Conner and John both lunged for each other like rabid animals, their mud-stained feet slick on the damp grass. John's reach was much longer and his hands got to Conner first, grabbing each shoulder and pushing. Conner dropped his hips to escape the pressure and grappled his own arms around John's legs, trying to take him down to the ground. For a few seconds the two wrestled to keep their ground before John drove a sharp elbow into Conner's back. Conner grunted but refused to let go of his grip, not even as John continued to drive the point of his elbow into Conner's spine.
Conner finally let go but instead of falling he slammed a fist into the inside of John's knee. Immediately John dropped to one knee, coming face-to-face with Conner. Conner reared his head back as if to try for another headbutt but John had no desire to feel that again. He instead dropped to both knees and ducked down, using one arm to hook around Conner's neck and throw him to the floor, using Conner's own momentum against him. With Conner now below him, John straddled the smaller man and punched him square in the side of the face.
"Fuck you!" Conner spat, nostrils flaring after the blow. John responded with another blow to the face. "Fuck you!" The response was the same as Conner's lip split.
"You wanted this," John said and immediately got a face full of mud courtesy of Conner. He winced and immediately backed up, trying to wipe the mud from his eyes.
"I wanted to talk, you were the one who had a fuckin' hard-on over my past," Conner said, panting. "Who the fuck cares, man? Seriously! Look… I got angry. Started this fight." He extended a hand out towards John. "Let's try and be civil about this, okay? Start again?"
John stared at the hand. Perhaps he was being a little childish about all this. He knew a lot more about Conner than one might have guessed, and John had every reason to act the way he did. John wanted to change. Bridge would slap that hand away or ignore it completely. Bridge would have kept fighting if only because he refused to be weak. John did not have that same weakness. Shaking a man's hand was a sign of strength, not weakness. No matter his thoughts on Conner, all he needed was to bring Conner to Jason. That was all. John sighed and reached out to shake Conner's hand.
Conner grabbed it and immediately wrenched on it, pulling John completely off balance. John fell face-first into the mud and Conner wrenched the arm behind John's back. Pain flared through his shoulder from where he had been stabbed days prior, and could feel the stitches the nurse Rebecca had put in pop out.
"Oldest trick in the book, dickhead!" Conner breathed, wrenching harder on the arm while putting one knee in the small of John's back. "How's it feel to be kicked off of your high horse? The high-and-mighty Bridge, eating mud. How fuckin' poetic."
John was angry. Angry with himself. Especially angry with Conner. The mud was pushing around his nostrils and mouth, making it hard to breath. He had to remind himself that this was a man who was a killer, but he killed with knives, not his hands. Conner was like a defanged wolf without his knives. John was taller and stronger and pushed with his free hand against the mud, feeling it submerge partly before hitting something hard. He grasped it, tightened his fingers around the rock, and used his gangly arm to hit Conner in the kneecap.
"Fuckin' fuck!" Conner winced and his grip loosened for a moment. That moment was all John was looking for and he lifted himself up off the ground, his arm still wrenched behind him by Conner. However like some kind of monkey Conner wrapped his other arm around John's neck and hung off him even as John straightened to his full seven foot two. Conner's arm was right under John's chin and actively choking him, using gravity to pull down on John with one arm, while trying to tear his arm out of the socket with the other.
John was having none of it. If Conner wanted to use gravity, then gravity would be his weapon as well. John simply fell backwards and used his full weight to crush Conner beneath his back and the mud. His arm twinged with pain as he landed on it but Conner's grip over his throat came loose. John immediately scrambled to his feet, staring down at Conner spread-eagled in the mud, his chest rising and falling from the effort.
Conner smirked up at John even from the mud, using his elbows to prop him up. "You fight surprisingly well for a musici-" John didn't care for any more words. He swung his foot backwards and shot forward like a ballista, intent on knocking the teeth down Conner's throat. In the nick of time Conner dropped his head, letting the sole of John's shoe sail past his nose. He immediately hooked a foot behind John's knee and pulled, knocking John off balance again. John hit the mud on all fours and Conner hooked both legs around John's waist, put his arm over the top of John's head, and started choking John again. Conner wrenched, stretching John's muscles, but John had one arm free and was able to drive fists into Conner's exposed ribcage.
Despite the pain, neither of the two men slowed their attacks, even as an audible crack came from the direction of Conner's ribs, and as John's vision was fading. Both men were fully content to fight this war until one of them was unconscious.
"Alright, that's enough." Two thick hands grabbed either side of John's waist while a much smaller one slipped in and pulled Conner's arm free. Although Rhino was close in height to John, he was much thicker with a lot more muscle and simply pulled John away like he was a child. Wasp had instantly snared Conner in a grapple which locked his arms in place, and with her weight behind him, he was unable to get up or move.
