All Good Things...

[Sargun II]

"Why do you look so damn good in the morning? It's annoying."

Evan's feet threw the power bar across the tree and he caught it in his hands. He kept in the same position, chewing the disgusting bar (how could she eat these things?) while looking at Sarah's sun-brightened face. "You're way too much of a morning person," he added, which was stupid because he was usually the first one up and always the one cooking the breakfast while the other slept in a little later. He didn't care, though, because as far as he was concerned last night was a perfect night. He stretched his arms and climbed out of the tree like yesterday morning, then changed into his final suit. He left the old one as he did before and did a little moonwalk to make sure the pants were comfortable.

"We're going to head due east until we hit the village. It'll look really pretty, maybe I can get some cinnamon, and then we head a little northeast until we find the off road. After the off road, we just follow the trucks."

[Sarah Tintagyl]

"Well someone has to look good between the two of us." She smirked and stood back out of the whole taking in the entire morning light, Sarah let the sun bathe her face as he finished up getting ready in the hole. Once Evan climbed out with her, Sarah smiled, she had changed into a new part of khaki shorts, a blue tanktop as hot pink and white socks shown out of her shoes. She nodded as Evan explained the rest of the trip for the day and to be honest, for it being the third and last day of their journey, it sounded incredibly easy as well. Evan started down the pathway according to the rising sun, to the east and even the jungle environment began to shift and felt more positive. The roaring Congo was now miles away, replaced by calm flowing creeks and more then once, Sarah stopped to wash her face in the water, easily the most relaxing thing she had felt this entire adventure. To have a clean face and the coolness of the water hitting her, she couldn't ask for much more. Exotic birds sang cheerful tunes as they walked down the paths, while a few chimpanzees in the trees above them followed their journey towards the entrance of the nearby village.

The village of Uzoma, as Evan and Sarah found it to be called, had a completely different disposition then the other village they had been too. Here, there were no refugees and when the outsiders entered, the villagers gave them a warm welcome and greeting,not as intruders or as white devils, but as adventurers and people that needed a bit of rest and relaxation off of the beaten path. There were thatched huts, looking like the American wigwams of old, large leaves covered the sticks as roofs and walls, while men and women with light ebony skin smiled at the passing adventurers. Finding cinnamon would be a different story all together. But after a bit of searching, they were brought before the village shaman, surprisingly enough, she spoke English as well.

Pushing past the leaves of the hut, Sarah and Evan were led in, as an old lady smiled up at them.

"The villagers tell me you are passing through our village on the way to the gray trail. I wish you both luck in your journey and I know that you have borne many burdens along the way." The shaman stood up and walked over to Evan. She laid her two hands on the man and smiled as she looked into his eyes. "I have seen you before, I have seen your eyes and I know the pain that they have inside. I know the secrets that you hide deep within and I know that you want to let go of them but you do not know how. The Earth Mother, she can see that Evan Hiley, she can see your pain and she wants to help you." The shaman walked back over to her blankets, filled with potions and herbs. With a bit of cinnamon and a liquid that looked like water, she filled up a wooden bottle. "This is for the pain, drink this any time you feel the pain of your heart taking over your body and remember that the Earth Mother cares for you, her son. I know of your sins and I know that you regret them, but the Past knows and the Future forgives. Do not dwell for the Past, she is a hag who needs not remembered."

Bowing from Evan, the shaman turned her attention to Sarah, who stepped back a bit in fear. "And you, a maiden that carries guns and knives, you are a strange being, but one who has a deep inside strength. You make this journey not because you have to, you know nothing of our ways and you have your own sins on lands I cannot see. But you make this journey out of love and for that, you are of the most honorable of warriors." She walked back over to her blanket and concocted another potion, this one that had a faint green color too it, but that smelt like rotting tree bark. "Inside lies the strength of Africa, you have earned Africa's love and Africa will protect you for it always. I bid you both well on your journey through our lands and pray that the evil you seek will be consumed."

Both Sarah and Evan thanked the Shaman, though on the way back into the brush heading towards the road, with more food and water, along with their 'gifts' Sarah cringed at the smell of hers. "So this is the 'magic of Africa' eh?" She coughed. "It must be pretty damn potent. So, uh, when we reach the road. Where do we follow the trucks too?"

[Sargun II]

"...forgetting the Past means spurning the forgiveness of the Future," he said under his breath as the shaman walked to Sarah.

