The audience voiced both their satisfaction and dissatisfaction towards the additional round that took place. Paul laughed evilly with joy, while Noore placed her hands to her mouth to hold back screaming or vomiting from the sheer cruelly of his death.

The result of the additional round ended the way most people thought it would, to survive till round five with the two hardest rounds having all the teams against one person was unfair but it was a legendary performance like no other. The people in the crowd would remember this day as the day-

(CRACK) "WHHOOOWWW!" The rhino bellowed in excruciating pain.

The crowd was baffled.

What could possibly cause the rhino pain if none of the weapons that Badala or the elite guards threw at it worked well enough?

The answer was right below inside the arena. Standing perfectly still for the predicament he was just endured a while ago…

…. Was Badala, still standing.

Paul got up from his chair with his eyes wide open in disbelief. "Impossible..." he murmured. Noore was no different in sharing his disbelieve, her mouth hanging from her jaw. Yet for some reason, her hand trembled in fear.

The crowd was speechless to his sudden vitality, his motionless standing straight gave a disturbingly eerie presence to it. But wasn't he nailed to the wall by the rhino earlier? The answer was right before them yet again. Still stuck in his chest was the unstoppable rhino's horn, but not connected to the rhino any longer.

Where was the rhino then? Galloping away from him instead towards the direction of the large door it was let through into the arena, but sadly the door was closed so the hornless rhino banged against the door to get out. The elite guards had taken their eyes off him for a moment to look at the rhino that was trying to escape, it gave them chills to the bone seeing the most arrogant yet might creature in all of Kyrat cowering before something else.

When they turned back, Ajay was gone. The crowd was shocked by the disappearance, the elite guards were frightened by this.

"Where is he?!"

"Fuck!"

"He shouldn't be standing!"

"Gwaaargghh!" The sound of a man dying came from behind the group of elite guards, from the person at their rear most guard. When they turned with gun ready, the body of that man flew and hit two out of the five remaining elite guards as they fell to the ground with the body weighing them against the floor. With their eyes to the flying body there was another yell from the left most guard of their bunch being beheaded so quickly the eyes could not keep track of the swing. The head flew and hit the person next to him on the head but it didn't fall, instead it was skewered together with him through the mouth and out the back of their heads like a human kebab. As the body of the guard fell sideways a shadow leaped over the corpse and swung its hand across the last standing man's torso. Blood exploded from the strike and his upper torso flew in the air as well with the lower body was left still in the standing position.

""Hiiiiii-Hyeee!"" The last two who were trapped under the body of the rear man squealed as they were next to die by the inhumane demon before them. Just then the rhino trundled pass them and trampled on one of the guard's heads while running to the door on the other end of the room. As it passed the centre with the mound of smoking bodies it charged right through it as it was less concerned about the things in its way and more about getting away from the monster it was with that broke its horn…..

…. With its barehands.

A shadow appeared at the corner of its eyes. Grabbing the knife still embedded in it and pushed in, the rhino stopped in its tracks as something was going deeper into its flesh. Then as if the rhino's tough skin were a piece of tissue the knife tore its skin off with an inhuman strength across the top of its neck. The back of the rhino's neck was spraying blood as the beast collapsed to the side wide-eyed.

Beneath that fountain of blood was Ajay in his prime opening his mouth up to take in the blood, the mask concealed his face but all who saw felt he was smiling. It sending a powerful message to the crowd and to Paul who relegated back into his seat shivering.

"EERRRRAAAAAAAAHH!" Ajay bellowed into the air like a predator triumphant over its kill, the roar resonated throughout the arena even to the outside where the stalls were, the owners wondered what animal could make such a sound. Those in the arena were silenced by the animalistic nature of Badala, the arena champion.

The demon turned to the last surviving elite guard whom was watching from afar. Seeing that he was the next target his shivered, dropping his weapon and running towards the confine room closest to him. He banged the door screaming for someone to open it before he became mincemeat. The crowd watched in horror as he walked slowly towards the final opponent in the arena.