"Get off of me!" John snarled.
"He wanted this!" Conner hissed back.
The two men were easily held back by Jason's soldiers. Rhino had John in a bearhug now, wrapped his thick arms around John's thin frame. Conner was still locked into the octopus-like hold from Wasp.
"You've fought it out. Now it's time to grow up and act like adults," Rhino said.
"And I'm not letting go until I am convinced you're not going to attack again," Wasp said, holding back the struggling Conner.
Clap… Clap… Clap…
The noise echoed eerily over the clearing in the woods. Wasp and Rhino both looked towards the treeline, as did John and Conner, twisting their heads from their captured positions.
Emerging from the treeline were three figures. Three figures that John recognised instantly. The woman with tattoos on her arms. The thinner man with a mouth. The larger man who had stayed quiet in the corner. All three of them were wearing masks. All three of them had taken John, Ollie, and Imogen. Suddenly, all hatred for Conner channelled itself into these three sins: Pigritia with the three small black stars, Invidia with the single vertical stripe, Irae with the three horizontal stripes.
"Now, now," the woman said in the same tone of voice she had used back then. "Don't stop on our account. We've enjoyed watching you tear each other apart."
As soon as the three sins had emerged, Rhino and Wasp had let go of their grips of John and Conner and immediately stood in front of them, both taking combat stances, immediately ready to fight.
"Look what the fuckin' cat dragged in!" Conner exclaimed from beside Wasp. "Paulie, how are you, you fuckin' coward! Did you get my message? Oh, who am I kidding… I saw you read it." If Conner was gleaming upon meeting John, he was absolutely euphoric upon seeing these three sins. Invidia's fists immediately squeezed shut, but Pigritia put her hand in front of him, a silent warning.
"What do you want?" John called out, standing beside Rhino.
"What I wanted was for you to simply follow the plan," Pigritia said. "I stabbed you twice. Cut your chest. Yet you still stayed so stoic. Having you point the finger at Conner would have made it so much easier. From what I've just seen, you hate his guts. So why make such a big deal of staying quiet?"
"I may hate this piece of trash but that does not mean I'm going to play whatever stupid games it is you are playing," John said. "I am nobody's tool."
"Says the slave under the whip of their master," Invidia spat, his mask turned towards the two silent and ready soldiers. "He wanted you to find Conner and now we found Conner. Basic stuff, John!"
Pigritia glanced at Invidia but if there was any emotion it was hidden behind the mask.
"Nobody found me," Conner said. "Do you think I would have showed myself if I was remotely threatened by anything? I know when to make the next move in the game, eh?" Conner winked at Pigritia but there was no recognition from her.
"Oh fuck off with your smart-ass answers!"
"No, you fuck off Paulie!" Conner stepped forward but Wasp immediately put an arm in front of him. It seemed they were happy for John and Conner to talk for the moment but anything other than words would be stopped immediately. "You're small fry, nothing but a pawn. Why are you even bothering to wear that mask, I know who you are. And you know what? Who gives a shit? Oh no, Paulie the orderly is some kind of masked sin, consider me absolutely terrified." Conner spat on the floor. "Nah, I care more about you. Pigritia. Colour me unimpressed with the unoriginal names. I prefer to go with the real ones. Only a matter of time before I figure out this lummox," Conner pointed at the large and silent Irae. "And then I got three for three. What good are your secrets when I have them in my back pocket?"
John looked at Conner. How did he know what their names were? Not an important question right now. "Why are you here?" John asked. "It's a risky move to gather all three of you together again. What for?"
"Oh, come on, it's obvious," Conner said in reply to the question. "Something has shaken them. Something has made them take action. Perhaps somebody was getting too close to the truth. Perhaps they need to get rid of that somebody. And by doing that, perhaps they put themselves right in the open, right where that somebody wanted them." Conner's smile was stretching and stretching until it made even John somewhat disturbed. "And there are two things which have happened which has shaken these sinful apples from their tree. One – I gave a little visit to a certain somebody. Oh, to pretend I didn't know what I was doing, it hurt me so, but theatre is a big part of a detective's game." Conner stared at Pigritia as he said those words. Then he looked to Invidia. "And Paulie, you received a letter indicating that somebody knew what you did to poor Imogen Banks. Murdering her like that…" Conner slowly sighed.
"What?" Pigritia's head snapped towards Invidia. Invidia looked back. Pigritia seemed to realise her outburst and slowly looked back to Conner. If his grin could get any wider, it may have broken through his face.