As they walked to the road, Evan had a flat smile on his face. "She knew my name because the year I got sick I came through this village and dropped off two hundred thousand dollars for her to fly a sick child to the Republic and get medical treatment. Speaking of medical treatment, the most bitter potions are always the most therapeutic." His voice was like his smile, emotionless, and he walked with a limp on his right leg as they cut through the bush. His leg was finally bothering him enough to warrant the extra [i]umph[/i] in his step, but he didn't make any notice of it to Sarah. The day was going too well for him to jynx it with some complaint.

"The, um, trucks will lead us to the site of the Battle of Barada Bush. This place used to be a city, Barada. Now it's just a bunch of ruins. We'll find some smugglers there, they'll act exactly like they do in the movies. 'Good evening, do you have the... carpet?' 'Good evening, I do. Do you have a car to transport the... carpet... in?' 'Yes, sir, I do. Here is the money for the... carpet. And a tip.' 'Thank you. This is very top quality... arpet.' It's all fun to watch, it's practically a spectator sport. They put bets on how far the smugglers can make it," he said with a chuckle. He started to explain the different smugglers and terms, how fiber products were usually drugs and guns were usually woods, and how small children being sold into sex slavery were different brands of meat. Evan's voice was rather cheerful as he kept explaining the very different ways that the smugglers avoided law enforcement and how they were even a part of law enforcement in the area.

They reached the road and Evan placed his right hand on the back of Sarah's neck.

[Sarah Tintagyl]

She found it all quite strange and while Evan had told her about his past in great detail before, Sarah had never really gotten used to it. Sex slavery, guns, drugs, it was all to her in a different world that she was quickly growing apart of and the horror of it all, remembering the refugee camp was not an image she wanted to keep in her head. Meeting smugglers however, people the dealt in this kind of business just made her more nervous and as they approached the road, she took a deep breath, the scent from her potion still in the air around her. "Strength of Africa eh? Christ it must taste horrible going down."

Looking out onto the highway, she felt him grab the back of her neck as she straightened up. "So where now? Hitching a ride or do we just walk along the side?"

[Sargun II]

"It's not a long walk, and in about fifteen minutes the sky will be filled with rainless clouds. It'll be a nice walk."

Evan's thumb started circling her verteba prominems, that little vertebrae that sticks out at the back of the neck, and sighed. "I have... dreams about Barada Bush. My fian- it was where I first thought I was going to die. It was a long time ago, after the South American War. The Republic was making an effort to combat terrorism, as they called it then, and Serca... well, Serca really didn't exist back then. The Republic inserted a black ops squad and I was part of the division deployed to draw attention away from the activities. Our air support was blown, though, so we had to wait for the cavalry to arrive in the form of some HUMVEEs, which really didn't help much."

He started to recount the battle as they walked - how the initial push into Barada made it to the square but at that point the terrorists had set up a network of short-range anti-air to make sure that there were no reinforcements. Once cut off from support and in hostile territory, they were surrounded for three days before reinforcements arrived and it was another three weeks of fighting before the entire city could be secure. White phosphorous was used almost casually and there was no time for civilians to evacuate, so when the artillery shells rolled in Evan was among the first to have to use the bodies as bullet stoppers.

[Sarah Tintagyl]

Sarah closed her eyes as she walked along side him taking in the feeling of the massage, though for the calmness that was circling around in her mind, the description coming out of his mouth was anything but. Barda Bush, she knew little bits and pieces of it from long forgotten historical documents in the region, but nothing more than small descriptions of the battle. Evan made it come alive in all its horror and grotesqueness in her mind and she almost wanted it to stop, but this was his cleansing, this was how he was going to stop shaking at night. Civilians died by the thousand and Evan always made it so that she could see each one of their dying faces. If anyone was responsible for reinforcing her black heart, it was his recollection of these stories. For as bright as the day continued to be, it was a depressing walk, the massage was the only thing making it bearable. But they pressed on as came closer and closer to the ruins again and Sarah finally opened her eyes, ready and on her guard for what was going to come next.

[Sargun II]

"Don't be nervous, just act like you've sold little girls to rapists before," he said in an optimistic voice. His thumb made one less press at the base of her neck before he removed his hand and placed it inside his jacket. "To show your respect, take out a sidearm and carry it like you're among army friends. People are not killed here. They're just sentenced to death." Evan's chosen pistol was an Artemis [url=http://forums.cybernations.net/index.php?showtopic=53708&view=findpost&p=2226997]Prime-3[/url] heavy pistol, known for the ability to blast brains off with a glancing blow. He continued to walk, this time a little in front of Sarah, and eventually the two of them made it to a gate with [i]Ba d[/i] enscribed on it. With little effort, he kicked the gate open and walked through.

