Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"A tournament of lies, Offer me solutions, Offer me alternatives and I decline."

R.E.M.

The sound of keyboard clacking and phones ringing fill the room.

Same old same old, just another day at the office.

One man sits at his desk, spinning his pen as he waits for something to do.

A co-worker who's name he doesn't even remember anymore slides a dossier on the desk.

"Congrats, man!"  The co-worker says.

- "For what?"

- "You've been put on an operation."

He looks at the dossier, confused about what the other is even talking about and opens it.

The file inside reads:

"Congratulations, Agent Thomas! You've been selected to an assignment!
Your job details will be on the document that has been given to you with this general information form.
The operation will begin at MAY-14-04 6:00PM. Other Agents assigned to this job include:.."

"UDO?!"  Thomas yells, the whole office probably hearing him.

Some people even peek out from the top of their cubicles to see what's going on.

Tom puts the dossier back on the desk and puts his hands on his face.

"Of all the people in this office it just had to be him.." He mumbles before storming off to find Udo.

He rushes through the maze of cubicles searching for the right desk, his co-workers try to ask him where he's off to, but they're all ignored by Tom.

As he finally makes it to the cubicle aptly titled with "Mr. Jürgens", he slams the dossier down, though quite unsuccessfully as its not a particularly heavy dossier.

Udo looks at him with a raised eyebrow, "The hell do you want?".

- "Mind explaining what the fuck this is about?"

- "What? Lost your ability to read all of a sudden?"

- "No! I wanna know why you're listed as a partner in this."

Udo picks up the dossier and quickly reads through the general info, "You think I decided that or something?"

"How am I supposed to work with you of all people? I gotta take this to the higher ups or something.."  Tom responds.

- "Go ahead, ain't my problem."

- "It literally is."

- "Whatever. If you wanna do something about it you've got an hour before the pickup's here."

Tom sits on Udo's desk, "That's not even-.. Ugh.."  He stops himself from continuing, an hour is not even close to enough time to make a complaint, he'll just have to live with it now.

"Processing time's a bitch, huh?"  Udo responds, "Now move your ass off my desk and get your stuff."

Tom starts walking back to his own cubicle, going yet again through the maze that is the office.

A co-worker stops him on the way, "Hey man, what's going on with you? You seem pissed."

- "I really don't have the time for this."

- "Oh c'mon, you can tell me!"

- "They put me on a job with Udo, of all people they put me on a job with him, its like they're mocking me."

- "That ain't so bad! It could be worse!"

- "Could be worse? The man is a fucking creep job!"

- "Oh relax, heard the job's in Atlanta, you're basically just going on a vacation!"

- "Atlanta? As in Georgia? Isn't that city still just a crater?"

- "Oh no, not THAT Atlanta, I'm talking about the one in Texas."

- "The what."

- "Yeah! It's a small town just across the border."

- "Chris, we don't even have jurisdiction in Texas."

'Chris' begins to laugh, "I know! About damn time you got sent off!"  He says before walking off, still cackling on the way.

His arrogance annoys Tom to no end, the idea of shutting him up for good tempts him, but he can't let that distract him right now.

Tom sits down back on his desk, and opens up his dossier once more.

"Your job is to crack down on a cult currently residing within the state of Texas.
Three previous operatives have been sent for scouting, two of which we have lost contact with.
You are to be the last two to be sent on this mission and you are to get in contact with the remaining operative.
Due to the high risk of this operation, it is suggested to leave a final will and to send your final goodbyes to all close family members.
Communication with others during this operation will not be possible for your own safety and the security of the mission.
We thank you for your service and wish you good luck.

NATIONAL PROTECTION PACT
LIBERTY UPON DEATH"

"A final will? Like that's ever gonna happen."  He scoffs, the idea sounds ridiculous but the wording of it bothers him.

Chris enters the cubicle and knocks on Tom's desk, "Your pickup's here. Better go before they leave without you."

"Right, right."  Tom replies, he scrambles to get anything he might need from his desk.

Wallet. Check. ID. Check. Pistol. Czech. Convinced he's got everything he needs, Tom heads outside.

At the front entrance both his ride and Udo are waiting for him.

"You took your sweet time."  Udo says, leaning right against the car.

"Yeah, yeah. I know."  Tom replies.

As they both enter the car, the driver not saying a word instantly drives off as his title would imply.

"A completely blacked out sedan? Like they couldn't made it any more obvious what we're there for.."  Tom says.

- "I know, we'll get gutted before we even get through the border.."

- "...Why'd they let a German into the NPP anyway?"

- "I don't know, same reason as they let a Polack in."

- "Fair."

The car ride turns dead silent, the tension is palpable. Sexual tension? Highly unlikely. Anxious tension? Most definitely.

Over the two hour drive, the scenery changes from the greens of Louisiana to the absolute waste of Texas.

"This place looks like shit, is this really where they sent us out?"  Tom asks.

The driver doesn't respond at all.

"His guess is as good as mine."  Udo replies.

Eventually the car halts, the driver turns to face Udo and Tom and hands both of them a pager.

"Your contact will be in a café right across the street, you are not to contact anybody through any means except us through these pagers. These pagers are to be used only if you're either in a dire emergency or if you have completed the job."

He hands over a pair of car keys to Tom.

"Your vehicle will be parked next to the café. Good luck, you're gonna need it."

The back doors open, and both of them exit the vehicle.

Tom speaks up once more: "..I don't even know how to drive."

- "I thought driving was something you need to know before joining."

- "Apparently not."

- "Just.. Give 'em here."

Tom hands the keys over to Udo and checks his pockets.

- "Wait, shit!"

- "What?"

- "I forgot my cigs!"

- "Oh for fucks sake.."

- "Do you got any?"

- "No Tom, I didn't bring cigarettes to a highly important and classified operation."

Tom looks around and spots a gas station not too far away.

- "Could just go and buy some?"

- "...Fine."

Chapter Text

"Won't somebody help me chase the shadows away?"

ABBA

As both Tom and Udo enter the gas station, the air inside feels still, it almost tastes metallic.

A pimple-faced cashier looks at them both, it's quite clear neither of them belong here.

"Can I help you?"  He asks.

Tom glances at him, "You guys sell cigarettes?"

"Uh, yeah, sure we do."  The cashier leans under the counter to grab a pack and he sets it on the counter.

- "I have to see your ID before selling them to you though."

- "An ID?! Do I look 14 years old to you?"

- "Not one bit."

- "Then why the hell are you asking me for an ID?"

- "Just procedure, man. I don't make the rules."

- "I-.. Fine."

Tom sets his agency ID on the counter, the cashier picks it up and glares at them both.

"The hell are NPP agents doing in Texas? Let alone right here?"

Tom takes a look at Udo, who's giving him the meanest look of his entire life.

- "Uh... That's classified."

- "Sure. Whatever you say. 15 Dollars."

- "FIFTEE-.. Fuckin'.. FINE."

Tom sets a random stack of bills on the counter and grabs the pack of cigarettes, "Keep the change."

As they walk out of the gas station, Tom instantly lights one up, "15 for one pack, country's gone to shit.."

A muffled yell from the cashier can be heard from inside: "You're 4 Dollars short, dude!", but he is completely ignored.

Udo turns to Tom, "Did you use your actual ID in there?"

- "Yeah. What about it?"

- "This is supposed to be a covert operation, not some grocery trip!"

"Oh relax, I've got a fake ID when we need it."  Tom replies, waving a fake ID in his hand.

- "We could have used that right there!"

Udo yoinks the ID off Tom, "Let me have a look.."

His eyes squint to take a proper look, "Yeah that's good, hard to trace I guess.."

He then moves on to the less fine details, his expression instantly changing, "Wait, you changed your name to... Cierpiboga?"

- "Yea.."

- "Cierpiboga?! What kind of a stupid name is that Tom?"

- "They let you pick any name that you want down at the station."

- "And you landed on Cierpiboga?"

- "Yeah it was between that and Mohammad."

Udo's eyes widen, in shock, confusion and anger all combined, "...WHY THE FUCK WOULD IT BE BETWEEN THAT AND MOHAMMAD?! JUST PICK A COMMON NAME LIKE A NORMAL PERSON!"

- "Mohammad is the most commonly used name on earth, read a fucking book for once!"

- "Tom, have you actually ever met anyone named Mohammad?"

- "Have YOU actually ever met anyone named Cierpiboga?"

- "NO! That's why you picked a dumb fucking name!"

- "Fuck you.."

- "Number one: You look like a future nation traitor in this picture. Number two: It doesn't even have a first name IT JUST SAYS CIERPIBOGA!"

Udo almost forcefully hands the ID back to Tom, "Too late to do anything about it now, let's just get on with it."

As both Udo and Tom begin walking towards the café, Tom speaks up, "Isn't it weird?"

- "What is?"

- "Listen... The whole place is dead silent. There's literally nobody around. Only other person we've seen is the pimple-face."

- "Guess that is kind of odd. Maybe its just a coincidence."

- "Nah man.. I'm thinking this has to have a deeper explanation."

- "We just got here, just chill for a minute before doing your weird conspiracy theory shit."

They both enter the café, there's nobody except one person there. No workers, no customers, no nothing.

"Ain't so much of a conspiracy anymore is it?"  Tom whispers.

- "Shut up.."

Tom sits on the table where the other man is, Udo decides to keep standing.

The man's face is sweaty and his arms shaky, like he's seen a ghost, "You uh.. Who are you with?"

Tom in confusion looks around, "Well we were told our contact would be here?"

