Author's Note- So here's the new chapter and it didn't take three whole fucking weeks to complete this time! YAY! So this is more or less what the last chapter was supposed to be until Writer's Block hit me with a giant 'Fuck You!". Hope you like it and feel free to give me your thoughts on it.

Chapter 25

I woke up to the sound of crashing and breaking and quickly sat up, looking around my surroundings just in time to see Robot Boy running through a hole in one of the warehouse walls. My hands brushed against my knives which were currently resting on the ground beside me and as I picked them up, my eyes came across the sight of that fucking asshole who was involved in my brother's murder.

I couldn't remember anything after I found out about his involvement with Kalen's death but it probably didn't end well as my body began to feel the bruises and burns that were currently covering me in large patches. However, as I began to pick myself up and get on my feet, I found myself not caring as thoughts of revenge clouded my mind. I slowly limped towards the mercenary's prone body with my knives being held in a tight grip that was making my knuckles pale.

As I approached the merc, I slowly knelt beside him and moved the knife in my right hand towards his neck, all too ready to slice it wide open in an instant. It would be quick, efficient and would satisfy my thirst for blood. Unluckily for the fucker he seemed to have the amazingly horrible timing of regaining consciousness at that exact moment. As I saw him wake up, I quickly found myself wanting to do more than just kill him. I wanted to make him suffer and, seeing as the opportunity had now presented itself, I was determined to get answers out of him.

As the mercenary finally began to grasp the situation we were now in, he looked me in the eyes and asked, "Well, what are you waiting for? Don't you want to get some revenge for your brother's death or are you just going to give me that death stare until we both die of old age?"

As I kept the knife in my right hand pressed firmly against his throat, I raised the knife in my other hand and slammed it down on his arm, causing him to growl sharply in pain. "I'm going to ask you some questions and you're going to answer them unless you enjoy dieing slowly."

The merc simply laughed at me before spitting in my face. I immediately responded by lifting my knife back up in the air and instead of stabbing it back into his arm, I decided to just slice the entire thing straight off. A cruel, almost maniacal grin broke out across my face as the fucking asshole cried out in pain while his arm fell straight off, blood pouring from the wound. "Want to go for round two or are you going to play nice?"

His eyes widened at the sudden surge of pain I just caused to him and growled at me fiercely. He gave me a pained but angry glare before replying, "And let me guess, if I play along you'll let me live right? Bullshit. You're going to kill me anyway so why should I listen to a thing you say?"

"Because if you tell me what I want to know then I'll kill you quickly. So it's really up to you. Tell me what I want to know and I'll slit your fucking throat and shoot you through the skull. Don't tell me what I want to know and I get to have some fun." I said, twirling my dagger around while I continued to grin at the pain he was already in. "Either way, I'm going to kill you so you may as well make it easier for yourself and tell me what I want to know."

"And do you really think I would actually believe a word you say?"

"Well if you don't talk, you'll be guaranteed a slow and painful death."

He seemed to realise that no matter what happened, he was well and truly fucked. Sighing in resignation he began to talk, "What do you want to know?"

I felt my grin widened as I was finally about to get some information. "First of all, I want to know why this group of yours has a base of operations here."

"Simple, we were told to search this area in search of a certain item. You could almost say it's a key of some sort. No idea what it unlocks though or what it even looks like."

"Why would you get sent to find something important if you have no idea what it looks like?"

"Because the guy who hired us had it stolen from him and really wants it back. The guy that stole it apparently hid it away to stop anyone from claiming it. The only lead we had was that your brother was the thief who took it. We were paid to kill him and retrieve the item, only to see that he didn't have it. That's why we didn't kill you when you witnessed his murder."

"You were hoping I would know about it so you could just kill me off and take it from me."

"Pretty much, except you decided to backfire our own plan with your little quest for revenge against us."

"Good." I said with an all too obvious tone of malice in my voice. "Now tell me the answer to this question. Who hired you?"

"Not a clue, I don't decide who we work for or what jobs we are given. I'm told to carry out a mission, no questions asked, and they pay me for it."

"Then where are the people who do make all these decisions?"

"Depends, they are always changing location. In fact one of our bosses was here only a few months ago."

'Back when I left for Beacon', I thought to myself as I took in all the information he was giving me.

"Fucking fantastic, I expected you to give me answers but all you've done is give me more questions."