After a few minutes of deserted houses, they eventually found themselves at another gate. This one was manned by two guards and had a tank stationed behind it with the cannon pointed down the street. After a few seconds of staring, the guards opened the gate. It was much like Diagon Alley - the gate revealed a bustling bazaar. Of course, the bazaar was an illegal marketplace but for the most part everything was illegal because nobody paid taxes. All of the really bad stuff was done at the restaurants on corners.

What looked like a prosperous marketplace was really a coverup, unfortunately. Just about every stand here was owned by the same people in groups of sevens, and only to satisfy corrupt government agents who had to take pictures but did not have the technology to fabricate photographs. "Let's just hope nobody takes your picture, eh?" Evan smiled and walked past dozens of armed men on his way to what looked like a bank.

[Sarah Tintagyl]

"Oh yeah. Of course, that's what I do as soon as I wake up, think about how I'm going to deal with human trash." She shook her head and placed her hand on her holster. If Evan was able to look formidable with the Prime-3, Sarah holding her Glock and the knife strapped to her leg, she could at least play the part well as they walked through the gate into the marketplace. If the tank and the guards weren't enough at the entrance, the fact that everyone Sarah saw behind the booths and those who walked up and down the bazaar's walkway carried various styles and sizes of guns. She watched with a careful eye as people traded goods such as sawed off serial weapons, guns, RPGs, grenades, dirty bombs, chemicals, cocaine, heroin, anything that could possibly be imagined illegal in even the most liberal of countries, could be found here. Though he had a point, if her picture was taken...oh wait...she was out of politics anyways and a believer of radical and anarchical thought, it didn't matter if they took her picture or not. Maybe she could spin it that she destroyed the bazaar later, it would be a lie, but she had lied before. She was a good liar.

"I think there is something worse then if they take a picture Evan. Lets just get through this alive." She fingered the grip of her pistol anxiously. "That would be enough for me right now. Though I almost wouldn't mind stopping and browsing the merchandise." Sarah said with a chuckle.

[Sargun II]

"They have some damn good papaya here," he repleid back, trying to keep himself from pulling the trigger on any number of the dirtbags within a ten meter radius. Thankfully, the pair arrived at the tall, shiny building after only a minute of walking. The bank was full of primarily poor people attempting to barter with the warlords over their debts; occasionally a man was dragged screaming through a hallway that led to a soundproof chamber below. Evan and Sarah were directed into a much shorter line with men and women in suits that were talking to a group of people that looked a lot more civilized. A sign hanging by a chain read [i]Afrikaans[/i].

Evan sighed and put his right hand on Sarah's shoulder again. "I hope my Afrikaans isn't too rusty. Just... ah, try not to talk. It'll go faster. I'll talk to a gentleman in old code, he'll recognize that I was or currently am an associate of Breya's, and I'll be given access to a locked room. We'll have a few hours." As they reached the front of the line, they were directed again to a well-dressed gentleman. Evan shook the hand of the man who then ignored Sarah altogether and looked at Evan.

"Ahem... [i]My naam is Evan Hiley en ek wil dit hê met 'n mede oor' n transaksie van die waatlemoene.[/i]"

The man blinked and sat for a few seconds before replying with, "[i]Watter soort waatlemoene ons bespreek?[/i]"

"[i]Ek wil 'n Spaanse waatlemoene te inspekteer.[/i]"

Immediately, the man looked at Sarah and gave Evan a sly smile. Evan smiled back and rested his hand on the small of Sarah's back; he pushed her forward like an escort as the man stood up and walked to a rather large wood door. The man opened the door and, after Evan and Sarah walked inside, closed the door. Evan released Sarah and locked the door behind him. "He thinks we're here to have sex privately. Room is soundproof, no need to fake any noises - not that you need any practice," he joked. "Somewhere in here is a hidden compartment. We just have to find it." At that, he went to knocking on the floor.

Edited May 4, 2010 by Sargun

[Sarah Tintagyl]

For most of their adventure through the jungles of the Congo, Sarah had been guided loosely by Evan except for some parts along straightaway trails where she took the lead. Here in the black market bazaar however and now in the bank where some of the worse of the rats were gathered, she almost wanted to stay behind her partner. He knew these people better than her and more so, on their walk through the bank, it was filled with the helpless sounds of men being dragged tooth and nail across the floor, begging for mercy from their captors, she could only begin to image the horrible fate that awaited them below. Besides that, many of the men seemed to stop and stare when she walked by, being that she was the only one in the entire back with snow white skin, blonde hair, and wearing shorts and a tank top, it was the first time she wished she would have taken Evan up on his advice not to wear shorts.