- "Right, of course. Listen, I don't got much time. I put in a good word for the both of you, but I think the cultists are starting to suspect me."

- "Why do you think that?"

- "They found my partner's badge, they fucking executed him, man." His eyes begin to swell up in attempts to keep his composure.

- "Shit.. Alright, give me just a sitrep, what do you know?"

- "I know they're desperate for members right now, so you're here in the perfect time. They're planning something big, I don't know what, but they're planning something huge. They're calling it the "Last Evolution", no clue what the hell that's about, but I don't like it at all. I think their leader is this guy called 'Tivo'? Some Belarusian guy who they think is like an angel who's come from the heavens."

- "Right, right. So what about the third operative who got sent here?"

- "We were sent as backup for him, never told a name, but so far we've got no idea what and who they're talking about. At this point I hope the guy is dead, would be just the better end for him."

- "..So how do you know its a Him?"

The contact stutters, at a loss for words. Before he can form a response, the bell of the entrance rings.

The so-far unnamed contact looks toward the entrance, his face turns completely pale.

The man speaks, "Ramiel! You didn't tell us that we'd be speaking to your friends so soon!"

'Ramiel' stutters, "I-I'm sorry, sir. I did not mean to, sir."

- "Oh relax, young man! For now is a time of celebration and not of fear!"

He walks next to Tom and Udo and extends his hand, "You can call me David, I was told you were the perfect fits for our community."

Tom shakes his hand, "Cierpiboga, I am glad to meet you, sir."

Udo refuses the handshake, instead keeping his arms crossed, "Klaus."

- "A man of a few words, I respect that."

'Ramiel' speaks up once more, "Sir, I am truly sorry. I did not mea-"

David cuts him off, "You mustn't worry. I must speak with you outside."

- "Please Sir, I promise-"

- "Now."

'Ramiel' looks to both Tom and Udo as if begging for some help.

Tom in a panic tries to come up with something, "I'm sorry but I think we were in the middle of s-"

- "I will let you finish your business with him after I am done. This is important work, my child."

With his head low, 'Ramiel' follows David outside where a car has pulled up.

While inaudible, Udo can clearly see that they're having some form of argument, with 'Ramiel' begging for forgiveness.

David seems to shut him down in an instant, and he is forced into the car by two other people, kicking and trying to fight back as much as he can but to no avail.

David, with a frustrated look, enters the café once more.

- "I'm sorry gentlemen, but I'm afraid Ramiel is.. Preoccupied with something at the moment. My people will be in contact with you soon."

Tom looks back at Udo, he's not buying it at all. "Right, of course, we'll be seeing you."

With that, David exits the building, leaving Tom and Udo alone.

"..He doesn't even have our phone numbers, how the hell is he gonna get in contact with us?"  Tom asks.

- "I've got no clue."

- "Also.. Klaus? Really?"

- "Oh shut up, that's at least an actual common name."

- "It's like a stereotype, you could have picked literally anything else."

- "At least it's better than Cierpiboga."

- "Got me there I guess."

Udo looks around the café, getting more and more curious about nobody being there.

- "Maybe you were onto something, this place has nobody in here."

- "I told you man, it's a fuckin' conspiracy."

Udo looks through the glass of a back-room door, there's nothing in the room.

- "The whole place is empty, no equipment no furniture no nothing."

- "Even the front sign just said 'Café', the whole place stinks of a front for some bullshit."

- "It gives me the creeps, let's just get out of here."

- "Right, we ought to find some place to sleep.."

As they both exit the café, they finally have an actually decent look at the car they were given for the job.

Tom examines it, looking at almost every possible angle of it, "..What an absolute piece of shit this is."

- "They couldn't have given us any better of a vehicle, wouldn't be surprised if it breaks down before we actually find somewhere to sleep."

- "Don't say that, you'll jinx it."

As they begin to drive, they find a hotel within the city, its not the nicest place but it could definitely be worse.

They both enter, the whole place feels kind of damp but also dry at the same time, its odd.

The lady at the front desk speaks with a happy tone, "Good evening! May I have your names please?"

- "Yea, of course! Cierpiboga."

Udo scoffs, it's still such a stupidly silly name to him, "Klaus."

The lady looks at a book of names, "Hmm.. I don't see any Klaus or Cirz.. whatever the name was again."

"Oh, would we have needed to make a reservation?" Tom asks.

"Ah, I'm sorry, we only take online reservations. There is a motel outside the city though!"  The lady responds, pointing a spot out on a map that's hung on the wall.

Tom looks around, the whole place doesn't seem to have anything high-tech. Hell, the place still uses centennial lights.

- "But if you only take online reservations, then where's the computer to even check them?"

The lady looks at Tom, her facial expression and mood completely changed from how cheery she was earlier.

- "I think it's for the best that you leave, outsider."

Udo looks at Tom, he begins to reach for his pistol within his coat but Tom stops him, it simply isn't worth it.

They both exit the building, worried about what the front lady meant by calling them "outsiders".

"The fuck was that about?"  Tom asks while they're both walking back to the car.

- "Why are you asking me? How the hell should I know?"

- "No, I'm talking about THAT." Tom points at the spot where Udo's pistol is.

- "I couldn't take the risk! You know me!"

- "Still! You can't just shoot a random woman because she made you slightly worried!"

- "You would've done the same if you were in my position."

- "I WAS in your position, dumbass."

As they enter the car, their bickering ends.

"Guess we gotta take the motel then."  Udo says.

"Guess so, rather that than keeping to argue like an old married couple."  Tom replies.

As they begin their travel to the motel that the lady told them about, they notice a car following them.

Even with the classic triple-right technique of just going in a circle, they still wont budge off.

"Shit.. You think they're trouble?"  Tom asks Udo.

- "Most definitely."

Udo keeps driving in the direction of the motel, but as if it was a comedy, the car starts sputtering in the middle of town.

"No no no.. Not now of all times.."  Udo starts to panic.

- "I told you not to jinx it! And now we're fucked!"

- "Just.. I'm gonna pull over, act normal."

Udo pulls the car to the side of a road that normally would probably be quite busy, if it wasn't for the fact that the whole town seems to be just silent.

The car that followed them so far pulls right behind them.

Udo, with the hood of the car popped open, acts like this is totally normal and totally not freaking him out at all.

A stranger who exited the follower car walks up to him, he's dressed like the most normal person ever.

"Hey! Havin' problems there?"  He says.

- "Yeah.. Something like that." Udo slowly reaches for his gun once more.

- "Alright, lemme have a look at 'er!"  The stranger bumps Udo out of the way and starts fiddling with random stuff in the car.

- "Ah hell, that's the problem right up!"  He continues

- "What is?"

- "That's the problem right up! You ain't got no damn mobamafluid in 'ere!"

- "The what now?"

- "Look, your head gasket's connected to the radiator, your radiator's sittin' on the damn thin- Awh man, look at that! That's the problem right there! The timer belt is hooked up to your brake pad, your brake pad runnin' off the damn generator, you got a generator in 'ere!"

Tom looks outside from the car in confusion, Udo simply shrugs in response, he's got no idea what the hell the guy is talking about.

- "Look at that! Damn.. afterbirth. See that right there? That should not be that loose. See, the anccur-pressure is sittin' on the thing called a motor mount, the motor mount is lettin' the fluid come out the uh.. You got a murkey's plu- No wonder! That be a murkey's plug, ah shit! That's the whole problem right there.. You ain't got acid reflex! See the acid reflex is what keep's the truck goin'! And right now your power st-.. Motherfucker you ain't got no timer belt. Your timer belt gone!"

- "Is that like.. a bad thing?"

- "You need a whole new stermostat, your stermostat's probably hooked up to your radiator, and the radiator got the.. Motherfucker.. Yeah she's past fixing buddy, she's long gone. Can give you a ride to wherever it was that you was goin' though."

Udo looks back to Tom for any kind of opinion, Tom just shrugs in confusion, they're both as lost as they can be.

In the mix of confusion, Udo replies "Uh, sure. Appreciate it man."

- "Well, what are you waitin' for then? Get yourself and your partner in the car then!"

- "He's not-.. Ah, whatever."

As Tom exits the vehicle, he whispers to Udo, "What the fuck is going on?"

- "I've got no damn idea, I have no clue what he was talking about, but I guess we're going with him."

- "And you trust him?"

- "Hell no! If he tries something I'm blowing his damn head off."

As they both enter the vehicle, the unknown man speaks up, "So, where you two headin' to?"

"Just the motel right outside town, shouldn't be too far."  Tom responds

"Aaaah, I see I see."  The man says before driving off.

The ride is oddly quiet, maybe even a bit too quiet, both Tom and Udo are stressed to no end on the backseat of the vehicle.

The car pulls up to the parking lot of a roadside motel, the place looks shady, like being there is as if you're asking for trouble.

"A'right, you two's getting off here, 'preciate meeting the both of ya."  The man says.

"Yeah, you too, I guess."  Udo says hurriedly before getting out of the car.

As the man drives away, Tom finally talks again, "What an odd guy."

- "I know right? I mean he was nice but he creeped me out."

- "THAT'S what creeps you out? A random Texan in a car?"

- "Oh shut it, you know that's not what I mean."

They both enter the tiny hut of a reception area, the room is dead silent, the only thing filling it being the buzz of the fluorescent lights.

A man sits at the front desk, "What'chu two want?"

- "Just a room, for one night."  Tom responds

- "Right, that's 75 per person a night, money up front."

