I walked a few blocks until I got to the subway entrance. I stood around waiting for the train to come. I walked a little closer to the tracks as I heard it coming but then I noticed something at the corner of my eye. I looked over and was stunned to see the V symbol on one of the pillars. This was a sign that I had to try and finish this fast.

When I got on the train, things didn't get any better. The V symbol was all over the train. Everyone else ignored them; saw them as nothing more than spray paintings. I was the only one who knew what they really meant. When I got off the train I headed back outside. Aesir Labs was only two blocks away. It was located on Rosa St, a street that had earned the reputation as the quietest street in New York. No one in the city would ever go down it.

The street was filled with nothing more than dead businesses. Businesses that had all been shut down for illegal activity but none were as bad as Aesir. Aesir labs was a small two story building that was slowly starting to fall apart. The big sign that use to say Aesir was almost completely unrecognizable under a bunch of spray paintings and almost all of the windows had been smashed by rocks. The huge condemned sign still hung in the front door. After a few moments of hesitation I finally walked in.

The inside of the building wasn't any better. Cobwebs were everywhere and pieces of the ceiling were beginning to fall off. Everything was dead quiet, so quiet that every footstep I took echoed throughout the building. With no power in the building, the outside street lights were the only way I could see where I was going. I held my berretta firmly in my hand ready for anything. But I knew deep down that anything was never everything. The further I walked through the building the dimmer the light outside got and it became much harder to see. Once I got to the point where I couldn't see anymore I began to hear noises coming from a distance. I walked blindly forward, following the sound.

But before I could go any further a huge light turned on in back of me. I quickly turned around to see Horne before me. "Good evening Mr. Payne. You predictably came here. Oh, don't worry, we haven't killed her yet, we're having too much fun listening to her scream." She smiled sadistically. "Too bad you won't be able to see." One of her men wheeled her over to a door that was behind her. When she opened it three of her men came out holding leashed to 6 Rottweiler's who were muzzled but their growls definitely weren't promising me anything good. "Let's see how you handle this."

After she said that I quickly ran. I heard the guards take the muzzles off the dogs and their barks echoed throughout the building. They finally let them loose and all six of them were after me. The light was still on in the background. I stopped and looked back aimed my berretta. BAM!! With that one shot, the bullet went through one of the dogs head and hit the dog behind him; Two down and four to go. I spotted another door and tried to go through but it was locked. The hall was long but it wasn't long enough as I got closer to the end. I had to think fast. I put my berretta back in my coat and got out the shotgun I had hidden under my jacket. With no time to fire I raised the shotgun like a baseball bat and swung with all my might and hit one of the dogs with so much for it him flying into another dog and they went straight through the window at the end of the hall.

There were two dogs left, when one went to jump I finally took aim. BAM! The force of the shot sent the dog sliding down the floor but I couldn't pump the shotgun soon enough as the last dog jumped and bit me right in the arm. I fell over with the dog landing on top of me. I tried to push him off but every attempt felt like he was going to take my arm with him. With my free arm I tried to reach for my berretta but the dog's body was lying right on the spot where I had placed it. Then with all the fury I could muster I clenched my fist and began to pound away at the dogs head. After two big punches the dog finally let go and got off. But in almost a split second he jumped again but that split second was enough for me to get my gun out. BAM! The dog landed on me and his blood started to drop right on my cloths. With one arm I shoved him off.

When I got up Horne and her men were no longer there. I walked back down the hall, stepping on what seemed to be a never ending line of blood from the dogs with my shotgun tightly held in my hands. When I reached the end of the hall where the huge light was, I had my shotgun in the air ready to fire at anything in front of me. But from behind me a door burst open and one of Horne's men and pushed me hard into the while, which caused the shotgun to slip out of my hands. Before I could even turn around a huge fist came crashing down on my face with such force it almost knocked me completely off my feet. He raised his fist for another punch right as I saw it head towards me I ducked fast, which caused him to punch the wall.

"AAAAHHH!!!" His scream of pain was so loud it hurt my ears. I stood back up and with all the force I could gather, punched his lights almost completely out. He fell over on to his knees. I got the shotgun and pointed it straight at his head. He immediately started to beg. "Please, please, don't kill me." This tough guard who just a second ago was beating me up was pleading.

"Sorry, forgiveness is just not my thing." BAM! He fell to the ground and everything went silent again. That was the last bullet that was in my shotgun. I threw it down and grabbed his pistol. I walked a little forward and then I heard the noise I had heard earlier. I walked to the door where the noise was coming from. I slowly opened it. The doorway led to a set of stares that led down into what appeared to be the basement of the building. I slowly walked down and the closer I got to the bottom, the louder the noise got.

I finally reached the door that led to the basement and tried to open it silently. When I finally opened it there was no one actually in the room, but the room was filled with running machines that were making the Valkyr drug. I walked further into the room to get a better look, closing the door behind me. There were twelve machines, each making at least a thousand each judging by the amount of containers loaded into them. Walking further into the room I noticed another door at the end of it. Shadows of the people walking in the room showed at the bottom of the door. I quickly got out my berretta and headed towards the door. I stood at the side of the door and raised my foot to kick it opened. BAM BAM BAM!!! But before I could even get a chance bullets started flying through the door nonstop. I was forced to move quickly out of the way.