After the strange conversation with the man and they had walked into the private room together, she scoffed at the explanation. "Great, so I'm your whore, this is really making me feel all warm and fuzzy inside." Though she did chuckle at the mention of faking it. "Yeah, wouldn't you like to know which one that would be." Sarah said with a wink. "Anyways, yeah, the quicker we find it, the quicker we get out of here."

They started a proverbial dance across the floor, tapping on the boards. Though Sarah couldn't get it out of her mind that the man outside was probably a really big pervert and that h-...a hollow sound echoed in the room. "Evan! I found it!"

[Sargun II]

"Please, if you ever needed to fake with me then I was replaced by that De Luit fellow without you knowing," he replied with a grin.

When Sarah found the hollow floorboard, Evan slid across the floor and pulled his hands into an inside pocket of his suit pants. He squirmed for a moment before pulling out a knife of his own, this one slightly smaller than the one Sarah had but much sharper. Evan's knife thudded into the hollow floorboard and he started to pull against the very frictitious floor. The knife eventually began to make a six sided star pattern, and once the star was complete he started to push the knife against the pattern like a crowbar. After a moment, the star-shaped piece of wood flipped up and he removed the knife. In the floor was a box that looked like a larger version of the fingersafe that he had in his suit.

"I can't believe I forgot about this," he muttered as he gently removed the safe from the hole. He placed his pistol against the center of the safe and fired; the gun made an extremely loud sound but the bullet did not ricochet. Instead, the weakened safe shattered from the impact and the bullet deformed and dropped harmlessly into the safe. Evan laughed as he placed his fingers in the hot hole and pulled. After a few tense moments, the safe's side pulled off. Inside of the safe was a photograph.

"The hell is this?"

It was a photograph from South America. A brunette - her wedding dress radiant in the sunlight behind her - and a younger version of Evan embracing her were the main topics of the photograph, but there was a bloodstain on it. He turned it on its back and blinked repeatedly. [i]The drink[/i] was written in brown on the back of the photograph, and below the photo was a note. He quickly reached in and grabbed the note, then noticed that it had Sarah's name on it. He handed it to her.

[quote]Hello, Sarah.

My name is Breya Saint John, or General Breya to you. I was born forty years to the day before you were, and I must say that I quite enjoyed the irony. Who would have guessed that I, a failed conqueror, would be matched up with the failed peacemonger? It is but fate to decide.

I have something to tell you about my puppet. The strings of his demise grow ever tighter every day that you stay with him. These silly concepts of family and monogamy are foreign to the swine that is next to you at this moment. He may make excuses for all the women he raped in the past, but know this: he chose to do it. He had the choice to run much sooner, he had the choice to kill them quickly, he had the choice to die. He made none of those. He killed, personally, over two thousand people over the course of a single year. The blood of the innocent is on his hands, Sarah, and he chose to do it.

He chose to kill his fiancee, Alyssa. He chose to take a knife and rip into her stomach seven times. He chose to hide her body and make it look like an accident. He chose to defile her faith and deny her immortal soul a chance at salvation. He chose to run from the law. The man next to you now is a murderer even after he tried to run.

Do you know how many women he has taken since he became "yours"? Ask him. The answer will be higher than you wish. He is not yours, he has never been yours, he never will belong to anybody but his rightful master.

Go ahead, Sarah. Ask him what happened. Ask him for the [b]real[/b] story.

He is mine.[/quote]

[Sarah Tintagyl]

As Sarah read it was obvious of her growing anxiety and distress as her eyes filtered through the words in the letter. She knew the tone was going to be bitter when being called the failed peacemonger, but more so than that, if he was writing this, it meant he already knew that she and Evan were closing in on his position, which made her even more nervous. But soon the sheer terror of the letter was almost too much for her to push through and she often looked back over at Evan with stern and narrow eyes, her brilliant sapphire irises beginning to glisten with the sight of tears. She knew about Alyssa, she knew that she had died, she knew that Evan had been with other women before her, she knew all those horrible stories. But they were never like this, there was never the brutality, the raping, the knife cutting the stomach open. "This can't be true." Sarah turned to Evan and held out the letter for him. Tears ran down the side of her face like rivers, she shut them tightly and shook her head as she backed away. "Please, tell me Evan, please tell me that this isn't true."