- "Of course."

Tom and Udo each put 75 dollars on the desk, the man opens up a box of keys. "You're getting.. Yea, number 24, second floor."

Udo grabs the keys and they both head out of the building, as they leave Tom notices that the man at the front desk instantly began making a call the second they left.

"You think he's with them?"  Tom asks.

- "With who?"

- "Y'know, the cultists?"

- "Unlikely, he's the most normal person we've met after pimpleface."

As they both enter the motel room, Tom instantly flops down onto the bed. "Finally, get to relax at least for a little while."

While a little relaxation is definitely needed after such a mess of a day, it's cut quickly short with a knock on their door.

Udo looks over to Tom, suspicion growing, "Maybe you were right, that front guy might have told someone."

He looks through the peephole of the door and sees two men, seemingly unarmed. Udo takes out his pistol and slowly creaks open the door.

One of the men speaks, "This is for you."  And hands a letter to Udo.

And as quickly as they came, right as Udo takes the letter, the second he looks back up they're already gone.

Reluctantly he opens the letter and finds a note inside that says:

"TOMORROW
5PM
205 N WEST ST
A VEHICLE WILL BE WAITING FOR YOU.
DONT MISS IT."

Udo scoffs, "They tryin' to scare us?"

- "Probably not, I mean the guy did say he'd be in contact, so I guess this is his way of doing that."

- "Yeah, I guess that makes sense."

- "Either way, it's getting late, ought to get some rest before all that."

Chapter Text

"I am the god of hellfire! And I bring you: Fire!"

The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown

It's the following day.

After a decent night's rest, Tom and Udo decided to have a meal at a small diner only a walking distance away from the motel.

"This coffee tastes like shit.."  Udo says

- "Told you man, black coffee always tastes terrible.

- "Fuck you. How much time we've got before the meetup anyway?"

- "Like, an hour?"

- "We probably ought to get going then, it's gonna be a long walk."

- "Walk? Why the hell are we gonna walk?"

- "We lost our car dumbass, how else are we supposed to go?"

- "I don't know, figure something out."

Udo looks angered by Tom's prodding and leaves the table, leaving his coffee on the table.

As he gets to the exit, he notices that Tom isn't following him.

"You coming or not?!"  He yells to Tom, who's on the other side of the diner.

Realising that Udo is actually expecting him to follow, Tom quickly gulps down his own drink and rushes to follow.

Exiting the diner, Udo looks around the parking lot right at the entrance.

"Ain't got much choice.."  He says

- "Guess we ought to walk then."

- "Nah, I'm not talking about that."

Udo walks over to one of the only two cars at the parking lot and elbow's its window in.

- "The fuck are you doing?!"

- "You didn't wanna walk, this is the other option."

- "Yeah but wouldn't they know that the only customers in the whole place would be the ones stealing their cars?"

Udo climbs into the car and unlocks the passenger door, "Tom, are you gonna get in the damn car or not?"

Tom reluctantly enters the car, "Literally anything else would have been a better way to deal with this."

Udo's under the steering wheel, fiddling with a bunch of wires. "Yeah? You got any suggestions?"

With a spark of the wires the car roars up into life.

- "When the hell did you learn to hotwire a car?"

- "Don't worry about it, man."

- "Well I AM worrying!"

Udo responds only with an eyeroll and begins driving, "So you got any details on where we're supposed to go or?"

Tom hurriedly opens up a small drawn-out map from his pocket, "Yeah uh, shit, somewhere on the east-side of town."

- "SOMEWHERE on the east-side?! I know that already, dumbass! I said details not general instructions!"

- "Right, right. It should be down the street from the café we were at, some placed called.. Meat slingers?"

- "Meat slingers? Get the fuck out of here, what kind of weird places are you taking me?!"

- "No, I'm serious! It's genuinely called that!"

"Meat slingers.."  Udo scoffs.

Even with Tom's questionable directions, Udo is able to get to their meetup point.

They both have arrived early and opt to stay in the car instead of going out wondering.

"You see 'em?"  Tom asks.

Udo takes a good look around from what little he can see from the inside of the car, "Nope, not a single car around. It really is just a ghost town."

- "It gives me the fuckin' creeps. I mean every place we've been to has been completely empty, a few workers here and there but that's it... You ever seen Truman show?"

- "Have I seen what now?"

- "Yknow, Truman show, the movie?"

- "...No?"

- "Well that's what it feels like, it's weird."

Udo flips through the radio of the car, its mostly static with the slightest bits of music audible through all the white noise, nothing clear enough to be actually listenable.

With a sigh, he takes out a small notebook from his inner pocket and starts writing.

Tom looks over with a raised eyebrow, "What'cha writing?"

- "Just stuff, mostly everything that's happened so far."

- "..Really? I thought you said something about this being a covert operation. Leaving evidence like that is sloppy."

- "Oh give it a rest, it's just a notebook, nothing more."

Tom sighs, rolling his head toward the passenger seat window, only to be shocked by someone looking directly into the car.

He yelps out, even alerting Udo. When the stranger simply raises an eyebrow instead of moving or running away, Tom opens up the window, "Can I help you?"

- "I've been waiting."

- "You're the guy?"

- "Yeah, I'm 'The Guy'. I suppose."

- "So.. What do you want?"

The stranger groans, "Just get in the car." He says, and begins to walk to his own vehicle that somehow both Udo and Tom managed to miss.

As they both exit, Tom whispers to Udo: "Since when the hell was his car there?"

- "No idea, I swear that wasn't there earlier, that or we're both blind." 

- "You sure we should be y'know, just entering a random guy's car?"

- "Got any better ideas?"

- "No..."

They both enter the car, compared to their previous vehicles it almost feels luxurious and comfortable, even though they've both just entered the car of a cultist who may try to kill them at any moment in time.

The stranger begins driving, the ride bringing them far out from the town itself. With a slightly worried tone of voice, Tom decides to break the awkward silence, "So uh.. What's your name? Where're you bringing us?"

For a moment he's met with no response, the man simply keeps a stern look forward. After a wait that seems like forever he finally answers, "I'm simply here to bring you to where you must be. That is all."

- "Right, right. Of course."

The car ride turns silent once more, the views turn from the lowly town of Atlanta (the Texas one) to the flats of the highway to the cluttered woods far out from the town.

They eventually pull to the front of a wooden house, it looks run-down, like it's been sitting here for however long with nobody taking care of it.

One person sits on a chair near the entrance, its David.

The stranger exits the vehicle with no words and enters the house, as if Tom and Udo weren't in the car at all.

With a quick reassuring glance at each other, they both exit the vehicle.

David yells with open arms, "Gentlemen! It's so good to see you again!"

When they get into talking distance, Tom asks: "Where's Ramiel?"

David clicks his tongue and looks away almost in shame, "He's got somewhere else to be at the moment."  With a short silence, his personality switches right back to his normal self, "Well lets not worry about that! Come on in!"

He guides both Tom and Udo inside, the place looks a little less run down, but still obviously a bit worse for wear.

The place is mildly populated, a few people walking around here and there, though they're all wearing robes with some form of writing and insignia unlike all the other cultists they've met so far.

"Oh worry not, you will get your robes too within the following months, but we must have your initiation period first!"  David says, patting them both on the back.

"Initiation period?" Udo asks

- "Yes, though yours will be shorter, we are getting closer and closer to our Final Step, so we must deal with your initiation quite quickly."

- "What's the Final Step about?"

- "Oh worry not about that, you will find out in due time. Now excuse me, but I believe I must talk to the fine gentleman who drove the both of you here about the first step of your initiation."

David walks into a small room, closing and locking the room behind him, leaving both Tom and Udo alone to look around the place.

"..What a weirdo." Udo says

- "I know right?"

- "Wanna just like.. look around? Could be good info."

Tom shrugs, they both take a peek into what seems to be a living room.

The room has only a few things, a small couch on which two people are sitting, a television and one desk.

The television is playing a weird looking.. cartoon?

Two characters on the TV are having a conversation, they seem to be the depictions of Jesus and Judas.

- "I. AM-- Wait a second. Wait a second, wait a second, wait a second.. The LAST supper, you kept calling it the LAST... Fuckin' supper... You fucking knew didn't you? You're the rat." 

Jesus seems to pick up Judas by the collar, angered. "CONFESS! Look me in the EYE when I'm talking to you! Get ready to receive some holy spirit.." 

- "What?"

He then starts beating the shit out of Judas, the animation style completely switching up in the process.

Tom looks to Udo and whispers, "Some weird stuff they're playing here.."

- "It's a cult, what do you expect?"

They move onto the backyard. In the distance rests a run-down small church, next to it a large patch of land that's clearly been dug up before. Tom takes a closer look, taking in the size of it, "Shit.. You know what this probably is, right?"

- "I've got eyes, yea I can tell what it is."

Tom then spots next to the house some stairs that seem to lead down to a basement, "Yeah fuck that, I'm not going in there."

- "For once you've got some brains, I thought you'd be going there in an instant."

- "Shut up."

As they enter the house again, they take a look at the mixture of a dining room and kitchen. It boasts a large painting of Dante and Virgil in Hell hanging right above the head chair of a very fancy dining table, everything about it looks completely out of place with the rest of the building.

Before Tom can even speak his mind, David emerges from the other room he was locked in the entire time.

"Well gentlemen, this is your lucky day!"  He says.

"Oh yea? Why's that?"  Udo asks with an unsure look.

