
After giving it some thought, "... She was." Was Alec's response.
What a surprising turn of events things have turned, would be how Marisa would describe it. To her knowledge, Joshua's mother died of natural causes, and now to learn that she was assassinated...
In the soaps Tethys always watched, this would be the pivotal point, of which the characters in the show would gasp and sometimes lash out at each other for finding out an ugly truth. She wasn't sure how he would react, his mother was one of the few people he would consider important in his life.
His expression had not changed. His stance had not change. He was unmoving, almost stone even.
Suddenly, he made his way out the room.
His sudden absence left everyone in awe.
Not knowing what to do, it was as if it were her natural instinct to follow him out, avoiding the awkward look from the two tied men.
Joshua didn't leave very far, just stepped out into the hallway.
He ran a hand through his hair before clasping a hand on the lower part of his face, only to have realize that his previous wound was still in pain that he turned his back to Marisa.
"Are you alright?" She wasn't sure what to say in a situation like this, but the casual question should do for now.
"Not really." Joshua grumbled.
Sensing his hostility, Marisa remained silent. She wanted to do something, anything. Some comfort words, perhaps a pat on the shoulder. Her fingers fidgeted as she tried to decide what to do for the man in need.
God. I am so awkward... She sympathized for herself. The only person she should be sympathetic for was Joshua, she knew. Let's add inconsiderate to the list.
She drew out a long sigh. "I'm sorry... About your mom." She started. "I didn't know she... Died that way."
Argh, too soon to bring that up?
She crossed her arms over her torso, feeling a bit idiotic to have brought it up.
"No one knew. It was a cover up." Joshua stated, his back still to her.
"Why?" Marisa brought herself to ask after a prolonged silent.
"An assassination of a Queen or anybody would have caused an uproar. The country didn't need any of that at the time. Instead, the head of security went to investigate on their own. Three years... Now I know it was Grado."
"I'm sorry." Marisa apologized again, and quite lamely at that.
"That would... Explain all the unexplained deaths that happened recently... Both the Queens of Frelia and Renais, the executive manager of Wing Enterprise, two of the senators of Carcino. And L'Arachel. But why?" Joshua spoke quietly to himself.
He surprised Marisa by suddenly turning around to enter the room, brushing by her. She followed in shortly after.
He took the nearest of the two men, that being Alex and took him by the shoulders.
"Those files you needed, the- the voting forms? Why does Vigarde need it?" Joshua inquired.
"I- I don't know. I really don't!" Alec exclaimed, surprised by being taken the shoulders abruptly. "We were told to go after you and the paperwork, that's all!"
Convinced at his answer, Joshua let go, turned his head to the side and quietly cursed to himself.
He was frustrated, it was evident. Given all the information they have discovered, there was still much to be uncovered.
Marisa was feeling what he felt; all this newly found information played a big part of the mystery that shrouded Joshua and his past as well as scandalous on Grado's part.
"Shit." Joshua swore loudly. "He's trying to wipe out the competition."
The question on Marisa's mind, as well as the other two, was 'what competition?' It was needed to be asked as Joshua continued to explain himself.
"I'm not supposed to tell anyone this... But there's going to be an election, four years to come. This election is going to decide who's going to be the grand governor of Magvel as a country."
"Wait, we're going to be made into one country?" Jax asked.
"Wh- Why in the hell do that?" Alec then asked, equally surprised as Jax.
The idea sounded too crazy to be true. To form a whole continent as one was sure to bring an uproar to some civilians. In Marisa's preference, she didn't care as long as she had some place to live.
Joshua shrugged. "I don't know. Those guys are crazy up there. Share resources? To end feuds?"
Hm. Looks like someone didn't pay much attention at a meeting.
"So what are these forms?" Jax questioned.
"Potential governors are given these forms to fill out if they want to run in the election. I haven't filled mine out, I'm not sure about the others it would make sense, for him to kill me and get those forms."
Marisa nodded in agreement. It would make sense, seeing as that would be the logical explanation.
Joshua made his way to over to the window on the other side of the room, his hands both placed on the back on neck and his head craned upwards to the ceiling as he let out a long exhale.
"Marisa." He called over and she quickly obliged.
"Yeah?"
"I need you to do me a favour."
"Sure."
The look on his face made him look he was deep in thought, possibly formulating a plan. Which made Marisa weary. Whatever he needed from her was probably a big deal.
Drawing a breath through his mouth, he responded with "I need you to kill to me."
As she thought, this favour was a very big deal.