Sarah stood looking at him as he read the letter. "Evan I don't want to believe this. I don't want to believe that you do those horrible things." Slowly she walked over and held his hands. "We made a pact, we said that we would be truthful with one another and I know that sometimes people lie and cover up the things that matter most. But I won't be mad, I promise I won't be mad. I just want to know the truth about what's in that letter. If...if Breya wrote that, he's on to us and we don't have that much time. We really don't. But you need to tell me about this letter, because, I can't go on, unless I know the truth." Sarah looked up into his eyes and started to sob. "Please tell me you love me. I mean I know about other women, I've been with plenty of men during my life and I regret it so much and I know you've grown from that too. But please, please say that you aren't the demon that is in that letter. I know you didn't have a great past, but please, don't tell me what happened to Alyssa was true. Please, Evan...I'm scared..."

She hugged him tightly and buried her head into his chest. "Please..."

[Sargun II]

"My... Alyssa was... I..."

Evan stood, blinking. He tried to form words in his mouth but couldn't string syllables together. [i]Breya knew. How could he know? What was this letter? Why was he bringing Alyssa up? Sarah is crying, Breya is winning, I'm in hostile territory, my God... What am I thinking? Am I trying to talk? What am I doing here, what is Sarah doing here, why are we... Breya is here, but...[/i] Evan wrapped his arms around Sarah and hugged her tight, stroking her hair like he had done at the beginning of this entire escapade. He could feel every tear soak his shirt, his could hear every sob before it reached his ears. Evan's mind wiped itself blank for the moment as he comprehended what was going on and took control of the situation. Sarah was asking him about Alyssa. Alyssa was his fiancee many years ago. He killed her. [i]I killed her...[/i]

"The day before we were supposed to get married," he started off nearly breathlessly, "I was at a South American bar. I was celebrating my last day of bachelordom with my buddies and, well, we got so drunk I tried to motorboat one of the strippers. I got arrested, but the officer took it easy and dropped me off at Alyssa's. I was... so, so drunk..." Evan's chest started to vibrate as the memory came back in full force. "She was so pissed and we started yelling. I can't... and... well, I called her a slut and accused her of sleeping with Brad. Brad was, um, an engineer. My best friend. I called the wedding off before she could respond and she started begging. 'Please, no... I didn't do anything with Brad!' I didn't give a !@#$. I was so... and then, Sarah, I can't believe it but I had a vase in my hands. I threatened her, she told me to go to hell and threw something. I was so pissed that I hit her. I hit her in the head with the vase and she fell. She fell. She fell."

Evan swallowed and lowered his head. "I don't know why but I got down and did, I don't know, maybe CPR or something. My hands were just on her chest and trying to push. I don't think she needed it, but God I didn't know what to do. I started crying and... when I look up maybe an hour later... she has a gun."

[Sarah Tintagyl]

Sarah stepped back from Evan and shook her head. "I...I don't want to hear anymore Evan. I just...don't want to hear this story, its too much." She walked back against the far wall until her back touched and she sat down, her head held in her hand, light tears still flowing down her cheeks. "This couldn't have happened at a worse time Evan, it really couldn't have. We're in the middle of Africa in probably one of the most dangerous spots on the continent and now I hear that you killed your fiance, Breya is on to us. I just don't know how much further I can go on Evan, I..." She lunged forward and threw up all over the floor, the power bar she had eaten in the morning. She collapsed to the ground, her arms holding her up as she shook her head. "What's wrong with me..."

"Evan..." She said with tears in her eyes. "Why?"

[Sargun II]

"I don't-"

Evan's sentence was cut short by a banging on the door. The three knocks was an indication that something was up. Evan sighed and drew his gun again. "This is the worst !@#$@#$ possible time," he yelled as he opened the door and slipped outside. The door locked itself again as Evan stepped into a completely quiet bank. Nobody was moving or talking except one man in the center of the bank who looked quite distressed. He was speaking in a language that seemed more Swahili than anything else, but the voice was too faint for Evan to hear. It was obvious that the man was in great agony by the tone of his voice; his cries dragged on as he spoke about something that used the root word for 'partner'. Evan imagined that these men had done something to his wife or perhaps a sibling. "Eh?" He pointed at the man in the center, and as the Afrikaaner opened his mouth to speak a thunderous sound washed over the bank.