- "You've arrived at just the right time today, you see we have this little problem. One person has been very.. Vocal, about his distain for us. We need you two to deal with that, take it as a proof of loyalty."

- "Right.. sure."

- "Oh and of course, you've met him before but I heard you haven't had proper introductions."

An another person from the room David was in enters the entry room.

- "This is Samael, he's our head of intelligence and other such matters."

Tom attempts a handshake with Samael, but Samael does not respond to it in any way.

- "Excuse him, he's a man of few words and more of a man of action."

"Oh that's fine, I think we can see eye to eye on that."  Udo says, trying to figure out what Samael's plan is.

- "Well, off you go then!"

David almost pushes them out of the building, with Samael leading the way back to the car yet again.

When they enter the car, Tom tries to spark up a conversation again, "So what's the deal with you saying nothing?"

- "...I don't get what he sees in the both of you. I know he's desperate for members but, you don't just seem the type."

Udo seems insulted by the statement, "The hell are you on about?! We're really trying our best y'know!"

- "I know, that's what makes it even worse."

The car starts up, and Samael begins to drive.

Udo looks over to Tom, almost in a 'Please let me kill him' type look. Tom shakes his head, they cant afford to fuck up the mission right now.

They don't drive very far away, the scenery barely changed, from cluttered woods to a little bit less cluttered woods.

As they pull up to the driveway of a cabin, Samael pulls out a pistol from his coat. Udo and Tom almost instantly panic, Udo reaches for his own pistol almost in an instant.

- "Oh relax, if I wanted to shoot you I would have done it already."

He hands the gun over to Tom, "I think you know what to do with this."

- "No, I really don't."

Samael sighs, "You go and kill the man living in that house, I don't care how you do it as long as you do it."

- "Wait what?! We're just gonna kill a guy? THAT'S our 'Initiation'?!"

- "Yeah! This is how you prove that you're really serious about this, so go do it already!"

- "Alright, alright! Fine!"

Udo and Tom exit the vehicle and begin walking toward the cabin. Udo looks over to the clearly stressed Tom, "What, never shot anyone before?"

- "Of course I have! It's just.. I didn't expect the so called initiation to be shooting a guy!"

- "Get used to it man, got a whole lot of that in this job."

They reach the front door, with an extremely shaky hand Tom tries to knock on the door but to no avail.

Udo lowers Tom's hand and bangs on the door himself, making it sure he's heard.

A man opens the door, "Can I help you?" 

Tom raises the gun and pulls the trigger.

CLICK!

It's empty.

Tom gives a quick look toward where Samael is, he's smirking, this was his whole plan.

With a mix of panic and quick thinking, Udo punches the guy in the face, causing him to stumble onto the floor.

He holds his now bleeding nose, "What the fuck man?!"

Udo quickly rips a landline phone from a desk next to the entry door. 

He raises it above his head and hits him straight in the face.

The man tries protecting himself with his hands, "W-wait! What do you--"

BANG.

"I have a dau--"

BANG.

"Please, you alr--"

BANG. BANG.

His hands drop to the floor, motionless.

Udo, kneeling above the now dead man, drops the bent-up landline phone on the floor. He looks over to Tom, who's looking back at him in horror. "I-.. I had to do something and-.. I'm sorry."

Tom drops the gun, and leaves the building in panic. Seeing Udo beat a man so relentlessly makes him feel sick to his stomach, he'd puke if he could. Instead he sits right outside the cabin, hyperventilating and gagging from the panic.

Udo still inside the building, looks down upon the man who he just beat, and decides to take a look around the cabin.

He looks over to a desk that's in the living room, its a framed portrait, he walks over to pick it up.

"Shit..", It's a family portrait. It depicts the man he just beat, a woman, and presumably their daughter.

Udo sits down on the couch of the living room and rests his head in his hands, all the dread and weight of what he just did hits him right then and there.

What snaps him out of it is a loud noise from a different room, he rushes over to the door of the room, but its locked. He thinks about kicking it down, but decides against it. "Someone in there?" He asks softly, "I'm not gonna hurt you."

There's no response.

He sits down, his back resting against the door. He almost starts sobbing, but he refuses to let that happen. He grabs the notebook he has in his coat, and writes down a single note.

"I don't think he is going to trust me anymore after this."

As he gets back up and walks outside, Tom is still sitting there, his face against his knees.

- "C'mon, let's just go."

- "You killed him, Udo."

- "Please."

- "You beat him to death with a fucking telephone.."

- "Tom, Please. We have to go."

Tom refuses to continue, Udo has to almost drag him up for Tom to walk again.

As they get back to Samael, he starts looking around the trunk of the car. "See, that wasn't so hard."

"Fuck you!"  Tom responds

- "Alright settle down, still got one more thing to do but clearly I should do this instead."

He takes out a jerrycan from the trunk and starts hauling it toward the cabin.

"The fuck are you gonna do with that?" Tom asks

"Oh, I'm just going to fuel up their car." Samael responds in a sarcastic tone, "What's it look like? I gotta get rid of the evidence, part of the job!"

- "Right, right. Of course it is."

As Samael enters the building, Udo tries to comfort the clearly stressed out and saddened Tom.

"Don't fucking touch me."  He responds, no matter what Udo might try, it's clearly not the right time.

Tom enters the car and Udo follows, wordlessly they wait for the return of Samael.

When he emerges back from the house, he looks back at the house and throws a lit match inside.

The house bursts into flames, it lights up the eyes of both Udo and Tom, they look in shock and awe as the flames grow taller and larger with every second.

Hurriedly, Samael runs back into the car. "We gotta get the fuck up out of here now, we still got somewhere to be."

"Like where?" Udo asks, trying to take his mind off of everything.

- "I going to pick up a certain package or two, you could say."

The ride feels like it takes forever, every attempt at comforting Tom is met with a cold shoulder, every word with deaf ears.

Udo tries and tries, but it gets to the point where it feels like he can't even say any words anymore, like all the air out of his lungs have been completely forced out.

Samael pulls up to the parking lot of what appears to be a small gun store, "I'm going pick up a few packages, you two.. whatever the hell you twos are, are going to help me unload them later on."

With a small nod from Udo, Samael exits the car.

Udo, noticing Tom's continuous distain, decides to write on his notebook once more.

Tom looks over, somewhat interested, "What are you writing this time?"

- "Oh just some scribbles is all. Feeling any better yet?"

- "Somewhat.. Just, you didn't have to do that."

- "I know. I'm sorry. I panicked and just.. I had to do something."

The silence lingers on, a silent acknowledgement. "I saw a picture in the house."

- "Yeah?"

- "It was of a family.. He had a family."

- "And that's what made you feel remorse?"

- "I guess so.."

With an another break in conversation, Samael enters the car. "Right, that's done with. Your loyalty thing is complete and the pickup has been done."

"Mind telling what the pickup even was?"  Udo asks

- "Guns, obviously. We're at a gun store."

- "Of course, obviously."

On the ride back, some of the previous tension is no longer there anymore. With Udo's apology and finding remorse, things aren't as bad anymore. Of course it's not all fixed, beating a man to death with a telephone is going to take a while to recover from, but it could be worse.

As they return from their 'eventful trip', they all exit the vehicle and begin unloading multiple crates of weapons from the back of the car.

David greets them once more, "Gentlemen! You can leave the crates right here, Samael will deal with the rest, wont you?"  He says, looking at Samael with an expecting look.

Samael sighs and simply shrugs as he begins carrying the crates up the stairs.

"The sleeping quarters are also upstairs, you may rest whenever you please."  David says

"Yeah. I think some rest is in order after everything."  Udo replies

As they begin to walk upstairs, Tom notices the door of the room where the crates were put was left very minorly ajar, just enough for the door to still be open.

"Hey, look at this."  Tom whispers to Udo as he opens the door.

The small room has rows and rows of boxes some completely opened showing the contents of multiple firearms.

"What the fuck are they preparing for?"  Udo wonders, but still silently as to not alarm anybody.

Tom looks at some of the boxes, some of them bear the emblem of the NPP, the same agency they work for.

"Ah shit.."  Tom whispers

- "What, thought you were fighting with the good guys?"

"Yeah?"  Tom replies with a smirk, they both almost burst out laughing. They knew they were already on shady territory but not THIS shady.

An another box peaks Udo's interest, its completely different from the wooden crates of guns.

He opens it up and finds a letter and rows of small vials.

Udo hands the letter to Tom, "Here, read this."

While Tom looks at the letter, Udo takes out a pair of latex gloves from his pocket and examines the vials.

- "What, you just carry a pair of gloves everywhere you go?"

- "Yeah, so what?"

He looks closer at the contents of the vial. It's dark, it almost looks like its moving by its own, like its a living thing.

"Dude I can't fucking read this."  Tom says in a semi-whispering tone and hands the letter over to Udo.

The letter reads:

КНД-2
Действующая трансмутационная сыворотка 40 мг/мл
ВНИМАНИЕ
ИСПОЛЬЗОВАНИЕ СЫВОРОТКИ СОПРЯЖЕНО с высоким РИСКОМ ТЯЖЕЛЫХ ТРАВМ ИЛИ СМЕРТИ, ИСПОЛЬЗУЙТЕ ТОЛЬКО В КРАЙНЕМ СЛУЧАЕ.
СОБСТВЕННОСТЬ НОВОГРОДСКОГО ИНСТИТУТА.

"Uh.. Something about a.. Transmutation Serum? It's got a risk of serious injury or death, so that's nice."  Udo says while reading out the letter.

- "What so you speak Russian now too?"