The guard banged the door even harder as the demon closed in and was almost upon him. He backed against the door shivering and wetting his pants as he did so. Without a sound, the knife entered the guard's body until it hit the metal of the door with a bump, telling everyone how deep the knife went. The guard jittered about the last ropes of his life as the demon raised him with a single arm holding the knife still skewered through the guard. The demon turned his head towards the parapet, more specifically Paul who was climbing backwards on his seat in fear and disbelief.

Then the most unimaginable sequence of events happened next.

The demon slung the corpse around and threw it at the parapet's porch which was almost twenty metres in distance and at a higher ground. To lift a man who weighed at least 80 kilograms due to equipment on him was a feat only achievable by a monster. But it didn't stop there.

The demon rushed towards the direction of the parapet and jumped, bouncing on the single columns increasing its height towards the parapet. But the crowd was certain he would never get up with his own strength, that was what the arena seats were designed for. That's where the demon proved them wrong.

He hadn't throw the body unpurposefully, the guards body bounced against the parapet's porch and in line with where the demon currently was. The demon used the body that was in midair to springboard up onto the audience. Kicking off against the falling corpse the demon did a front-flip, landing perfectly onto the seating platforms as the audience in that seating area had backed away anticipating his landing.

Then, chaos broke out.

Witnessing him go on his berserk rampage took the vitality from their hearts as they watched and thanked the heavens they weren't there with him…. Until he came to them.

The crowd went into a frantic frenzy as they shoved and pushed their way towards the exit. The demon directed its gaze towards the individuals in the observation parapet, and their hearts dropped to the ground when they found out they were next on his target list.

"… s-shot-…. SHOT HIM!" Paul shouted frantically as he backed away towards the door. The guards with him were just as frightened and thought to run with him, only the demon didn't let them as it dashed towards them. The demon moved in on them, its speed was too quick for the guards to line up their shot with him and within a matter of seconds the demon was before them.

Slicing through the first guard in front of him like he was a balloon filled with blood which popped as the kukri parted flesh and bone from one another. Witnessing the carnage once more, the guards decided to run instead of fight as they squeezed through the door to get out. That just left the demon and Noore who was sitting on the floor, fear was evident in her eyes as she lost the power to stand or flee. Her servants had long fled the room when the gunfire started so she was truly helpless against him. Walking slowly towards her, she could hear the sound of his footsteps like bells to her funeral. A hand reached out and grasped her neck, lifting her up in the air and throttled her. She could see clearly into the demon's eyes now. A hue of yellow in those irises as if there was something primordial about them. Looking at her, looking at all others like they were prey, like they were all its hateful enemy.

The mask fell from his face as the clasps had worn out from all the abuse, clattering to the floor and giving Noore a look at his appearance for the first time. If she had the luxury to she would have gasped at his age but she couldn't. The demon placed the knife to her navel with the intention to gut her while she was hanging from his hand.

"Uhhh-…Pl-…Please… Please…. Just….. Family…." Noore begged even though she knew it was no use pleading her eyes watered as she knew somehow her time had come.

Her only regret was that she never got to see her family before all of this.


The Condotierri and Hunters were loitering within the camp they set up by the bell tower, awaiting any word of Ajay through communication traffic or public calls in the rumor mill.

Samson suspected he was likely within the City of Pain as Paul was the one in charge of that ambush. The others had a few theories of where he may have been but no clear evidence. A jeep came screeching to a halt at the roadside near their camp so they went to see who it was.

"How is it? Have you found anything?" Saraswati had come.

"Nothing, Miss Roka. But mind me asking-… how are you here?" Luca reported. He recalled hearing the general order the restraint of Miss Roka over the phone when the operator passed him the phone directly.

"My audacious father had the gall to me locked up within the Royal Fortress once he heard the news about what had happened! It took me a while but I managed to slip out and took a jeep from the motorpool. It took me a while but my source in the communications department told me of your location. So what's the current status?" Saras looked at him for answers.

"We've got nothing. Samson had the idea of dispatching some of our guys to places with mass congregations. Chal Jama monastery, the Rochan Brick Factory, and Shanath Arena to listen in on the rumors. But we don't have a single trace." Saras could see that Luca hadn't slept much all night as he sat listening to the radio and looking at the screen of his laptop trying to find clues.

