Disclaimer: See previous chapters

Chap. 54

Guile grimaced...

Being a soldier required him to travel through all kinds of terrain, be it blistering hot deserts, murky swamps, or frozen wastelands, without hesitation or pause. And as an immortal, he seen plenty of places he'd rather not visit, yet he would do so if it was necessary, whether he liked it or not (in most cases, not). Hence, his current location.

The sewers…

It was a sort of twisted humor, he figured, that the worse places would be somewhere close by. It was just as bad, if not worse than a swamp. Like a swamp, it was dark and murky, with his boots being submerged in the muck beneath him. But there was always that one factor that made it worse than a swamp.

The ungodly smell...

Despite this, he ventured on. He had a reputation for being tough and he would be true to that. He was pretty sure a trap awaited him, but that didn't matter. This was something he had to take care of; something that he had to resolve.

It had started just two days ago as he was tracking a possible Shadowloo lead. Chun-Li had left on a temporary assignment, so he was on his own for the time being. That didn't matter too much to him. As helpful as having the Chinese immortal as a partner was, he always did his best work solo. And that was when he came across two corpses, both slashed at and left slumped on the wall where they were found. Initially, this didn't seem to have any connections to the lead on Shadowloo that he was tracking and thus, it didn't need to involve him. It should have been a simple matter of contacting HQ and letting another agent investigate while he continued on his prior assignment.

But it wasn't.

There was a reason; one reason that kept him standing there longer that he should; one reason why he was now trudging through the sewers. He had recognized the manner of death. Or more to the point, he recognized the style of execution. The victims were hacked at and impaled by what appeared to be bladed weapons of a short length. And it was done with such efficiency that it could only come from someone with advanced, most likely military, training. He only recognized it because he had seen once it before.

He had known who had done it before...

-"Got me watching your back again, Will?"-

-"Well, you've got to be useful for something, Neal. Let's move out."-

Light wind blew across a grassy plain and out into the sea nearby. Amid the grass, several boulders were steeped into the earth and atop one such boulder, the Indian immortal Dhalsim sat, legs folded and eyes closed in meditation. But he wasn't alone. He had long sensed the presence of another behind him, but he wasn't alarmed, knowing from the energy he sensed with the newcomer told him that it was a friend. Soon enough, the figure stood beside the bolder, violet hair fluttering about in the wind along with a yellow scarf.

*"It has been awhile, Lady."* Dhalsim spoke, using a language ancient and long forgotten to all except for a few.

*"That it has, Monk."* Rose replied in the same tongue. *"It is good to see you."*

His eyes opening, Dhalsim turned to look at Rose, a light smile coming over his features and his language returning to the traditional. "You as well."

Returning the smile, Rose then looked back out into the vast sea, a period of silence passing between them. Dhalsim wasn't the only thing she hadn't seen in a long time. This place, this island, where they had all met together, hadn't changed in so long a time (how long, she couldn't remember at the moment). A simple place, seemingly etched in peace and tranquility. But such things did not reach her now, not when she was disturbed by the seemingly endless sense of darkness in the air.

"His power grows, even now."

"Yes." Dhalsim could only agree. "Both in strength and in malevolence."

"He must be stopped, before it is too late."

"It is not time yet. You know that."

Her eyes lowered sadly. "I know."

He gave her an inquisitive glance. "It's not like you to lapse in patience."

Rose sighed. "I'm just worried."

The monk gave a light chuckle. "Now that is just like you."

Frowning slightly, she decided to change the subject. "Have you heard from any of the others?"

"Only the Sennin."

A perfectly delicate eyebrow lifted. "Ah. I suspected he might find an interest."

"But he's not ready to 'enter the scene' just yet." he finished. "His words."

"No matter." Rose replied. "This is my affair to deal with anyway."

Now it was Dhalsim's turn to frown, albeit not so much. "The destiny you have chosen... It does not have to be so."

The woman closed her eyes. Like her, Dhalsim had an ability to see past the present and into the future. They weren't solid visions or things of certainty. They were predictions at best. And she knew that just because she saw such visions didn't mean that they came about. 'Destiny in not completely predetermined' he once said. 'This is why predictions sometimes fail.'

"I fear it does. The alternative would be to doom the world to his evil, perhaps forever."

The monk remained quiet. Even he couldn't argue with that. The cloud of darkness and tyranny was growing and would only do so until the entire world in engulfed. Especially now in this time of the Gathering where events would only become more turbulent as time went by. He didn't need his abilities to know that much.

"Even still, you shouldn't give up your life so readily."

"I have no intention of doing so. But by the same token, I may not have a choice." Her voice hardened. "Not if he is to be stopped."