- "Yeah?"

- "Makes me wonder what else you're hiding from me.."

- "Don't start with that."

- "Either way. It's fucking weird, a transmutation serum? And our insignias? In here of all places?"

Udo quickly puts all the items back into the case in their right places.

"We ought to just leave this be for now." Udo says

- "Yeah.."

- "We'll let this be, recover it when we get the fuck out. But right now, we just need some rest, it's been too much today."

Chapter Text

"Watch all the stars fall down, and never leave this sound. You'll find yourself under a fire of love, and if you're lost then we're all-, we're all-"

Aberdeen Is Dead

Udo wakes up within the sleeping quarters, all the other bunk beds in the room are already empty.

He looks around confused, his best guess is that everyone simply woke up before him and Tom.

Tom looks up from the bottom bunk, "You sure took your time."

"Yeah yeah, I know." Udo replies while checking his pockets.

After checking every single pocket he has, he realises that one thing is missing, "Ah shit.."

- "What? What's 'ah, shit'?"

- "The notebook, it's gone."

- "You're kidding."

- "I wish I was, I might have accidentally left it in the car or dropped it somewhere."

- "Well you better fucking hope that nobody in here found it or we're in deeper shit than you can even imagine!"

- "Give it a rest! If someone here found it we'd be dead already, I'm sure its around somewhere."

In the middle of their argument a loud noise can be heard from downstairs, like that of a cabinet falling.

Tom looks back to Udo, "You wanna make a bet on that?"

Udo scoffs as he drops down from the top bed, "We'll be fine. I can promise that."

Reluctantly, Tom gets up to follow Udo downstairs, "I find that unlikely."

As they exit the room and begin walking downstairs, the commotion only gets louder. The yelling that's clearly coming from the dining room behind the closed doors is too muffled to understand.

At the bottom of the stairs, Tom and Udo exchanges a glance of confusion at one-another, neither of them have any clue on what's going on.

All of a sudden a man bursts out from the dining room while yelling, "OH GO F--"

He stops himself in the middle of the sentence as he spots Tom and Udo, "Oh, excuse me. I truly hate to make a bad first impression."

He extends his hand, Tom gives a quick look at Udo who seems just as confused as before, he accepts the handshake and the man's demeanour instantly changes from the frustrated man he was earlier to seemingly excited.

He almost violently shakes Tom's hand with a tight grip, "Alexander Kruus, glad do finally meet you!"

Tom is almost taken aback by the sudden shift in his tone, like he's suddenly talking to a completely different person.

Before Tom can respond, Alexander decides to continue his sentence, "You know, I've heard some truly good things about you! Soon you will be the final piece to our plan, and not a moment too soon!"

Tom tries to let go of Alexander's hand but his grip is too tight, "What plan? I think we aren't caught up in all of that."

In response Alexander simply shakes his head and lets go of Tom's hand, "Oh, of course. Seems that Samael did not inform you then."

Udo looks over to the dining room where Samael is sitting. Samael gives a small wave with a smile, his other hand holding an unlabelled small notebook.

Seeing the notebook, Udo tries his best to look as calm as possible but clearly fails, "Shit..."

Alexander notices Udo's sudden worry, "What's up? Something wrong?"

- "Nothing, don't worry about it."

Alexander looks back to Samael and notices the small notebook, "Oh right, Samael had something to say to you two before our next step. I'll be waiting while you two have your conversation."

As Alexander leaves, Udo and Tom look to where Samael is sitting. He indicates for them both to sit down on the dining chair. And as they both do, closing the room's door behind them, Samael sets the notepad on the desk and speaks up, "Wanna explain this to me?"

Udo looks over to Tom, he's very clearly disappointed in Udo, "It's just.. a diary, I suppose."

Samael raises his eyebrow, "A diary?"

- "Yeah, something like that."

- "So, your diary just normally has intricate plans of so called 'top-secret' operations? Very sweet writing by the way, all this stuff about trust and mixed feelings for the person you're working with? It would really melt my heart if I gave a shit about it."

Udo begins to reach into his coat pocket for his gun, Tom for the first time doesn't seem to be against the idea.

Samael notices Udo's reaching and sets down his gun on the table, "You take that out and you'll be killed before you exit this room. You can't risk ruining all your plans now can you?"

Tom and Udo look at eachother, they could just kill him right here right now, but he's got a point. Risking the job now is not a good idea.

Udo sets his hands on the table, showing he has given up on the idea, "So what do you have planned then? Are you just gonna kill us both?"

Samael puts his gun back in his pocket, "No no no. Not at all, see I have a proposition for you both infact."

- "I don't like the sound of that."

- "Well it's your only chance at living as well, so it's either that or dying here and fucking up the job. Either way, we'll talk later, you're already late."

- "Late to what exactly?"

- "The ritual. Alexander will be holding it at the church outside during which I will be waiting here, so get going already."

- "Right, of course. What else could it be but a ritual?"

As Udo and Tom begin to leave, Samael stops them one more time, "Are you going to take your diary back or am I going to have to hold onto all this lovely-dovely bullshit?"

Udo quickly grabs the diary from him and leaves for the church with Tom.

As they enter the church, the rows of seats are already filled by the few cult members.

Alexander, in the middle of what seems to be a speech, turns to the two, "You're finally here! Great!"

Udo walks up to him, "I'm sorry for taking so long."

- "Oh worry not! For today is a great day, your final steps of becoming a true member can begin!"

- "And uh.. How are we going to do that?"

"Kneel, my son." Alexander guides both Tom and Udo to take a knee on the podium of the church. He sets a hand on both of their heads and begins reciting a language neither of them understand, the entirety of the church joins in.

They both attempt to join in on the chanting of the unknown language, but not only do they completely mess it up, but every time they attempt it an almost skull-splitting headache hits them, like something is trying to stop them.

As Alexander raises his hands back from Tom and Udo, he looks down on them with a worrying look, "That's odd.."

Tom is utterly confused as to what is even going on anymore, "What's wrong?"

- "Something is wrong, but I don't know what. It's like a presence is stopping me.. Your souls are not ready yet."

- "Is that something we can fix?"

- "It's beyond my own powers. I believe Great Tivo could do something but.. His powers would require an offering of some kind."

- "As in, one of us?"

- "Oh no, no. Just somebody, a tattered soul would not work."

Alexander gets them back up and makes them face the small crowd of cultists, "Since it is an offering in your name, I believe it would be the best if one of you picked on who would be used in the offering."

Tom begins to sweat, the idea of an "offering" terrifies him.

He looks at the small crowd, the bunch of people he knows nothing about, some with their faces completely covered, they all look almost excited to be picked for something like this.

Finally his eyes land upon the only person in the entire crowd that he knows, David.

Without a word he points at David, he looks scared, he knows what will happen.

Alexander looks over to David, "Ah, of course, David! Today is your lucky day. You've been chosen as the final offering!"

David looks around, he begins to stutter, "A-Are you sure? I assure you I still have loads of work to do, my work can not just end here."

- "Oh worry not, your work will be dealt with no problem at all. You should be happy about this! To be a part of something so grand!"

David gets up from the chair he was sitting on, "NO! I can't let my work be ended like this! I refuse!"

Alexander's gaze is adamant on David, clearly angered by David's reaction.

Without a word, 4 of the cultists grab David and begin to forcefully take him outside of the church.

David tries his best to fight them off, but it's no use, "NO! DON'T DO THIS! YOU CAN'T!"

For the first time, David seems genuinely terrified of what's about to come, "YOU HAVE TO STOP THEM!" He yells at Tom and Udo.

They both don't move an inch, both out of fear and simply because they do not want to.

When he is finally taken outside, Alexander talks again, "I'm so sorry, I'm not sure what's gotten into him, he's seen this so many times and suddenly he's become terrified of it.. Well, either way! Samael is over at the house, with every conversation there is a celebratory meal for the convertee, he will know what to do once you've told him what has happened here."

With simply a nod, Tom and Udo quickly get out of the church. When they're finally outside, before walking to the house Tom asks Udo, "What the fuck was that?"

- "I have no idea. And I do not want to know."

- "The guy was terrified, we got ourselves into deeper shit than ever before man."

- "Seems like it.."

- "..Also, what was Samael talking about?"

- "What do you mean?"

- "The diary stuff, what was that about?"

- "That's personal, just don't worry about it."

With a raised eyebrow, Tom stops questioning Udo and enters the house.

In the dining room sits Samael, he's set a small dinner for all three of them and indicates for them to sit down.

As he begins to eat, Samael asks them both, "So how'd it go? The conversion thing."

Tom looks up from his plate, "Apparently it failed. Something about Alexanders powers being too weak for it."

- "Yeah I guessed as much. Let me guess again, they need some kind of offering, right?"

- "Yep."

- "Damn, who'd you use for it?"

- "David."

- "Shit, that's brutal man. We'll deal with it after the meal."

The dining room turns silent, but Udo hasn't had a single bite, instead he's inspecting the meat of the meal, "What am I about to put in my mouth?"

Samael looks up, "Rabbit."

Tom chuckles, "He should have hopped faster."

- "Yes, he should have. But fortunately for us, he did not."

Though Samael and Tom are chuckling, Udo is not, instead he's staring down Samael and sets down his fork, "I think I will pass."

Samael looks back at Udo, "What, is my cooking not good enough for you?"

- "I suppose not."

- "Well I apologize, I did not take you for a man of such extremely high tastes, there is only so much you can make in a place like this."

