Kyle could hear the low vibrations and thumping from the loud music within the club that he stood in front of now. The place was settled about a mile from Eric's house, it wasn't anything spectacular it was just a typical run of the mill club. It was a brick building that could almost be mistaken for a warehouse. Though Kyle wasn't sure why it was considered a formal attire type of place. There was an overhang jutting from the front door shaped like a canopy, it was purple in color and had the club name printed on the front.

The Rogue.

Kyle had passed by this place several times within his life, but he never was one to even enter such a place; until now. It didn't even scream class if it wasn't for the businessmen entering the place in suit and tie. So for once, Cartman wasn't lying. Cartman was standing in front of the three talking to the bouncer as Kyle was observing the situation with a passive expression. He wasn't sure about this situation in the least bit.

A grin had spread across Cartman's lips as he motioned for his men to follow. The first thing that Kyle noticed was the music, it was a low techno-pop that played seamlessly through the speakers on the ceiling. Flashing lights pulsated on the dance floor but the group wasn't here to dance, at least not the kind of dancing that everyone else was here to do.

Booths lined around the dance floor, given its appearance from the outside, Kyle wasn't shocked at how small the inside was.

The closest booth to the bar held the man, in particular, they were looking for. He was a ragged-looking guy, he seemed like the paranoid sorts as well, with how his eyes flickered around the area before he took a sip of his whiskey in front of him. Kyle thought he looked absolutely pathetic. The man looked like he was waiting for someone, it clearly wasn't them, so that raised his suspicions quite a bit.

He was going to pipe up and raise his suspicions but Cartman was already making a beeline towards the man's booth. It was too late now, a sigh escaped his lips as he followed after him. He felt a nudge in his side and looked over to see Stan who was raising an eyebrow at him.

"What gives dude?"

"Something is suspicious about this, I'm just not sure what." Kyle shook his head and followed after Cartman. The don had slid into the man's booth and Kenny ungracefully flopped right next to the man, without any sort of value of the man's personal space, officially trapping the man in. Kyle slid in and sat next to Cartman with Stan taking the last space at the end of the half-circle shaped booth.

Now that Kyle was closer he could observe the man closer, he kind of looked like a creep. His hair was unkempt and greasy, his clothes were smeared with something that could only be described as lunch, and his eyes were wild and paranoid, not even the half glass of alcohol the man had drunk was calming him.

"Who the fuck are you guys?" his eyes narrowed until he set his eyes on Cartman and his annoyed expression.

"Oh-"

"Oh is right, Mr. Harrison." Cartman's lips twisted into a frown.

"We'll only be a minute, we just want some information, then you can get back to whatever it was you were doing." Cartman put on the niceties really thick, smooth and manipulative.

"Alright, fine." Then Harrison's eyes floated over and eyed Kyle and a light of recognition appeared in them.

"You, you have such a big hit on your head, it's almost a sin not to take it since you're sitting in front of me." the man's voice turned sing-songy.

"The moment you even try, you're a dead man." Kenny's voice was low as he leaned into the man's personal space and dropped that threat like a bomb.

The man's eyes widened, he knew who he was dealing with at this moment and he wasn't stupid to piss off the people that ran South Park.

"Fine, what do you want?" the voice was terse and laced with annoyance.

"Everything you know about The Agency." Cartman's voice was low and laced with venom.

The man's Adam apple bobbed as he contemplated this, there really was no choice, he was getting out of here in a body bag either way. If Eric Cartman or his men didn't kill him, the head of the Agency would.

There was a moment of silence, only the low hum of music and idle chatter filling the room.

"What do you want to know?"

Cartman smiled, pleased at this, "Everything, who runs it and what their purpose is."

The man took his drink and guzzled it down before slamming it down on the table with a clank.

One last drink, Kyle mused to himself.

"The Agency is run by a man named Damian Thorn and his right hand, a kid named Pip. He's been the head honcho since his dad stepped down three years ago. There really isn't a whole purpose, it's about money, it's always been about money." he sighed and rubbed his hand down his face. "The system is simple, you take up a job from the main building and kill and get paid. I'm just your average merc, I don't know too much about things, but I suppose I know more than your friend here. Since you just didn't get all that information from him."

Harrison eyed Kyle, "What were you even doing in this business, you seem like a nice kid." he wondered.

"Your leader's father was a manipulative son of a bitch. He really knew how to rope grieving children into his sick plans." Kyle scowled.

"I'd advise not talking about my father so venomously, Kyle Broflovski." a lower more monotone voice sounded across the table. It made the man freeze and turn stiff as a board.

Damian was standing there with a blonde boy next to him who had an eerie and light cheerful smile on his lips.