"I see. Pass you job to someone else and get some rest of we'll be forced to leave you behind." She said with a smile. Luca thanked her but refused, he was the most adept with the software and didn't want others to monitor without his level of scrutiny.

Saras walked into the camp and found Samson with Bipin whom neither held amiable expression to the very least.

"How have you two been?" She started by asking their well-being, no one needed to be asked the question of where was Ajay again.

"We were able to get some rest for an anticipated break-in, we're just waiting for tip offs from Luigi, Stella and Emilio who I sent as listeners to the public gathering areas."

"I see, and you Bipin?" She asked as he barely responded just now.

"Badala will be ok-."

"How would you know!" Bipin lashed out at her with his harsh tone.

"Have any of you ever been to the City of Pain?! Because I can tell you it's been there that way long before Paul took office as the Chief Interrogator! Have you ever spent a day in the cell? Because I can tell you that regardless of how lenient your sentence was everyone gets a fair treatment down there! And by fair I mean everyone's given an agonizing torture!"

"Bipin, have you-…" Saras had a guess about it but she didn't want to assume.

"It was years ago in my pre-Guard days, my lousy superior embezzled money belonging to our logistics and I wrote a formal complaint to a higher office. Humph! Who would have thought that he had relatives in high places, they intercepted the message and put me on trial under the offense of jumping the chain of command without even looking at the case I filed before that. I was sent to the City without indication of how long my sentence was to be…. they probably never intended for me to leave. I don't remember how long I was in there for one–two months, no one ever told me. Then one day, mistress Yuma came with my sister when she heard about where I'd been sent. Yuma executed my superior and his associates in the higher ranks without explanation or compensation to their families or clans, they never challenged her on it either. She sent me to the Royal Guard Academy to learn, and from there I worked like my life had meaning. I owe her and my sister everything."

Saras and Samson were rendered speechless as they had nothing to say on Bipin due to his tormenting history.

"So when you say he's gonna be ok every time it pisses me off that you take it so lightly." He walked towards the bell tower to get some time to himself, he also didn't want to look at the expressions they held now.

Samson understood it a little better and scratched his head, Saras on the other hand wasn't taking the news well any longer. It was just as Bipin pointed out, she was taking this too lightly….. just like the time in the mountains. He'd risk his neck to bring her because she used Maya as a pretext and now he was probably imprisoned in a cell at the City of Pain she was still taking it lightly.

-It's happening again!-

"We're going to the City!" She said in a frantic voice.

"Miss Roka!" Samson stopped her.

"Every minute we spend here he gets tortured!"

"And you want him to know you endangered yourself to rescue him?!"

"Please-…. Please you have to try at least!"

Samson clenched his teeth, he wanted to go just as much as her and Bipin. But could he risk a rescue if there was another trap like that set up waiting for them? Worse was they had no clue where he was.

"BOSS! We found something!" Luca came running to them.

"What?"

"Speak!" Saras demanded.

"Emilio heard from Shanath Arena that they're hosting a game with the Northern Demon as a contestant!"

To Samson, nobody else would dare herald that name that Ajay earned so there was a high probability it was him. But then, why did De Pleur bring him to a public area? While the borders of who held what had yet to be defined between the Golden Path and Royal Army this wasn't the best time to have him fight in an arena.

"Samson."

"Call in the rest, we're going back to Shanath Arena!"


While the audience were clamoring to escape the demon let loose upon the spectator's deck. The Condotierri, the Hunters and Saras had their feet glued to the ground. They had been here since the fourth round where he was made to fight unfairly with the entire round's teams and animals for two consecutive rounds. And then that unbelievable sixth round. They could not do anything inside as their weapons had been stripped off them because the audience were prohibited from carrying loaded weapons into the Arena, although some would occasionally smuggle some in to help the contestants.

Saras and the rest got to witness the unbelievable fighting prowess of Ajay as he fought two rounds against all of the contestants by himself. They had the intentions to free him after the end of the game, but then Paul announced the bonus round without Noore's consent. Ajay was forced to go toe to toe with the very best in Paul and Noore's retinue. He was struggling to stay alive at every corner. Saras watched in horror as he was forced into that situation alone, the same could be said for Bipin who could not blink at all when he was fighting with close calls at every turn.