As Tom finishes the meal, he joins in on the conversation: "So, about that proposition you had."

- "Ah of course. See, your conversion failing was something I expected to happen actually."

- "You expected it? How?"

- "Oh just mostly from the stuff from your.. Friend's diary. You would be surprised how much you can tell of a persons soul by their diary."

- "So why is failing the conversion a good thing?"

- "Because tomorrow, your main target Tivo will be arriving. In exchange of keeping your plan a secret, I will leave before the morning and you will not see me here again. You will not mention my name in any documents or any interviews that you will have after this mission. That is what I offer, it is a mutual agreement of security I suppose."

Tom looks to Udo, their options seem very limited, it's really either take the deal or fuck up the entire mission.

- "Yeah, I suppose that will do."

- "Great! Glad we could work a deal like this. Well, I guess the only thing left to do now is to deal with that whole offering thing."

As they get up from the dining table, Samael guides them outside and down into the basement, the only room that they did not inspect beforehand.

When they enter the basement, it's extremely dimly lit, the only light in the whole wide open basement is a small floodlight, it's still slightly too dim to clearly see.

As Tom and Udo get closer they realise what it is, the wall is painted, a long table is set in front of it and at the table sits a multitude of dead bodies, twelve to be exact.

They're all set up like the last supper, upon closer inspection, Tom notices one of the legs of one of the bodies is missing. Realising that it may have been the meat that he just ate, he almost starts to gag.

The only one who isn't dead is David, who's seated in the position of Jesus. He's bound and gagged and as he wakes up from getting knocked out, he instantly tries to yell at Tom but he's too muffled to be understood.

David's yells and screams turn into quiet sobs, he tries his best to wriggle and force himself out of the rope he's bound with but it yields no results.

In the middle of the basement is a camcorder, a quite rare piece of technology. Trying to ignore the scene, Udo asks Samael: "What's this here for?"

- "Oh don't worry about that, it'll be useful for later."

Samael begins to dig in his coat and takes out his pistol, he hands it to Udo, "Watch out, it's loaded this time. You know what you have to do."

Noticing the exchange, Tom angrily grabs the gun from Udo and points it at Samael, "You sick fucking piece of shit, what's stopping me from shooting you right here, with your own gun?"

Samael shows no fear toward Tom, he simply looks at him like he's inspecting him, "You know why you can't do that. Finish the job. Get it done with and we can all be out of here."

Angrily, he stops pointing the gun at Samael, realising there's really no point to try to intimidate him.

He walks over to David who's still sobbing and takes off his gag.

Through tears with a raspy voice, David quietly speaks, "Please.. You don't have to..."

Tom presses the gun against David's head, more tears begin to flow from David's eyes, "Please, I beg you.. You're playing into his hand..."

Tom's hand starts to shake hearing David's words, he actually is starting to feel bad for him.

He pulls the hammer of the gun, David's pleads get louder, "PLEASE! DON'T DO THIS TO ME! I DON'T DESERVE TH-"

BANG!

The gunshot rings in Tom's ears, it's almost deafening.

When the ringing stops he sees the scene he's caused, the blood splattered against the wall, David's brain leaking out of the massive hole in the back of his head.

Tom seems unfazed, like hes going through shell shock. He drops the gun on the floor.

Samael chuckles, taking the tape from the camcorder, "Wow, and here I thought you were the weak one but instead you're a fucking stone cold killer! God damn man!"

Udo looks shocked, he's equally taken aback by Tom's actions but hes clearly more worried than excited, "You alright, Tom?"

- "Yeah... Yeah, I'm okay..."

Tom almost sluggishly exits the basement, Udo follows him.

Back outside Udo asks again, "Really, are you actually okay? That was really intense and I'm just worried about you."

Tom doesnt even respond, he just walks back inside the house while Udo follows trying his best to help.

Back inside, noticing that nobody has still come back from the church, Tom suddenly grabs Udo, "You caused this."

Taken aback Udo tries to defend himself, "What the hell are you talking about?!"

- "YOU CAUSED THIS, YOU PLANNED THIS ALL OUT! YOU WANTED THIS TO HAPPEN! YOU REALLY THINK I EXPECT TO BELIEVE THAT DIARY BULLSHIT?!"

- "I swear I didn't mean for this to happen!"

- "IT'S YOUR FAULT! IF IT WASN'T FOR YOUR STUPID FUCKING NOTEBOOK THIS WOULDN'T HAVE HAPPENED!"

Tom throws Udo to the floor, "DON'T FUCKING LIE TO ME!"

- "I'm not! I swear on my soul that I didn't mean to lose my notebook!"

- "It's your fault.. It's all your fault. You caused this."

- "Tom. I'm sorry.."

- "When we're done with this mission, we're never talking to one another again."

Tom leaves and goes upstairs, leaving Udo on the floor.

Udo sits there, stunned. Trying to fix this will take some time, maybe it'll never be fixed.

Chapter Text

"Is my timing that flawed? Our respect runs so dry. Yet there's still this appeal, that we've kept through our lives."

Joy Division

As Tom and Udo rest, they are suddenly woken up by Alexander bursting into the room: "Great news gentlemen!"

Tom doesn't respond, but as Udo gets up from the bunk bed he notices that everyone once again is gone, "The hell are you doing? Where is everyone?"

- "That's exactly what I'm here to tell you about! Our Great Tivo has finally arrived, today is your big day!"

- "Oh right, so he's gonna be able to uh.. 'fix' us, right?"

- "That will be seen, but get up already! We have to get this done and quick!"

Udo jumps down from the top bunk again, and when he looks back up Alexander is already gone.

He tries nudging Tom awake, "Let's go, we gotta get this done."

Tom pushes Udo off as he gets up, "Guess we ought to." He replies with a stern tone.

- "C'mon, I'm sorry about yesterday. But theres no time to talk about that now, we have to do this."

- "Then when IS the time to talk about it? YOU put us into this situation, YOUR journal put us here."

Udo sighs, trying to convince Tom to let it go is useless, instead he grabs Tom and forces him to stand up from the bed.

Tom pushes him off, almost smacking him in the process, "Don't you fucking touch me! I should fucking kill you for what you caused!"

- "You're acting like a child! So what if you shot him?! It's for the better that hes gone!"

Tom raises his hand, ready to hit Udo on the spot. As they stand there, Udo refusing to move and Tom with his hand raised, Tom lowers it back down, "It's not even about that."

- "Then what are we even arguing for?"

- "I trusted you."

Udo doesn't respond, he simply looks at Tom like hes trying to talk without words. Which he probably can't do.

As they stand there in a wordless conversation, Alexander returns, "What's taking so long? You should be excited to see Tivo by now!"

He yanks Udo by the shoulder of his jacket and starts leading him downstairs with Tom following.

When they reach the bottom of the stairs, the place is in distress, people are moving different boxes and items outside, some are moving to the backyard, some to the front yard, its unclear what they're doing for what purpose. 

Alexander swings open the double doors of the kitchen. At the head of the table sits a single person, to both Tom and Udo something about him seems off but its too vague to really put a finger on, its simply something about his presence.

Alexander bumps infront of them, "I've got your soon-to-be new members, Sir!"

The man waves Alexander off, "Yes, yes, could you please let us be alone? I believe I must conversate with them."

- "Of course, is there anything else you may require, Lord?"

- "No, just get out already."

Alexander quickly leaves the building from the backdoor, leaving the group to themselves.

The man sighs, "I'm so sorry about him, he can be so pitiful and even pathetic at times.. Either way, glad to finally meet you two. I'm Tivo, but I presume you already know that by now." 

They both sit down on the dining table, Udo speaks up first, "We've heard really great things about you, I'm so glad to finally meet you."

- "Oh the pleasure is all mine. I heard you two had some.. Issues about your recruitement?"

- "Yeah, but Alexander really didn't get into too much detail. Just said that you'd be able to help and that we needed some kinda offering, so David is now gone."

- "I heard, his dispatchment is truly unfortunate, but he had done his part for the greater good already. I should ask though, do you know where Samael went? The whole place has been in disarray with him simply disappearing."

Tom looks over to Udo, slight worry in his eyes, "We've got no idea."

Tivo inspects Tom with a raised eyebrow, "Right.. Well either way, we are in a bit of a rush today. Today is the final day of the evolution after all."

- "About that, we weren't told much about that either. Is it like, some sort of long process or something?"

- "Oh it's a process, its a grand plan for sure. But before we get into that, could you get to Samael's room and grab your files from there?"

- "Our files?"

- "You'll know when you see them."

Tivo throws a key to Tom who fumbles and barely catches it, "Go on, I'll just chat with your friend here."

As Tom leaves the room to get to the previously locked room that Samael had been seen going to before, Tivo turns back to Udo, "Dein Freund scheint Angst zu haben, gibt es etwas, das du mir sagen möchtest?"

("Your friend seems scared, is there something you want to tell me?")

Udo is taken aback by the sudden question, especially considering how Tivo is supposed to be Belarusian, "Nein, alles ist in Ordnung."

("No, everything is fine.")

Over in the room that was Samael's office, when Tom enters it he finds files upon files, on shelves, in cabinets, its of almost everyone in the whole town.

He scrolls through the different files, finding different members of the group. Most of the files contain basic normal information, like David's history in Kenya with him losing his father and him eventually moving to America to be a preacher. And Alexander turning out to be an Ex-CEO who's company crumbled apart two years before the war due to a sex-scandal, "Shit.. Guess we know who the VIP is now." he mumbles to himself.