"Oh my. Trouble in the ranks? Did mama not know little Paulie boy was going about murdering people. Oh yes, oh yes, Conner Shepherd saw, yes he did." Conner's tone was full of mirth and mocking. John could not see their faces, but the body language was enough to see that Pigritia was getting angrier by the second – the same anger he had seen when he had riled her up when he was captured – and Invidia seemed to be shrinking in on himself. "Little Paulie's secret is out. Yes, Imogen Banks is dead. I watched Paulie do it. He left and I came, checked on her, and took a lock of her hair."
"We are not here to argue or fight. We are here to talk," Pigritia tried to regain control of the situation but Conner wasn't having any of it.
"Is that why you've sent the others to your other worries?" Conner asked quietly. Wind seemed to sweep across the clearing. "You don't think I saw this plan coming? Splitting up the DSI – sorry, the DHP? You have three important targets and sorry John, you ain't one of them. Conner Shepherd, the man who can cause a whole fuck-load of trouble if he wants," Conner flipped up a middle finger. He flipped up a second. "Jason Ryan. A very important member of a very important company who is currently trapped like a rat in a cage. What an opportunity, eh?" Conner finally held up a third finger. "And Noah Baker. The visionary. You know all you need to know, and quite frankly without him bothering people, that's a big boon."
The three masked sins were silent.
"How am I doing?" Conner asked. John had to admit he was impressed. John himself found words to be more effective than fighting a lot of the time. Conner was using his words to a whole new level. He was extremely smart – smarter than John had realised. It did not disperse his hatred for the man, but he had to appreciate the effort Conner had put in.
All three sins in unison drew knifes from their jackets. The knives varied in length but shared the same handle. Conner let out a low whistle.
"I'll have to admit, I did not expect that. Those are my knives." Conner seemed ready to bolt out to meet the three masked sins in excitement. "I want them back."
"I thought you wanted to talk," John called out. "That doesn't seem particularly talkative to me."
"I did want to talk…" Pigritia put a hand on her mask, her sigh audible. "But I can already tell. There is no persuading you. We are not killers. But Conner Shepherd is."
Rhino and Wasp both moved ever so slightly, preparing themselves for what John now knew was about to come. If his scrap with Conner was a fight, then this would be something much more. Something dangerous. Lily flashed briefly through his mind. At least she would be okay.
At the end of the administrative corridor that led into the office that Jason Ryan had taken up residence, two men in masks were both standing around the corner, trying to control their breathing. Superbia and Libidine looked at one another, trying to hype themselves up. The knives that had taken great effort to acquire felt heavy in their hands. Pigritia, Invidia, and Irae were confronting four people. The two of them were only confronting two. But they were members of the Department of Human Protection, formerly the infamous Department of Supernatural Investigation. The man with the codename Berlin and Jason Ryan would not be easy targets.
They had been given a choice. Try to talk and attack if talking failed. Superbia and Libidine had both decided that to try and talk to Jason Ryan would be suicide – Berlin would take them down in an instant. Superbia's girth would be a non-factor and Libidine's intelligence would mean nothing when one of the toughest members of the DHP's combat squad came for them.
They had to take them by surprise. They had to do it fast. This was their moment.
The knives of Conner Shepherd in hand, the two masked sins made their move.
Gula was nervous. She was the only one that was alone. It was because her target had no combat history and was by all accounts a normal man. But that made it all the more harder. She clutched the knife to her chest and whispered a quick prayer into it. She thought that killing soldiers would be easier – it would be like war. Soldiers exist to die. But Noah Baker… He was just a man, a hurt man, a man who was a patient inside a psychiatric hospital. How many patients had Gula seen to? This went against everything but she knew she had to do it.
She had drawn the short straw, she could feel it. She wasn't a good talker. In fact Gula didn't do much talking at all. She had never held a knife like this before, it was the smallest of Conner Shepherd's collection, but it still simply felt too big and heavy, unlike the tools Gula was used to.
Noah was in there now with poor Owen. What had happened to Oscar was horrible and it was even more horrible that the boy was still alive.
Talk first. Kill if needed. Gula did not want to kill. So talk it was. She took in a deep breath behind her mask, and quickly emerged from the storage room where she had been hiding, took a small walk to the doors, and pushed them open.
Gula paused. She suddenly wanted to cry.
Owen was lying where he had been since the accident, asleep on his bed. Earlier, Noah had been by his side without moving at all. This room was a good place to do it, if the worst came to worst. Now, all her plans came crumbling down and Gula started shaking with nerves.
Noah was not here.
"No, no, no…" Gula shivered. She would be punished. She needed to find Noah. Gula quickly took off her mask and hid both it and her knife under her jacket, walking desperately down the corridor, trying to figure out where Noah would have gotten to.