It was a queer sensation, to be away from the bomb but near the wall. Evan's body jerked back and slammed against the hard marble side, his head snapping back and forth on his neck before his body dangerously fell and hit the floor. A wave of heat roiled over him, the intense flames of the bomb were far away but still incredibly hot. Flaming pieces of cloth and wood made the sensation even worse. Smoke roiled across the lines and up into the high ceiling as the screams began. The worst part was that his eyes felt like they wanted to pop out of his head. Evan blinked repeatedly as the smoke stung his eyeballs and clung to his throat, but he could feel everything and understood that he was relatively okay. He looked over at his Afrikaaner friend and saw the man coughing. Evan could barely hear over the ringing in his ears.

It was more unfortunate, however, that a second man in bulky clothes walked through the front doors, much closer to where Evan was, and let out a scream that God was great.

The heat overwhelmed his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth; the sound overwhelmed his senses; the concussive force overwhelmed his brain and scrambled his thoughts. The blast this time was akin to being kicked in the gut by a horse after being knocked out by a boxer. Evan's body flew like a ragdoll for thirty feet across the slick ground, traveling on the blood of the wounded and dead, and rammed into an overturned desk. His left arm created a buffer between his head and the desk, but he could still feel an incredibly powerful force as he ripped through the thick wood. Again his left arm was at the front when he slid and hit another marble wall, this time like a strong push. His head snapped forward again as the rest of his body continued to slide until it hit the wall as well.

This time he could feel nothing but the numbness overwhelming his body. While he knew he was okay, Evan had panicked thoughts of paralysis or something else that was conjured up by the hits to his head. His cloudy feelings would not piece themselves together farther than an intense, primal panic. After he realized that he was not paralyzed - he moved his pinky finger - his thoughts immediately returned to Sarah. Was she okay? Had the bombs flown her across the room? A thousand questions blocked any sense of normalcy in his head for a moment before he realized that if he wanted to find out he couldn't just sit there.

But his body would not cooperate. He moved his extremities and flexed his jaw, but his eyes and head pounded like all hell and his joints refused to move without protesting. It was at this point that his back decided to spasm painfully, leaving him helpless to stop it as he flexed his fist to endure it. The pain was dulled but with the rest of his body as numb as it was it felt like a sharp knife piercing his skin and just stabbing over and over and over. Smoke poured over his face as it bunched up around the corners before flowing up. Evan coughed involuntarily as the spasm subsided. When he regained control of his back, he dragged his arms across his body and started to slowly stand up. There were others close to the explosions that were standing, but most of them were missing something important - like a limb. He felt an intense gratitude to the Afrikaaner for a brief moment before he saw the Afrikaaner's body, his head snapped back and his body contorted.

"Son of a !@#$%*," Evan muttered as he staggered forward to the room that Sarah was in. His foot slipped on the bloody Afrikaaner and he fell again, this time hitting his knees first - a loud pop shook his body - and then his head landed on the hard floor. His body became numb again as he lay there, unable to move. [i]Sarah...[/i]

[Sarah Tintagyl]

"Ugh..." Sarah groaned as she opened her eyes, she had watched Evan walk towards the door and then there had been an explosion that sent her flying back from the doorway into the opposite wooden wall. There was numbness as she looked down at her body, but the numbness was more from shock than anything else, her skin was a bit red, but it was already sun burnt a bit from the walk through the jungles. Shaking it off she tried to bring the world back into focus. What had she been doing before? Where was she? What was go-... "Oh my God! Evan!" She watched him push the door open, lean forward fall onto his knees and drop to the floor in pain. He wasn't mangled, but he wasn't in great shape from the explosion either. Jumping up from her slumped position against the wall, Sarah ran over to him and lifted his body and placed his head on her leg as she knelt down next to him and began to stroke his hair. "Evan? Evan? Can you hear me? Its going to be okay, I'm going to find us some help. Okay." It was clear that she was already crying, the tears dropping from her face onto his own. "You're going to be okay, I promise."

Grabbing him by his armpits, Sarah started dragging him out of the secret room they had been in and into the outer room of the bank, if you could call it an outer room. It was completely destroyed by the inferno before, dead bodies laid everywhere, blood stained the floor, and some of the loose cloth of drapes and clothes were still on fire. That the entire building hadn't collapsed was amazing in itself. Once they were out of the secret room, the emptiness, the fact that the only sound in the entire bank was the crackling of the flames was unnerving. Sarah put one of her hands on her pistol as she continued to drag Evan across the floor. "We're going to be fine Evan, we're going to be fine, we're going to go home. Here..." She stopped for a moment and reached into his pocket, pulling out the medicines that the shaman had given them before. She took out the wooden bottle, popped the cork and dripped it into his mouth. "Drink up, hopefully this will make you feel a little better. But we're going to go home and everything will be fine. C'mon..."