Another moment of silence passed between the two, with both staring out into the calm sea. But this time, it was Dhalsim's voice that broke the silence, speaking once again in the ancient tongue.

*"Hope, Lady Rose. Never lose hope."*

Her eyes closed. *"The truest immortal."*

Trudging onward, Guile continued on through the muck of the sewers. He was drawing close to his destination; an old unused power station that was chambered near the purification plant. And he saw it soon enough, a dull gray structure with dim lighting around it as well as tunnels on the side that continued to pour down water. Slowly, he stepped up the short row of rusty stairs toward the structure, eying his surroundings. It was perfect for an ambush from any direction.

It was what he expected when he received that phone text.

There was no name on it. Only a set of directions and a single message. -A true soldier never abandons his own.- The message only confirmed whom he had believed the killer was, although he honestly wished that wasn't the case. This was a particular case and there were more than a number of moments when he blamed himself for what happened; always wondering if there was another way. And every time, he came to the same conclusion.

There was nothing he could have done.

The crumbling concrete crunched beneath his boots as he slowly ventured on. His step halted however, when he finally sensed the presence of an immortal. But the dim lighting and concealed surrounding made it almost impossible to see where he was. Neither could he sense a fighting spirit anywhere. That wasn't too much of a surprise though. More than a soldier, his opponent could and had doubled as an assassin.

"Show yourself, Neal."

"Neal is dead." A voice hissed out of nowhere. "He died on that day you abandoned him."

"There was no choice. We had to pull out."

It was a special Black Ops mission where they had located a definite Shadowloo base of operations. They were to go inside, retrieve any data they could and then destroy the base. Neal and his team would handle demolition while Guile and his team work on data retrieval. But midway into the mission, things went horribly wrong. Shadowloo had been aware of their arrival and set the place to blow. Guile managed to discover this and made a call for everyone to pull out.

But he was unable to contact Neal's team and could only watch as the place exploded just as his team barely managed to escape. But Neal and his team weren't so fortunate. A garbled communication indicated that the team was still in the building when it blew up. Guile was upset over the loss of the team, but not so much about Neal, because he knew Neal would have survived.

Because he was an immortal.

"Is that what you tell yourself to sleep at night? 'There was no choice'? Or were you simply waiting for the right time before you took my head?"

Guile's eyes narrowed at the insinuation, all the while trying to pin down the source of the voice that was echoing around him. "If you knew me at all, you'd know that I would never do that."

He wouldn't, even if had wanted to. Neal was a fledgling immortal when he met him and as such, Guile said nothing to him about it. Even though he was a soldier and lived a life that would no doubt bring it to light, Guile knew that telling him outright wouldn't have been the best decision. It just wasn't something to be believed. He debated on how to go about telling him this, but in the end, he figured he would just let things be. If it happened, then Guile would make sure he was there to let him know what happened and to give him the run-down.

Just like Charlie had done for him...

But that hadn't happened. Instead, Neal had been killed in the Shadowloo base and Guile had no way of reaching him. By the time Guile had managed to evacuate his team and head back, there was nothing left but rubble. And in all honesty, he had doubts that Neal may have survived at all. He wasn't entirely sure if an explosion could kill an immortal, neither was he keen on finding out. But he searched regardless, only to come up short. He wasn't sure what to think about it really and only hoped that if Neal was alive, he would return.

This wasn't exactly what he had in mind though.

"My point exactly." the hissing voice replied. "I don't know you. I admit the soldier act is pretty good. I would have continued to fall for it if they hadn't opened my eyes."

Hardened eyes blinked. "They?"

A harsh chuckle echoed around him. "To think, you spent your whole life looking for them, and yet I'm the one that find them. Or better yet, they found me. It wasn't hard. After all, Shadowloo's been watching you for a long time."

Surprise came over his face, and was quickly followed by anger and betrayal. "You're with Shadowloo, Neal?"

"Quite. And I did just say that Neal is dead, yes?" The voice no longer echoed and it sounded as if it was drawing near. A glint of light caught his attention and he ducked just before a thin blade swept soundlessly through the air. Rolling away, Guile remained crouched on the ground, his hand already reaching back for his weapon as he looked at his former comrade.

He was dressed in dark blue and black combat gear, with arm gauntlets that produced short glistening blades. His face was obscured by a mask that covered over his mouth, but the blond hair and blue eyes made him all the more recognizable to Guile. Or at least, the hair did. The eyes that stared back at him was cold and void of emotion. There was even a hint of insanity in them. It was true then. His friend and comrade was gone, uttered so by his next words.

"I am Doctrine Dark. My mission...is your termination."