That Rhino was called out, at first he used it to his advantage to attack the elite guards for him but for some reason it went only for him after that, and the guards just watched as he contended alone against a beast even they didn't want to fight head to head. The situation was looking dire, Samson was already at the edge of the porch in a position like he was about to leap into the arena.

Then, the blood curling scream came.

The rhino had stabbed him with its horn and he hung impaled to it.

Saras collapsed to her feet on the stone cold floor as Samson turned around but as he looked up at her face he saw trickles of tears flowing from her hollow eyes.

"Miss Roka? Miss Roka!... Saras!" Samson and Stella called out to her as they shook her but no response came. It was clear that the shock was too much for her to handle and caused catastrophic damage to her mental state. How could this happen? Yet another employer was gone-

(CRACK) The sound of bones breaking echoed through the arena and everyone's attention returned to the arena. The Rhino ran and where it had supposedly stabbed and killed Ajay, where the body should have been lying ….

Was standing there as if nothing had ever happened to him.

"Wha-…Saras! Saras! He's alive!" "….Huh?" She looked up to see he had been telling the truth and her consciousness returned. She blinked a few more times to ensure she wasn't seeing things and begun letting out tears of joy. But then noticed something wasn't right.

"Badala is-…." but Samson suddenly noticed that there was something entirely wrong with what he was seeing. The horn was still embedded in his right upper chest near the shoulder. And then-'Poof!'

His shadow disappeared, the next minute was a carnage unlike anything he had ever seen. He toyed with the elite guard but not in the usual way. They were like twigs that snapped with too much force was applied, in the arena they never died as a whole piece but severed in two instead with an unpeaceful dying expression on their faces.

Then he threw a body in mid-air and used it to catapult himself onto the spectator seats which caused his mouth to gape both by the strength used to toss the body and to make a jump like he did.

-Is he even human?!-

Back to the present where everyone was trying to escape with their lives and they were left in shock by the events that took place, Ajay was continuing his rampage in the observation booth where Paul and Noore was.

"Come on! Let's go!" Saras wiped the tears from her eyes as she was the quickest to recover despite being the most effected by his seeming death.

Samson made a resolve and turned to the rest.

"Wake up you lot! We've got a person to save!"


Rage was a familiar feeling to him, it had trigger off numerous times in his life. Dissatisfaction with his and his mother's predicament, the discrimination he went through as a child, the injustice inflicted upon his mother with cancer, his gang boss, his predicament in Kyrat. But most of all, the betrayal of the Golden Path.

It wasn't just his trip back in time that happened during his final hours then, something else happened. Something deep inside of him triggered off, like a warm sensation blooming within his body engulfing him with a turbulent power been sealed deep within him.

The day he thought he lost Saras, it triggered off again causing his body to feel no pain from the lack of oxygen in the high altitude, the cuts and bruises on his body or the previously experienced fatigue. All of these were washed away with an addictive sensation that channeled through his body giving his muscles and sinew an enveloped feeling and allowed him to cleaver the Yetis thick hand apart with the kukri.

These sensations were undoubtedly infectious, but there was a price for such power.

When the feeling of rage passed through his body his sense of reason seemed to be unable to cope with the torrents and became flooded with thoughts of berserk rampage.

Every time he killed someone or something, the high would come back making it more and more difficult for him to control his thoughts and emotions.

Now, here he stood with Noore choking on his raised left hand and his knife centimetres away from plunging into her soft skin. The look she gave sparked a painful memory he'd kept hidden deep in his psyche but appeared to restore his reason to him. The harder he tried to come to his senses the stronger the desire to rip this woman in half became for him. But who was this woman? Why was her expression so familiar? She wanted me to save…. Her family…Family.

A different warmth covered him from his back. Clasping her arms around him was Saras.

"Ajay… stop!... Please don't become lost….. please don't leave again."

The memories returned to remind him what he was fighting for and what he held dear and the rage slowly dissipated into nothing.