Stan flickered between the two with realization in his eyes, "Didn't you two use to go to South Park Elementary?" and then disappeared, was the words left unspoken.

The realization was visible throughout the table. They remembered the boy who was the son of Satan and the annoying British boy that they always bullied.

"Ah, the dumb one remembers," Pip spoke.

"Stan isn't dumb, you don't get to insult him," Kyle spat.

Kyle was scowling at the two that were responsible for his life being a living hell at the moment. He wished he could just pull out his gun and shoot them both, that would solve all their problems right now. Though he was sure it would only bring out more problems than he'd like to consider.

"What are you even doing here?" Kyle asked.

"Why should I answer a disloyal rat?" Damian sneered.

"You don't own me, I could have left my contract whenever I wanted."

"No, you went and broke your contract now that was a stupid move wasn't it?" Damian picked at his nails and looked at the group gathered. "Now you're 'owned' by another crime group, funny how that works. If you had just stayed loyal, you would have made such a nice hitman." he scoffed.

"I'm not owned by anyone." Kyle snapped.
"You're getting damn annoying. I didn't have to come here and tell you what I came to tell you, but I did, and consider this a heads up. Kyle is a dead man walking, enemy number one, I know how important he is to all of you, and I can't wait to rip all apart." he sneered.

Kyle's eyes widened, he knew he already had a hit out on him, but now it was all hands on deck, he wasn't sure why Damian wanted him dead so badly. His hand slammed down on the table and his eyes narrowed. Harrison looked like he wanted to be anywhere but here.

"You sick bastard. Can't you just give up and let me go, why are you so obsessed" Kyle breathed.

"I want this city to be mine, you and the mafia are standing in the way. All of you are fair game now. You most especially Broflovski." was the response.

Kyle glanced around the table, Kenny looked like he would lunge right at Damian but Kenny was smart, he knew it wouldn't do them any good. The hatred in those usually carefree eyes was blinding. He wanted to get out of there quickly, he had to get home to Butters to make sure the other was safe.

Eric looked absolutely livid and had his eyes dangerously narrowed. "That's one thing that'll never fucking happen Thorn, this city is mine and your scrawny ass won't ever take it. Then you attack my men, if it's a war you want asshole, it's a war you've got. We're done here."

Stan got out first and sneered down at Damian and Pip, "If one hair is hurt on Kyle's head, I'll rip everything you love away from you." he said and headed to the front door. Kyle stared after him and got out of the booth next, Kenny and Cartman were exiting from the other side and Cartman was trying to make sure Kenny didn't put a gun to Damian's head.

When Kyle, a man with nothing more to lose did what everyone wanted to do. He reared his fist back and punched Damian straight in the nose.

"Ow what the fuck." he said holding his now bleeding nose.

"If I die, that'll be something to remember me by, jackass," he said and headed after Stan.

Kenny followed after him laughing and muttering something about serving him right.

Eric took up the rear his expression unreadable and Kyle wished he knew what he was thinking. Probably nothing that was good for him in the long run.

The car ride back to Cartman's house was quiet and uncomfortable, with no talking other than the phone calls made to get the men to Cartman's house for a meeting. Kyle was dreading the meeting, he knew that this whole war was the fault of his, though by extension it was Cartman's mistake too.

But it would be a cold day in hell before the don would own up to his own mistakes.

"Kyle."

Kyle looked up from his spot with his face squished against the window of the back seat with his eyes widening when he realized who said his name.

"Yes, Boss?"

"Next time you impulsively punch someone out of spite, do it harder." Kyle looked up to see a smile on Cartman's face from the rearview mirror.

"Yeah dude, you did what everyone there wanted to do. Even though it probably just made everything worse." Stan piped up.

Kenny didn't say anything he was on the phone with Butters trying to explain everything and get him to Cartman's house.

They pulled into Cartman's driveway and exited the car and made their way inside. Kyle sighed and flopped down onto Cartman's couch and buried his face in his hands. He felt the couch dip beside him.

"This is my fault." Kyle's muffled words came out from behind his hands. He felt guilty, if it wasn't for him even taking the contract a while back none of this would be happening.

"You know it's Cartman's fault too," Stan said and placed his hand on Kyle's shoulder. Kyle spread two fingers to look through them at Stan and Cartman who was standing to the side.

"Thanks, like I needed to be reminded, hippy." Cartman sighed.

"Only trying to make Kyle feel better."

"Thanks, Stan." Kyle removed his hands from his face and gave a small smile at his best friend. His gaze turned to Cartman and he sighed, "I don't actually think Cartman knew that this would happen. But I don't mind sharing the blame." he smirked.