"Sucks, doesn't it?" He said with a small smirk. "But if it helps you at all, then I've had a few sneaking suspicions about this whole mission, but they could all be a load of shit."

"Tell me."

"First of all, whoever is funding us has a LOT of money, because this mission definitely hasn't been cheap and apparently there has been no complaints about cost or even time. Whatever it is that we are looking for it's very important to this guy, and I don't think he'll be stopping his efforts to retrieve it any time soon." He stopped speaking to groan in pain. "This person is trying very hard to keep himself anonymous to anyone other than our bosses so he obviously has a lot of influence or reputation that they wish to keep intact."

"Finally, you give me something useful." I was about to end the interrogation and kill him but then I saw him grin cruelly and chuckle. "What?"

"There's one little thing that I want to tell you first," As I held back the final blow he began to speak again. "Before we were sent on the mission we had no idea who this Kalen person was and apparently when the bosses showed our client the picture, he couldn't identify your brother as someone he knew."

"What are you getting at?" I asked threateningly, but I already knew what he was implying. Anger was quickly building up inside me.

"I'm saying that your brother was more than likely tasked with the mission of stealing this artifact by someone else. Someone who sent your brother to his own death for their own personal benefits."

"We're done." I said coldly before I slit his throat and shot him in the head for good measure.

After killing the mercenary, I picked myself up from the ground and began to clutch my head as it was hit with a worse surge of pain than when I had woke up. That conversation had just given me a fucking migraine and I was already in the mood to kill everything in sight. It wasn't helped by the fact that I could hear the rest of my team outside the hole in the warehouse wall, yelling at each other.

I walked towards the hole in the wall and stepped outside to see Gael berating Drake and Xochi about some bullshit I had no idea about. I decided to stop the argument and calm my headache by yelling, "Shut the fuck up Gael, I already have one hell of a headache and I don't need you making it worse!" My teammates all turned their attention away from each and towards me, only for Gael to quickly tell them something before Drake rushed towards me.

"Rica are you alright? How are your wounds holding up." Drake asked.

"I'll survive Drake, you don't need to coddle me everytime I get hurt."

Xochi walked past us and asked a question that was sure to end badly. "Now that you're awake we can finally question the mercenary."

I looked to the the hole in the wall and whistled softly before replying, "Good luck with that." Gael seemed to realise what I had done without even looking at the freshly made corpse. When Xochi saw the now dead merc, she turned her attention back to me with a look of frustration and anger.

"What the hell Rica?! We needed him for answers! What reason do you have for killing our only source of information?!"

"He was a part of the group who killed my brother. I interrogated him for information and I learned some interesting things, then I killed the fucker."

"I swear Rica, you better have found some good information."

"Well sit down and find out then." Still with anger radiating off of her, Xochi sat down. She was closely followed by Gael but Drake remained standing. "Have a little faith with me would you?" Once I got comfortable enough that my headache didn't feel like an explosion in my skull, I began to explain everything that the asshole had told me.

Almost everything.

'I'm saying that your brother was more than likely tasked with the mission of stealing this artifact by someone else. Someone who sent your brother to his own death for their own personal benefits.' Those words were constantly ringing in my head now. I hoped that what he was saying was just to piss me off, but for some reason I didn't like the chances.

"So now that we know your brother was involved with all this, what are you going to do Rica?" I was snapped out of my thoughts as Drake asked me the question.

"There's a place that Kalen may have hidden it. I need to go there." Before my team could respond at all I quickly added, "Alone."

"Rica, that's stupid and dangerous. We should all go." Drake argued, obviously worried.

"No Drake, you can roam around and find whatever other information you can about their operation. I'm going alone." I went to stand up but was stopped by Gael talking.

"Drake's right Rica, it's too risky to go alone. At least let Drake tag along. Xochi and I can look around for more info and if you find something we can meet up back at the inn." Gael paused to motion around us. "This warehouse won't be safe once the guards wake up."

I looked towards Xochi to see that she agreed with the other two and I shrugged my shoulders, conceding defeat. "Fine, Drake. But just so you know. Not. One. Word. Do not tell ANYBODY about this place." Drake nodded his head and helped me up to my feet.

"We better hurry then. You can give me directions." Before I could react, he grabbed me and scooped me off my feet carrying me bridal style.

"Drake, you are such an asshole." I said, causing him to laugh.

"Hang on tightly." He replied before activating his semblance and rushing off with me in his arms.