The knife clattered to the floor and Noore fell from his hand coughing. The yellow hue that clouded his eyes vanished. "Thank you…. Thank you, Ajay." Saras said leaning on his back.

But the pain from his injury returned, his fatigue returned and his bodily functions began to fail as the backlash began.

Ajay fell forward and collapsed on the floor to Saras's surprise. "Ajay?... Ajay!" She shook him to wake.

Noore came over once she had more a less recovered from her deprivation of air and checked his pulse.

"He's breathing but his pulse is weak. We need to get him to seek immediate medical attention! I-… I know I'm not in the position to make calls after what I did but at least let me fulfil my duty as a practitioner of medicine!" Saras nodded. The others came running into the room.

"Help me carry him. Luca, call for immediate medivac!"


….

….

Ajay found himself standing at the Ghale Homestead without any explanation. He went to the door and opened it to find the mountains in flames, there was screaming and gunfire down below.

"Urghh…." A figure hobbled towards him from the Cliffside entrance.

"Saras?..." There was something different about her, her attire was torn but what was truly strange was the expression she wore. Saras looked at Ajay with all the enmity she could gather in a single expression.

"Ajay Ghale…..Urghh…" Her stomach had sustained serious injury as she held the blood from flowing rapidly from her body.

"Saras!" Ajay went over to catch hold of her as she leaned forward.

As he held her up with both hands a piercing pain struck his chest where the heart was. "Ah-…!" Looking down at his chest he found a knife stuck inside with hands belonging to Saras holding the handle. Ajay fell into a kneel as she removed the knife from his chest, holding a look of disdain.

"For my father-….." Holding the knife with two hands she stabbed him again.

"For my family that was in ruins-…. Because of your betrayal!" Pulling out the knife he fell on his back onto the floor as she continued to stab him.

"For murdering the King!..."

-The King?... Pagan?!...-

"For turning your back on your country….."

She knelt over him and placed her knife against his neck.

"The sentence is-…"

The knife slid across his throat effectively ending his life.

"Death!"

Ajay gasped violently for air from the intense dream he was having as he upright himself on the bed he was on. He took a while to wipe the sweat from his body and gather his thoughts then assess where he was.

The place had a familiar touch to it, the word to describe its design was regal. He was in the room Pagan gave to him during his stay in the Royal Palace. While moving his body he could feel some pain from torn muscles during his life endangering fight and shadow pain from the-…

Ajay looked down at his chest where the rhino horn had pierced his body, there was a scar there and that was precisely the point.

He knew how serious the injury was and yet the scar looked like it had only been a gunshot wound recovered. He moved his hand about to get a feel of how much he could move it. Ajay got out of the bed and noticed a figure in the dark lying next to him. The night had fallen over Kyrat but the moon up high lit up the features of the landscape outside the window. Ajay walked over to the lying figure and found it to be Saras.

The thoughts of the dream he just had recurred to him, it was clear to him what it had been.

He had not met Saras officially in his previous life but that dream showed him a possibility of what Saras would have become. When he joined the Golden Path in its struggle he might have caused Arjun's influence within the War Council to plummet since he always talked about his relationship with Mohan regardless of the political pressure that was applied to him, that man treasured family and friendship above all else, except loyalty to king and country. And with Pagan's temper flaring with his mischief with the Golden Path would likely collide with Arjun's straightforwardness. Pagan had a habit of executing people who didn't let him get his way and that might have been the wrong time to advise against his actions. Most likely, Arjun was executed and the House of Roka fell into shambles with the loss of its family head. Saras was in no position to hold back the opposition back on her own added with the decline of her family it was no wonder she would give him that look. A single action of his affected the fate of every person in Kyrat, that was how much responsibility was thrown onto his shoulders whether he liked it or not.

Ajay ran a hand across her long wavy hair. The admiration and affection she tried to give him, he didn't deserve any of it. He knew he was a monster, literally. Built to stomp over obstacles in his path without recognition of whether it be friend or foe. That sensation of berserk, red rage was a testament to his purpose in this new life and the previous one. He could only destroy.