She kept dragging him, approaching the door.

[Sargun II]

"That son of a !@#$%* Afrikaaner !@#$%^& expect a second bomber," Evan replied as he stretched his hand out and grabbed an overturned desk.

Whatever the shaman woman had put in the water was obviously working; either it was a cureall or the placebo effect was particularly strong. He didn't remember getting up and pushing the door open to get to Sarah, but he also didn't remember being dragged through the bank either. "And the target was most likely you." He spoke matter-of-factly, as if he were not a victim of two suicide bombings and being dragged through a field of bodies. Evan's legs stretched themselves but refused to let him put pressure on them. "$%&@, that hurts," he moaned as his hand slipped from the desk, his strength rapidly fading. "Sarah, just get your... just... fine..." He attempted to speak but the rapid energy that had filled his body earlier was draining twice as fast. "Tree..."

A few survivors rising amidst the death was the last thing he saw before his vision went black.

[Sarah Tintagyl]

"Goddamn it Evan." She flung her arms around him and lifted him off of the desk, he was heavy and her arms were strained, but with the boost of adrenaline just from surviving the bomb, Sarah would be okay for a little bit. "I'm getting you out of here." She carried him out of the burning bank, but when they reached into the bazaar, things only seemed worse. From the explosion there had been an immediate mass looting, mass killing, mass chaos, as bodies were everywhere, bullets whistled through the air, and the smoke and carnage was horrible to the lungs. "We'll...be...okay..." There was a smaller building down the street, maybe they could hide in there, it was the only thing that made sense, it would take too long to find a 'tree' now. Waddling, her arms crying in pain at the dead weight of her partner, Sarah made it through the streets, through crowds of screaming men, women, and children and kicked in the door of the building. Dust rising from the floor as the light hit the darkness of the room for the first time in a few days.

It was a decent sized warehouse, lots of boxes and crates, but besides that mainly abandoned. She didn't hear anyone in there at least. Walking to a corner, she finally sat Evan down and shook the blood back into her arms then knelt down next to him. "We're safe, for now at least. I don't know how long we're going to be able to stay here, but we have to wait for things to clear out a bit." Sarah patted him on the cheek. He might not have heard her at all, but he was safe now. "Don't worry, I'm protecting you, we're perfect."

Standing back up she took out her gun and held it low beginning her patrol around the area making sure they were, in fact, okay.

[Sargun II]

[b]Elsewhere...[/b]

"It appears that the delivery was successful, Lord General. Mr. Khan and Ms. Catherine both received the packages. Both were successfully delivered at the bank, Lord General."

Lord General Breya opened his eyes and smiled. He was, in a few hours, to be released from this hospital and soon after it would burn to the ground. Until then, he and his comrade Vladimiro were speaking in coded English. The White Cross fellows didn't make an effort to decode the speech. Breya chuckled as he grabbed his personal flask of vodka and took a sip. "Vladimiro, I wish for you to go personally and see that the package was delivered in person. I do not want to disappoint either of our clients. Be gone, friend." Vladimiro nodded and left the White Cross hospital, taking no time getting out of there as soon as possible.

[b]Back in the market...[/b]

Evan woke up an hour later, finding a scene not unlike that at the end of the first Indiana Jones movie. The dimly-lit warehouse was blurry to his vision, but more than that it was claustrophobic. While he had never had a problem before, as soon as he woke up he felt like he needed to get out. His first instinct, to pull himself off the floor, did not work. His legs moved but sluggishly, his arms moved but skittishly. His head worked perfectly fine but the rest of his body felt like it was submerged in molasses. Evan let out a moan and was at least glad that Sarah had propped him up against the wall.

"Sarah?"

He couldn't see her. "Sarah!"

[Sarah Tintagyl]

"Evan!" Her eyes sprung wide as she continued to explore the warehouse, gun drawn, before she heard his voice. It didn't take long before she appeared back to him and knelt down on the ground beside him and smiled. "Oh thank heavens you're awake? Are you feeling okay? You took quite the bump there, that bomb nearly killed both of us, but we'll be okay." Sarah checked her watch and sighed. "Its getting late and Breya is going to be released soon, you're in no state to walk, but I don't want to leave you here alone either. Damn, we walked right into his trap. You have any idea of what we could do. We have to kill that !@#$%^&, but we have to make sure you're okay."