With his intrigue now sparked, he attempts to find the file on Samael, but fails to find it. He double checks, even triple checks every single shelf and cabinet, but nothing. He does find Tivo's file, but when he opens it, it's all redacted, seemingly in a rush, like someone just quickly covering everything with a marker.

Over in the kitchen Udo starts getting curious over Tivo's sudden question, "Sag mal, wo hast du eigentlich Deutsch gelernt?"

("Say, where'd you actually learn German?")

Tivo leans back, the chair creaking while he does it. He pulls out an old pack of cigarettes and lights one, "Wenn man eine Zeit lang mit Deutschen zusammenarbeitet, lernt man bestimmte Dinge."

("When you work with Germans for a while, you learn certain things.")

Tom finally returns with two dossiers in his hand and hands them over to Tivo, "Here, why'd you make files on us anyway?"

Tivo opens up one of the dossiers, "You've got to stay safe y'know, you can never be too sure.."

As he's reading through both dosiers, Tom and Udo give eachother a look of concern once more, the tension is starting to get bad.

Finally Tivo closes down both of the dosiers, sighs and leans back again, "You picked a terrible fake name, Tom. I mean really? Cierpiboga? It's ridiculous. And Klaus? Could you get any more generic?"

Tom and Udo say nothing, simply glaring a couple glances to eachother every now and then while staring down Tivo. The tension is broken with a chuckle from Tivo and a pat on the shoulder that he gives to Tom, "Oh relax! I'm not mad at you, everyone's got some kind of alias. Hell, to be fair with you, Tivo is not even my real name."

He puts a small red passport on the table, the back of it facing the room, "Go ahead, read it, might as well have some clarity between us, yeah?"

Udo picks up the passport and turns it over, on the cover reads "Ahnenpaß" with bold letters, over the text is the symbol of an eagle carrying a Hakenkreuz, it's the emblem of the NSDAP.

With a raised eyebrow Udo looks back up at "Tivo", he in return just nods with a smile, "Go on."

As he opens up the passport and begins reading, it mentions only general things like his name of "Noach Richter" and his Army rank of "SS-Oberst-Gruppenführer". What truly confuses Udo is the birth year of 1912, he looks back up at Noach and squints his eyes, he eventually gives up, theres no way he even looks past 30. He hands the passport back, fighting back a look of distain and disgust.

Noach finally takes back the passport with a smile, "I apologize that I don't have any other identification, that was the last thing I could bring with me in such a hurry."

"What was with the age? 1912? You'd be dead by now, no?" Udo asks.

Tom looks at Udo with confusion, he's just as surprised as Udo.

Noach laughs and takes out the cigarette from his mouth which is now just a stub, "It's part of what I'm doing what I'm doing right now. I mean what I'm planning here is the saving of an entire species. I know you two just simply appeared here out of nowhere with fake names, so clearly you two's got some other plan here, but give me one chance to just convince you that I'm doing this for the better. Please."

Udo and Tom look at each other again, "Alright, out with it then." Tom says.

Noach clears his throat like he's preparing to tell an entire legend, "We've got our hands on this thing, right? It's like a serum of a kind, now when I escaped Germany, I thought I'd never see it again. But thanks to some.. Useful connections, we've got our hands on it again. It was originally developed by the Russians since like.. Fuckin'.. 1889 or something? It was more of a co-operative development with the Germans as well, but after that whole revolution thing they had, we solely worked on it instead. Once we finally finished a semi-working version around 1937, I decided myself to be a test subject for a small dosage, only me and 2 others survived the whole ordeal but.. I'm better than ever now! I barely even age!"

Udo's kept a look of intrigue the whole time, he's unsure of what to make of it, "So. What do you even plan on doing with it then?"

Noach clears his throat, "It does have a chance of.. hurting some people, maybe even killing them. But it's a survival of the fittest, I'm thinking about the betterment of the human race, I'm not some kind of villain!"

Tom looks over to Udo almost trying to hold in a laugh, he's definitely a villain. "Right. Right, and the plan is...?"

- "I wish I could get in detail of it, it's been in the making for a couple years now. And tonight we'll see it happen, together. But I'm afraid I don't trust you. As such, we must commit our final conversion, you two will be my finest members yet."

Noach stands up from the table and adjusts his clothing, "Well, I will leave you two to it. The final conversion will begin at the church, I do believe everyone is already waiting on you so I do suggest you hurry it up instead of taking your sweet old time. All I need is to get you two yourselves prepared."

When Noach leaves and the backdoor closes behind him, leaving Tom and Udo just alone together yet again, Tom instantly starts talking, "We're so gonna kill that guy, right?"

- "Huh?"

- "You're not seriously thinking about joining him are you?"

- "Oh no, not at all. I mean the guy's a Nazi for fucks sake."

- "Alright.. Good."

- "So, how are we gonna kill him? We cant just take on an entire group of people all at the same time."

- "Well we could either play along and get him in an opportune time, or just gun them all down, could grab something from the armoury room y'know."

- "Shit that's a good idea actually."

Tom and Udo begin to rush upstairs to the armoury, Tom tries fiddling with the lock to unlock it but Udo gives up and just kicks the door in.

As they try to look for anything to use, they find all the boxes empty and a bunch missing, even the vials are gone. "Shit.." Tom whispers.

Udo is almost ripping apart some of the boxes, "FUCK! Where the hell did they put all of it?!"

- "Could be outside. Saw some of the boxes being carried out."

Udo rushes outside to the front yard, there's multiple pickup trucks and vans parked in front of the house. Udo looks in through the small windows of some of the vans backdoors, inside rests different odd canisters and a handful of weapons. "Get the fuck over here already!" He yells out to Tom.

Tom rushes out and instantly without question tries his best to unlock the door to the van, his hands begin to sweat as he's struggling to open it, "I can't do it man."

- "The hell you mean you cant?!"

- "Oh, I'm sorry! I wasn't particularly trained to lockpick cars! Were YOU?!"

- "I wouldn't be asking for your help if I was.."

Tom leans against the car defeated, "So now what.. I mean we cant just break in, the thing's probably got an alarm or something and they'll know what we're doing before we even get there."

- "Guess the only thing we can do is just try to act the part and somehow find a way to stop them, seems like they're ready to leave quite quick so we just gotta adapt."

- "Whatever happens, I've got your back, okay?"

Udo grabs Tom and lifts him back up, "Don't get all soft yet, we still gotta get this done."

As they head to the back of the house and get right to the doors of the church, Tom starts pacing in stress. Udo notices, "You alright?"

- "No, well yeah but, just stressed."

- "I can see that, it'll go okay. I promise that."

"Yeah but what if it doesn't? I don't wanna be an another one in that grave man." Tom says, pointing at the dirt mound of the mass grave.

Udo grabs Tom by the shoulders to keep him in place, "Listen, if theres anything I can promise you, it's that you are not dying here, not today."

Tom sighs, he checks the gun in his pocket just in case, "Right, of course. Yeah.."

After Tom settles down from his near-panic attack, Udo swings open the doors. Every single remaining member of the cult is sitting down on the chairs as Noach is holding a speech.

When they sit down, Noach's focus switches over to the both of them, "Ah, you're finally here. Come up here, let us finish this."

The both of them climb up to the church stage, Noach sets them down on one knee just like Alexander did before, "You already know how this goes.." He says right before setting a hand on both of their heads.

It's just like the same as before, the chanting, all the weird stuff that goes on during that, even the headache. But this time it's way worse, like getting stabbed straight in the skull. Noach physically recoils and groans in pain.

The members raise from their seats, everyone seeming worried and even afraid of what's going on. Noach doesn't say anything to them and instead simply waves them off, they all begin running out of the church in a rush while Tom and Udo are still on their knee.

As they get up, Noach starts to speak first, "Theres no saving you.. You're here to kill me, I try to save the people and you're trying to stop me. What kind of a fucking monster are you?!"

While Noach is talking, Udo is looking around for anything to use, he notices a filled syringe on the podium next to him.

Noach groans, "You don't get it.. This is about saving the world! This is about rebuilding an entire race, we'll be unstoppable! A true generation of Übermensch! God has been dead since the bombs fell and we must become gods ourselves instead."

Udo pushes Noach to the ground, "And you're willing to kill thousands, even millions for it? You said it'd kill people yourself."

- "SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST! If some people perish then so be it! The weak are not worthy of saving, and no matter how many die we'll be able to rebuild it all back up. Out of the corpses and ashes, a true nation will rise, a new America."

"Bullshit." Udo grabs the syringe off the podium and slams it down into Noach's chest, injecting every single little bit of it into him. Noach yells in pain and Udo throws away the empty syringe. Udo and Tom simply watch as Noach begins to spasm in pain on the floor curled up. Every single spasm causes an another sound of a bone cracking, his skin looks like its about to melt off.

When the spasms end, Noach is still breathing, wheezing in pain, "Verzeihen Sie mir, mein Führer... Ich habe versagt..."

("Forgive me my Führer.. I've failed..")

Udo almost laughs, "He's still doing this shit even on his deathbed, that's some dedication." He grabs a pistol from his coat pocket and points it at Noach.

Noach looks up, coughing up blood while laughing, "Oh you don't know what you started.. The plan already started, you're too late to stop it now, little agent.."

BANG

The bullet goes straight through his head, putting him out of his misery finally. Udo sighs, "Finally.. Got that done with. Job well done?"

Tom chuckles in response, "Yeah, I suppose it is. Still gotta get that Alexander guy though, he's our VIP."