But there were people he had met that had the power to change things as they went. Maya was able to improve the lives of the people through commerce and an enterprising spirit. Arjun and Saras strived to make the Royal Army a military power that the people of Kyrat would look at with pride. Though Bhadra wasn't aware of it, she was capable of understanding others emotions and accessing their vulnerability to enrich their mental resolve. Samar was an industrialist who believed in making things to improve life despite his official post as the Royal Armorer.

"She's been watching over you ever since the day you collapsed. It's been three days since and I still don't have any explanation to that freakish recovery you had with the cavity in your chest." A woman's voice came from the entrance of the room. Walking in with a basket of bandages and ointments was Noore.

"Noore…. How did-."

"When it came to the matter of your survival all differences need to be forgotten. I'm a doctor before anything else."

"Thanks."

"Don't thank me yet, I didn't say I'd do this for free."

Ajay frowned, he knew what she was going to ask, it was apparent that Pagan failed to mention to her the outcome of her family.

"….. Ajay?" Saras rubbed her eyes as she woke from the nap she took.

"Hey."

Saras didn't answer, instead she wrapped her arms around him and snuggled herself against him.

"Sorry."

"Don't ever do that again!"

"I won't."

"Good!"

"Ahem!" Noore reminded her that she was still within their presence and if Saras was going to have an intimate moment with Ajay she'd have to wait.

"S-sorry, Noore." She went to sit on the bed.

"Now to the business at hand."

-Here we go.-

"I didn't join Paul because I had a choice, he has my family you see."

"You want me to rescue your family, correct?"

"Exactly!" Her face brightened as he quickly caught on.

"Noore, have a seat."

"Um- Ok?" She had a seat next to Saras, it seemed as if they had mingled with one another. Perhaps because Saras was assisting her in operating on him that they found out they were a good team together.

Ajay went to the door and locked it then went over to the window and secured it. Countermeasures in the event she wanted a quick end to her life. He had thought long and hard at how he was going to convey this news to her without her going into a mental breakdown and suicide. But he just couldn't hide the truth from her, no matter how much it would hurt her.

"Noore, what I'm about to tell you-."

"What's with this atmosphere?!" She demanded with her face full of nervousness and anxiety.

"Your family-."

"No-….."

"Died years ago."

"No. NoNoNoNoNoNoNOOOO!..." She broke into tears as she went over to embrace Saras seeking comfort.

"Paul tortured them to death whether Pagan ordered it to be so I don't know. The letters you've been receiving came from his daughter Ashley, he tricked her into thinking it was for a pen-pal."

Noore cried even louder though she cries was muffled against Saras's shoulder. After she had more a less cried enough for her to speak again she turned to Ajay.

"I have a job for you."

"Denied."

"I saved your life, asshole!"

"And that's what I'm going to repay you in kind with."

"I don't want salvation I want Paul DEAD!" She grabbed hold of his collar as she shouted into his face.

"You're in as much fault as he is…."

"W-What?-."

"I read about you Noore. You came to Kyrat long ago as a part of a tour by your organization, seeing the disregard of human rights in the working conditions you wrote an article against Pagan and he invited you over to Kyrat to parley and show improvements to be made. You knew the hazards of bringing your family into this lawless country where dog eats dog. And yet you brought them here-."

"Shut up!"

"Perhaps you had a fight with your husband beforehand to the trip you were taking and brought them along hoping he'd realize the dangers of the place to teach him a lesson."

"Shut up!"

"You led them to their deaths!"

"SHUT UP!-…" Noore cried out in anguish as she tugged his collar till her palms started to bleed.

Ajay placed a hand on her head.

"You're not the only one that has to live with pain and regret, if you say I don't have a clue of what you've been through you'll be right to say so. No one has ever had to go through the hardship you went through, to work until these hands of yours bled so that your family could continue breathing. And you did so for almost five years without another thought entirely, only to find out now that they'd been dead for almost as long as you've been here. Fate has been cruel to you, and it may never be able to fully compensate you for the trials you've achieved. You might never be able to be free from all of this but I'll promise you, if you choose to continue struggling with life I'll be there to keep you in the right track. If you try to kill yourself I will stop you, this life no longer belongs to you. You may change it but I'll never let you take it away, because if you do there'll be no one left to remember your family."