Sarah pushed her hand through his hair. "That letter, I know you've changed, but if it means anything now Evan." She leaned down extremely close, her nose touching his own. "I love you and nothing will ever change that."

[Sargun II]

"Letter? What... what letter?" He blinked rapidly as her face encompassed his view, blurred as it was, and grinned at her touch. "I d- I, I love you too, Sarah." Evan found the strength to raise his arm and used it to place his hand rather crudely against the side of her face - it would almost have looked like a slap - and let it slide off. "It looked better in my head," he joked with a faint laugh. A numbness spread down his arm, but it was the good kind, the kind you get after your leg falls asleep and it becomes painfully buzzy.

"Where are we?"

[Sarah Tintagyl]

"A warehouse in the alley that you took me to. I had to carry your heavy $@! out of the bank after it exploded, so you can thank me later, you also lose all privileges of every saying you're stronger than I am." Sarah winked at him. "Anyways, we have to figure out our next move." When she had originally given him the potion from the shaman, she had a little left and unplugged the bottle. "Here, drink up." She helped him drink and set the empty bottle back down. "You okay? We really probably need to get a move on."

[Sargun II]

"Leave, Sarah. I'm going to black out in about a minute so I don't give a damn if you object, just leave this whole forsaken place. Go back home. Invite Hannah and Heather and tell Adnan to go force Terra down there and enjoy a vacation. You don't need to be here and as long as I can't move your being here won't change a thing. Whatever letter you were talking about, I don't know or care what it is but whatever you have in your head right now or whatever you think of me... I'm not good enough." As if on cue he started coughing, his eyes closed and his body numb. "I'll be home in a few days and we can all have a big ol' party but I don't want to have to come back alone, Sarah."

Every part of his body told him to keep talking, even though he was rambling. "My evidence will be delivered and maybe they can get Breya. You can't bring me to a hospital and as long as I'm stationary you're stationary too. Whatever happens I don't want you hurt, damnit." His voice was tired and passionless, and as he finished the sentence his mouth continued to move without noise. Then his vision was black once more. He continued to ramble aimlessly in his sleep.

[Sarah Tintagyl]

Sarah ran her hands through his hair as he slipped back into unconsciousness, there was nothing much she could do now, nothing except to wait for him to regain his energy. Either the potion wasn't strong enough for his injuries or he was giving up on his strength himself. Nevertheless, not matter what he said, she was not moving from that spot, not a chance in the world. Fixing him up against the corner of the warehouse, Sarah next to him on the floor and began to play with her gun, her eyes fixed on the end of the corridor in the warehouse. She would be waiting until Evan finally woke up, they might not have the time to catch Breya, but they'd find him eventually and they'd bring him to justice.

[Sargun II]

"[i]She don't deserve you...[/i]"

Evan twitched in his sleep, the familiar demons of his past back in full force for the night. Without his nightly ritual of almost overdosing on anti-depression medication, his body was going into a minor withdrawal. With his mind occupied with the souls of the damned, his body shook and convulsed. He had less dreams than visions and prophetic hallucinations; a thousand voices whispered thoughts into his ears. At one point, he was semi-conscious and understood a pain registering in his shoulders, but the combination of the stress from the bombing with his current symptoms put him back asleep within moments.

"[i]She deserves a real man...[/i]"

His fingers clenched and unclenched, his feet shuffled restlessly as he mumbled words. Occasionally, his head writhed to the left and right as he shook off invisible demonds. His back seized as if he had wings. His legs shook slightly as if he were sitting on a vibrating chair. Evan's body was being tortured and he wouldn't remember a thing.

"[i]You don't deserve to live. Free her from you! K--[/i]"

"AAGH!"

He shot up and grabbed his arm. The arm felt like it was on fire, the right one that had broken his collision during the bombing. His shoulders spasmed as he cried out in pain, but nobody would get the chance to look after him - as soon as he awoke, half-unconscious again from the pain, a man's silhouette appeared at the end of the warehouse corridor. He was of average height but with an athletic build, his body's outline taut and lean. A gun was in his hand, a gun that he kept pointed to the ground as he stepped forward.

"[b]Leave him, Tintagyl.[/b]"

Vladimiro had arrived.