It was a quiet San Francisco morning, the fog from the Pacific hanging low over the city muffling the bright colors and loud noises common to large cities, but one would hardly know it inside of Billy and Mac's apartment, their small two-bedroom place was full of light despite all the clutter that two immortals collect over their lifetimes, well mostly Billy collected every knick knack and curio that he finds interesting.
The two immortals themselves were currently sharing the Love seat in the living room, that is Mac was sitting upright sipping on a cup of espresso while looking out the window towards the sea….meanwhile his boyfriend was sprawled across his lap, laying on his back and staring up at his phone where he was scrolling through his TikTok feed.
However, the two men's tranquil domestic morning would not last for long, as unseen a trio of unmarked black vans blocked off the door to the apartment building, so they could quickly disgorge sixteen men in black body armor and two in suits, who began telling everyone they saw to leave the area as a bomb threat had been called in.
After every civilian had been forced to leave the area all but four of the men ran into the building themselves, stopping at the door to the immortals' apartment, the men in body army moving to the side so the men in suits could pass to the front.
The air filled with the disturbing combination of wood smoke and cinnamon as the two immortals auras activated and the two men blasted open the door with their auras, the unreinforced wood-pulp-mixture door not being supposed to deal with such force was sent flying across the living room, where it smashed against the outside wall where it cracked the drywall, narrowly avoiding smashing through one of the windows on that wall.
"What the Hell!" Billy shouted sitting up so fast his head smashed into Mac's face as he rapidly turned to face the doorway.
Cesare and Micheletto walked calmly into the room followed by score-twenty who ran into the room each carrying a rifle which they soon pointed at Billy and Mac.
The smells of rattlesnake and pepper joined the cinnamon and woodsmoke already filling the air as Mac healed his now broken nose and Billy readied his aura to defend them.
"Niccolo Machiavellie?" Cesare asked calmly, to which Mac's eyes widened in surprise, and he gestured to Billy to stand down, not like he did.
"Yes?" Mac replies, glaring at the intruders, knowing that why so ever the Mercenary-Cardinal had come for him, he could not escape.
"What the hell is Jesus doing in my living room?" Billy shouted, finally noticing the leader of the Mercenaries who was now standing in front of the sofa.
Cesare had a tight, smirk at Billy's comment, not that he didn't like the comparison, his father's decision to use his face as a reference for certain paintings of the savior was certainly a good propaganda move and he most certainly held a strong dislike for the next generation who once upon a time had been Jesus, now depressed and working as a day-laborer in the southern united states. "My Name is Cesare Borgia? And you are?" He spoke in English, with a strong italian accent but still speaking the words slowly and carefully as if talking to a child.
Billy immediately knew that he hated the man before him, even if he does look like Jesus and spat right in said man's face, aiming for the eyes but only managing to hit his cheek. "The name's William H. Bonney, Sir" He replied after a minute, voice dripping with both sarcasm and an exaggerated New Mexican accent.
His face void of expression Cesare slowly but surely got a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped the spit from his cheek, "kill him," he said at last, still as neutral of expression as before, something both Micheletto and Mac knew was hiding his true wrath.
Before the Mercenaries could even act on their order, Billy pulled a revolver from his waistband, cocking it in the same movement as he aimed it at Cesare, who just raised an eyebrow at him, and gestured to the Mercenaries, half of whom had aimed their guns at Billy and the other half at Mac to ensure he didn't try anything.
"I believe we are at an impasse, mister Bonney. Cesare says, chuckling wryly.
"I don't care if I die, just if you die with me" Billy said, face dead of emotion, Mac still sitting on the sofa convinced this was the most serious and dangerous he had ever seen his boyfriend.
Unfortunately for Billy, his conviction was only deep enough to let him not care about his own life as while the two men were talking and Mac was distracted Micheletto had snuck up behind Mac and pressed his sword to his throat.
Cesare gestured to his captain."I would suggest you drop the gun young man" he said. "I doubt you would want to see what your boyfriend's slit throat looks like".
Billy, cursing, tossed aside his gun as soon as he saw that Mac was in danger, and raised his hands in surrender.
"cuff them, and gag that one while you are at it" Cesare ordered, pointing to Billy and as soon as he spoke his soldiers sprang into action, two snapping shut iron manacles runes carved into them that prevented escape around the wrists of the two new prisoners while the one locking up billy also wrapped a leather "muzzle".if you will over his mouth. Not like that was enough to quiet the man's cursing, Cesare had sailed with sailors from a hundred nations and a thousand eras, and even he was certain that he was hearing new insults and curses coming from beneath Billy's muzzle,
The soldiers escorted the two prisoners down through the apartment and out to the vans, with Cesare stopping and explaining to the reporters from both genuine news agencies and social media influencers who had gathered outside the building, that the two prisoners were terrorists who had been apprehended before they could detonate the bomb they had build.
With his mini-press conference, dealt with, Cesare met with Micheletto over by the cars. The prisoners safely in separate cars for added security.
"Was that necessary Generalissimo?" Micheletto said, eyeing the press who were watching the two men but kept at bay by a few of the mercenaries but Micheletto switched to valacian regardless so they couldn't understand him.
"Si, you of all people know that a city never truly sleeps anymore, we have to make sure we control the cover story not the press," Cesare reminded his old friend, not for the first time and not for the last time.
"I miss when we just had to deal with the gossip over who you took to bed." Micheletto said, eyeing the press with disgust.
"I know," Cesare chuckled;" but we should probably head to the airport soon, if we wait much longer traffic will get to bad and we will lose our chance to leave."
Micheletto just nodded and climbed into the passenger seat of one of the vans, Cesare climbing into another, after they got into position the remaining soldiers quickly climbed aboard as well, splitting themselves so that all vehicles would have the same number of heat signatures to anyone watching.
It was a long, uneventfully drive, the prisoners kept sedate by not knowing what was happening to the other, but eventually the vans made their way to an airport in the California dessert, unmarked on any map, waiting there was a large ex-military plane, which everyone from the vans soon boarded, besides the vans drivers who parked the vans in a dedicated garage before joining their comrades.
The prisoners were both strapped into special holding cells, their walls lined with enough runes and metals to contain anything short of a titan from the other-realms while the guards each picked a seat in the main city area and their commanding officers sat in the control center at the heart of the plane.
The plane took off effortlessly, hardly even noticed by her passengers, next stop New York to meet with the quadrumvirate, but for now Cesare just leaned back in his chair and relaxed, unfortunately for him however he did the one thing he tried to never do:
He remembered Juan.
He remembered the life he once had…