"You asshole," Cartman laughed.

The room fell into a comfortable silence until Butters came in through the door, he looked around until he closed the door behind him and crossed the room widely to reach Kenny. Kenny wrapped his arms around his boyfriend and Kyle averted his eyes to give them privacy. The tension and mood in the house was heavy and heady like tainted water, it pressed down on Kyle's shoulders and it almost felt like he was struggling to breathe. He knew his life was on the line now, he just didn't know how to take it.

Moments passed and soon the living room was filled with Cartman's men. Kyle glanced around and picked out who he recognized. There was Craig and Tweek, Craig had his arm wrapped around a rather spaztastic Tweek, who was muttering something that contained 'war' and 'we're going to die'

"Calm down, Tweek." Craig said soothingly.

Cartman and Wendy had disappeared in the back for a short amount of time. Confiding in his office as the don made his next moves.

Clyde and Token were here, the only two that never made it to the party a few weeks ago. Kyle found himself wishing for that time back. They were huddled by Craig and Tweek but at a distance. The four still remain fast friends and something akin to family.

Kyle rubbed at his face but stopped when he saw Cartman and Wendy emerge from the office and head into the living room. The silence only stretched farther as they waited for their leader to speak.

Cartman looked confident as he began to speak, "As you're all aware, a threat has been made upon one of our members," he eyed Kyle pointedly. Kyle could swear the room dropped a few degrees as that settled in finally "we're not going to stand for that, a threat upon them is a threat to us all. So as of tonight we're at war with The Agency. It's only fair that we show those fuckers who this city really belongs to."

Murmurs of agreement rippled through the room.

"Yeah let's show them who's boss!" Clyde finally spoke up from his spot behind Craig.

"What's the first plan of action?" Kenny said from his spot his eyes dark, it was clear to everyone he wanted to pull the rug out from the other group. Revenge was a nice color tonight.

Kyle couldn't help but stare at Cartman who had a dark smile across his face, it made his spine tingle in a way he wasn't familiar with. It wasn't the first time that a smile like that was on Cartman's face. Though this time it hit differently, this was a Cartman hell bent on revenge not only against a rival, but a Cartman hellbent on revenge for targeting Kyle and their ragtag family.

It couldn't stop his heart from fluttering, just like the times Cartman showed just a smidge of kindness ever since he found himself into this mess. Did their dynamic change at some point? Kyle knew it wasn't hatred anymore, maybe it was something...more. Within the tension of the moment, within the fear of the situation, he found himself locking eyes with Cartman. A strange feeling welled up in his chest and he wasn't sure what to make of it. Until it dawned on him- he felt love.

Those repressed feelings from middle school were rising again in his chest and making his head spin. He quickly averted his eyes and stared down at the floor to breathe. God he was acting like a fucking girl.

As he came up for breath and snapped back into reality he realized Cartman was speaking about their first plan of action.

"We target their buildings, if we burn their bases they'll all go to their main headquarters and then we gut them like pigs. Kyle, do you remember where the other two bases are?" Cartman was eyeing him now and all the attention was on him.

Kyle nodded, "One is in the south district, the other in North Park. I can mark them on a map." he spoke while trying to keep his breath steady.

Cartman nodded, seeming pleased with this.

"Tweek, Butters, do you think you guys can cook up a few Molotovs, we're going to burn these fuckers to the ground."

"Gah! With the men inside them?!"

"Obviously."

"Alright. Fine man, give me and Butters until tomorrow."

Butters nodded from his spot and gave a small smile, "You got it, Eric."

"That's that then, in two days we meet here and put our plans into action. Dismissed." Cartman spoke with finality and headed into his office.

Kyle bit down on his tongue and stood up without a word. Stan looked up at him with a questioning glance. "I just need to take a shower and relax right now, I'll call you in the morning." he said to Stan who just nodded.

"Alright dude."

Kyle weaved around the gathered people and headed up to his room. He landed face first into his bed, the soft puff of air from the impact billowing up around him. He let out a low groan as he turned around on his side and then into a sitting up position. He glanced at the bathroom and then blinking away the exhaustion he felt ebbing onto his body he headed into the bathroom and started up the shower.

Undressing and stepping in he let himself slink to the ground and let the hot water cascade down his back.

So much had happened within the past three weeks and Kyle had no time to process it until now. He was a part of Cartman's team, he was now a walking target and there was a war on the horizon.

It possibly couldn't end well.

It had to end well, if not everything he ever knew would crumble down into oblivion.

Though one thing was clear to him, he was catching feelings for Cartman, that was something he didn't even know how to come to terms with.

Unless he just accepted it.

He found himself doing just that.