Noore's head slumped against his shoulder as she understood it was inevitable. Ajay would do all he could to help her stay in this uncaring world….. to preserve the memory of her husband and two children.

"But when Paul falls into our grasp you'll have first priority in reminding him who's family he took."

Ajay left these last grim words for her to answer her previous request. He had managed to keep Noore from falling any further but to truly free her from her pain, for her dead husband and sons' spirits to truly be avenged. Paul needed to pay.


The noise of the propellers droning from high speed rotation helped drown out the sound of his heart beat. He was beyond nervous to being thrown back into a kind of life he didn't want to have anything to do with any longer. He had been dragged from his quiet and Spartan life in a ranch back into another hellhole. He may have made a vow to himself and Liza he would never lift a hand against another human being but this was an exception. Liza, Oliver, Daisy and Riley had been kidnapped. Agent Willis had contacted him several times on recruiting him into clandestine ops because of his adept prowess in combat but he refused every offer, agents from DEA and other CIA officers did the same. He sent them off his property with a shotgun warning shot for harassing him and they left with contempt but he didn't care about their feelings. They were anything but considerate about his, knowing that he was still at odds with what he did they still wanted him to increase his guilt.

Then one day, Willis gave him a call telling him his friends had been taken by a tyrant whom had ties with Hoyt who went by the name of Pagan Min out of spite for the loss of his associate and his drug business. Willis provided him with the means to travel to a place called Kyrat, a place riddled with Civil War for almost two decades. Kyrat was also a drug capital and the shipments had passed through Rook Island to be distributed to the open market. But unlike Rook Island that was swarming with Pirates or Military Rejects Kyrat was safeguarded by the National army, the ambiguous Royal Army and Elite Royal Guard regiments. The only way he could get to his friends was with the help of a local rebel organization that was the direct opponent to the Royal Army, the Golden Path resistance.

Jason looked into the long case that he carried with him on the trip. A gift from the range master in Texas he often went to blow off steam with guns. Inside the pelican case was a custom built race gun built on an AR-15. Jason partook in a few shooting competitions during his time in the states, particularly three-gun matches due to its versatility in the use of weapons. The switching between handgun, shotgun and self-loading rifle helped keep things interesting for him in his new hobby. The range master was so impressed with his skills that he offered to sponsor his training to represent their city in the state competitions which he didn't object to. He didn't disappoint them as he attained second place which was impressive for a newcomer and became something of a town hero in their regard. When they asked him what his prior experience in shooting came from he remained silent.

"Because Hermano was shooting people's heads off before he started shooting targets!" The person sitting in front of him laughed after reading his mind.

"Shut up!"

"Oh- Don't lie to yourself Jason, deep down you were wishing for something like this to happen again!" A certain spikey-haired Mohawk eccentric taunted him from across.

"I-… Don't-.."

"Don't fumble with your speech esé, it makes you too easy to read by the home boy you're gonna see soon." He cautioned.

"And why would I ever listen to you?"

"Need I say? You… and me… are one."

"You're a god damn shadow of what you once were."

"Maybe, but I'm one that belongs with you."

"You're an eyesore."

"Humph! Jason, hermano! I'm only here because you let me!"

"….."

"You know, I was getting bored with you sitting around, farming, watching the tele, shitting, sleeping. I think this is the vacation both of us sorely need to open your shit-covered eyes to the truth of this world and start accepting who you are!" He said with a malicious grin

"That's still not for you to decide."

"Mr. Brody?" The co-pilot called from the entrance to the flight compartment.

"Uh-Yes?"

"We've reached the borders of Nepal and are about to reach the drop zone in Kyrat soon. E.T.A is forty minutes. When we approach I'll come down an assist you in the jump."

"Alright, thanks!" The co-pilot went back into the cockpit and sat next to the pilot who was keeping the cargo plane steady in the turbulent winds of the Himalayas.

"…..(Sigh)."

"What?" The pilot asked.

"That guy was talking to himself again, damn creepy."

"Just fly straight and we'll dump him at the DZ and be done with him."

The co-pilot agreed and focused on keeping the cargo plane steady from his seat.