I heard them run up to the door after the gunfire had stopped and I immediately ran behind one of the machines. The door opened and I quickly looked into the room. Stacy was tied up and unconscious on the table in the room and four of Horne's men came walking out and closed the door. "You know our orders." One of them said. "Search and destroy." I immediately got up. BAM BAM BAM! My three shots nailed one of them and he fell straight down. But I was forced to duck down immediately as a load of machine gun fire came directly my weight. All the glass containers above me were shattering and I had to cover up as it landed around me. "KILL HIM NOW!!" One of them yelled furiously.

"What the hell is going on out there?" I heard Horne's voice over their radios.

"We're having a little bit of trouble Ms. Horne."

"All of that gunfire and you're having trouble? Don't you dare fail me." She said very sternly. But as he was talking I got up again. BAM! Nailed him straight in the head but the other two guards were quick to react. BAM BAM BAM! They sprayed bullets all over the room all of the glass in the room was shattering and landing all over the place. They finally ceased fire.

"Check the room and if he is still alive, tare him to shreds." One of the guards ordered. I could hear their footsteps coming closer. I reached into my jacket to grab the other pistol. I aimed my berretta one way and the pistol the other. They finally walked into my view. BAM!! Both shots hit them right in their legs. "AHHHH!" They screamed simultaneously and I stood up quickly and took aim at their heads. BAM! They dropped like rocks and without even looking back I had my eyes set on that door. I walked straight to the door and kicked it open with all my might but to my dismay there was no one in the room when I went in.

In that small room I tried desperately to find a secret passage. There was no way they had gotten out of that room without one. After looking for a little while I finally noticed a tall safe that was slightly cracked opened. I went to it and opened it. To my surprise it wasn't a safe at all. It was a safe door that led to a set of stairs that looked like they led to the rook of the building. I ran up the stairs and kicked opened the door to the roof. When I ran onto the roof there was Horne and one of her men standing right next to her, he had set stay down and she lay motionless on the roof.

"You want her, you can have her." Horne shouted. In the distance behind her I noticed a helicopter heading straight towards us. I could only assume it was Horne's. "It won't matter anyhow, because my drug is already making its way across the city." She then looked at her guard. "Tell him to land right behind us." He nodded his head and ran to the edge of the roof and singled to it where to land. She looked back at me. "A lot of people think my drug is a bad thing. Well there wrong. My drug only does what they want it to do, end their lives.

"There are over eight million people down there who think their lives are in hell." She smiled. "They are told to believe that V will show them the light, will show them heaven. But what they fail to realize is that they are already in heaven; that their lives are not even close to as bad as it seems. Thru V they get to see how good their lives really were and what real hell looks like before they die. It makes them feel guilty and makes them feel foolish. It shows them REALITY. No one likes reality anymore unless it's on some stupid T.V. show. Everyone hates reality because it tells them the one thing that none of them want to here, the truth. I will show them the truth and they're soon going to learn that their lies and deceits lead to nothing but their death.

She walked closer to me but her mouth didn't stop. "If anyone knows reality it's you Mr. Payne. You left your dream world when you first heard my voice the day you found your family killed." She smiled wider. "I ended your dream myself, and I didn't even have to drug you to do so. I know what's going through your head. You think if you kill me with one of those guns you clutch in your hands that it will be all over. But what you fail to realize, like many of those people down there, is that the real pain is from revenge. Revenge only drives a person deeper down into the abyss, it drops you down to your enemy's level."

I stood still staring at her for what seemed like an eternity. Then finally my mind was finally clear, I could see the end more clearly now than ever. "So be it." I said with a very low tone and I raised my berretta and aimed straight at her head.

She simply smiled again. "Welcome Mr. Payne, welcome to my level." She gave a very sinister laugh but my ears were through listening to her. BAM!

In my eyes the bullet went in slow motion. I could see all of the things that had happened to me over the past five years right in front of me in that one single shot and then it finally hit her straight in the head and she went flying back and hit the ground, and the images went away. Her guard surprisingly did nothing but make a run for the helicopter and yelled at the pilot to take off. At that point, I could care less about him.

I walked closer to Horne's now lifeless body and saw that the smile was still on her face, even in death. After staring, I finally was able to take it in. I grabbed Stacy and walked back down. When I walked out the front door, I could hear the cop sirens coming my way. The cop cars were speeding up the street and finally made a stop in front of me and George Loreto got out. "So I guess you're going to say I told you so." He said.

They took Stacy and I to the hospital, she had finally woken up on the way there. She was shaken up but she seemed fine. I lay in the hospital bed and was finally relaxed for the first time in years. After about an hour Loreto came walking in.

"Well, we couldn't find where Horne's guard and helicopter went, she somehow managed to design to where it couldn't be seen on radar but Horne's body was taken to the city morgue. "If I were to follow the rulebook, I would be arresting you right now for murder." He said with a serious look but it faded into a smile fast. "But I'm not."

"Why not?" I immediately asked.

"Because you did what you had to do to get Stacy." He paused but the smile never faded. "It would have happened sooner if you had listened to me but every officer in the waiting room owes a debt of gratitude to you. You are a brave man Max, a little hard headed but brave."

"I'm not necessarily brave. The only reason I won this whole thing was because over the last few years, I've run on nothing but guts and not really caring whether I lived or died." I looked straight into his eyes. "That's not bravery." I looked away.

"Maybe not in your eyes Max but from what I saw in that building when we picked you up, that showed me a man who deserves to be cop." He said very sincerely and I was stunned to hear it come out of his mouth. I turned my head to look at him but he was already gone.

After laying down a little while longer, I finally got out of the bed and went to look out the window. I looked around outside and out of the corner of my eyes I saw a blurry reflection standing at the door to my room.

I turned around and Mona stood in front of me. "Hello Max."

THE END