- "Oh right the VIP thing, of course."

They both head outside, leaving Noach's body to rot on the floors of the church. As they get to the back door, Udo stops Tom, "Wait, dont you think they'd be waiting for us now? We'd be swiss cheese right as we open the door."

Tom presses his ear against the door, he hears absolutely nothing, "Nah, probably not" and opens the door.

The house is infact empty, not a single movement in the entire house. When they walk past the open doors of the kitchen, Alexander is sitting at the table with a book open infront of him and pistol on his side. "Oh, hey.."

Tom turns to face Alexander, "Hey, we're here to get you."

- "Yeah, I know. So it's really over huh?"

- "Guess it is."

- "Yknow, I didn't expect it to end like this. Was it quick at least?"

- "Nope."

He sighs, looking at the pistol, "Of course. Why would it be?" He takes a deep breath, puts the pistol to the roof of his mouth, and pulls the trigger.

Before Tom can even say anything, Alexander's already dead, the blood splattering against the painting behind him.

Hearing the gunshot, Udo comes back to the entrance of the kitchen to check on what's happening, "Oh, shit."

Tom doesn't seem too upset by it which surprises Udo, "Are you gonna be okay?"

- "Oh yea, guy was an ass anyway."

- "Huh.. Alright then."

Tom goes over to the body to look at the book, "Oh hey, that's funny."

- "What is?"

- "It's the bible, revelations. Yknow, the trumpets and all that?"

- "Musta been a religious guy."

- "I guess."

Tom prods at the body and shrugs, not particularly feeling bad for the guy. The both of them finally leave the building for one last time. Udo sits down on the stairs to the porch and takes out the pager, sending out a signal to pick them up. "Well, it's done now."

Tom sits down next to him, "Guess it is. Kinda anti-climactic that Noach just died like that so quick."

Udo looks over to Tom and chuckles, "What'd you expect? Some kinda huge boss fight?"

- "I guess not."

Tom nudges Udo, "Are you still not gonna tell me about what you had in your little diary thing?"

- "I don't know, are you still pissed off at me?"

- "Nah, despite everything, I think I still trust you."

Udo shoulder-bumps Tom, "Good to know. Maybe some day you'll know what I wrote then."

The air fills with a calm silence, all that's left to do is wait for a pickup. It'll all be over soon, and just maybe everything will be a-okay.

Chapter Text

"I said: "Kiss me, you're beautiful. These are truly the last days." You grabbed my hand, and we fell into it. Like a daydream, or a fever."

Godspeed You! Black Emperor

A multitude of different workers have arrived at the front of the house. Agents, cleaners, investigators, photographers and so on. They go back and forth gathering different items, mostly just different papers and documents.

Tom and Udo are leaning against one of the agency's vans, they haven't been allowed to leave yet. Tom is having a smoke while Udo scribbles something in his diary. One of the people who seems to be one of the investigators walks up to the both of them, "So you didn't think to mention that your VIP blew his head off?"

Udo tosses the pager from his pocket to the man, "Only so much that I can tell through something like this." The investigator looks at it, it's one of the lowest quality models, just enough to send 10-character messages. He tosses it back, "Guess you got the short end of the stick on that."

"Guess so." Udo responds, "So when are we getting out of here?"

The investigator checks his watch, its 18:30. One of the cleaners comes up to him and whispers into his ear, the investigator simply nods in response. With the nod, the house of the cult is set aflame, the whole house begins to be consumed by the raging fire. The three watch as the rotten wood crumples into ash, "Not too long now. Your pickup should be here soon."

Tom flicks his cigarette on the ground and stomps on it, "Was burning the whole place down really needed? Everyone in the whole town is gonna see the smoke y'know."

- "Sure they will but by the time they get here we'll be gone. Don't wanna leave any evidence of the both of you being here after all. You guys didn't leave any, right?"

Tom looks over to Udo, eyes completely wide in the most "We are so fucked" type look, "Yeeeeah man, nobody's gonna find anything of us." He replies with a grin.

The investigator raises an eyebrow, "You sound unsure. Should I be worried?"

Right as he asks the question, a car arrives on the front lawn of the now burning house, Tom takes the opportunity. "Oh man I wish we could stay but we gotta go, I'll see you around!" He says, dragging Udo along with him to the car. The investigator tries to stop them but its of no use, "Wait I ha-".

The door of the car slams as they both get to the back seat of the car, Tom quickly closes the divider between the back and front seats. He grabs Udo by the shoulders and whispers, "Udo. We are SO fucked."

- "..Why?"

- "We let one of them go without any permission from the agency and let him have evidence of us executing an unarmed man. This operation is a fucking mess, we've violated every code in the handbook! You really thought it was legal to eat human flesh during a highly covert operation?"

- "I.. I don't know, besides you were the one who did that not me."

- "Do you realize.. Do you realize something? If that footage gets out to the public we'll lose our jobs and we'd have to flee the country?"

- "Tom you're scaring me man.."

- "Once we get to the office, we need to pack up our shit and leave as quick as we can. We're both leaving the country tonight, together."

- "Tom I can't just-"

- "It's not a request. It's not a question. You wanna live? Then you've got to escape with me, we have probably less than 12 hours until its all up on the news and when that happens if we're still in that office we'll get executed. We'll go to fuckin.. I don't know, Great Lakes or something. Hell maybe we'll hop over to Canada even."

Udo gulps, clearly thinking of the idea but not too sure of it, "Right, yeah. I'll go with you then. I've got something I want to pick up from home first though."

- "Yeah of course, you got something to write on real quick?"

Udo looks confused but decides against questioning it, he takes out the notebook he has and the pen he's carried the whole time, "Yeah."

Tom quickly blurs through all the pages to find an empty one and quickly writes something before handing it back. "That's my home address. Once you've gotten all your stuff at home you visit me and we're getting the fuck out of dodge. Alright?"

Udo looks down at the small notebook, "Yeah.. Sure." He pockets the notebook and rests back on the chair. Tom opens the divider and the driver looks at him through the rearview mirror, he doesn't say anything.

The car ride turns silent both out of fear and stress, Udo starts to fiddle with a button on his jacket. The driver notices, "You alright man?"

Udo is snapped out of his state in an instant, "Y-yeah man. It's a bit hot in here isn't it?"

The driver flips on the car's AC with the warmth setting set on the coldest one, it's so freezing its almost enough to get frost on the exhaust folds, Udo doesn't comment on it, "So uh.. What section are you from?"

- "Finance. But they put me to pick you two up for some reason."

- "Oh. So, how's things there?"

- "Terrible."

- "Oh."

Eventually the car finally stops on the front of the main building of the NPP. Tom and Udo get out and the driver instantly leaves the scene. During the walk back to the offices, Udo looks over to Tom, "I don't think I can do this.. I can't just up and leave man."

- "Do you wanna live? Do you wanna see your family again?"

- "I don't even have any family left, Tom."

- "Even better! You have nothing to lose if we up and leave, the only thing that will happen is that I'll save your ass and we'll live somewhere far away from here safe and happy."

- "But how am I even gonna get all my stuff out of there? It's bound to raise some eyebrows y'know."

- "Just take essentials, or take stuff in a cardboard box. It'll look like you're just quitting or got fired or something. Nobody is gonna care."

Udo looks around worriedly, "Alright fine. But wherever you're taking me better be as far away as possible."

Tom gives him a quick hug, "Just get your stuff and meet me at my place later tonight. I know we had.. differences. But, I'm partly glad that I got to do this with you. Just wish it didn't turn so bad."

When they enter the office area the air is filled with the sound keyboards and phones again, it's all just the same as the day they left. Udo splits off from Tom to get to his own desk, and as Tom sits at his own designated desk a familiar face sits right next to him, "Oh wow, you really made it back alive."

Tom is going through different drawers grabbing anything he might need, "Fuck off, Chris."

- "Aww don't be so hostile, I really am surprised you made it back! Heard it was a mess in there."

- "Where'd you hear that?"

- "Some guy, don't really know his name. I asked him for it but he wouldn't tell me, said he was from the higher ups. Never seen him here before though."

Tom keeps putting items in a small box that he grabbed from a different drawer, "Uh-huh, what'd he look like?"

- "Kinda normal I guess, really well dressed and all that. Screw all that though, what are you packing for?"

- "I'm quitting."

- "What?! Just like that? You just got back!"

- "Yeah, and now I'm leaving."

Chris gets back down from the desk, "Well. Can't say I'll miss you a whole ton. Oh and also don't forget to do the debriefing."

Tom turns back around to face Chris, the box still in his hands, "We haven't done debriefings for a while now, why do it now?"

"It's just what I've heard, seems that they're so interested in your whole mission that they want to get your debriefing." Chris says right before walking off. Tom sighs, looking down at the box of random things he quickly grabbed from cabinets and drawers, keys, documents, anything that might be useful. As he gets up from the chair to leave, an another person stops him. He grabs Tom by the shoulder, "Don't be leaving so soon. We've got some questions for you."

Tom sets the box back on his desk and follows the person who grabbed him. He leads Tom to an interrogation room. The room has only a few things, a steel desk, two chairs one phone on the desk. 

Tom sits down and the other man sits in front of him, he adjusts a clipboard that he's been carrying. "I know these are a bit of a pain to deal with, but this will be done soon. I've just got a few questions and that's all. Now just to make sure we've got the right guy, your name IS Thomas Karkowali right?"

Tom nods, "Is there any special reason to why I'm being interrogated?"

- "Oh it's just a bit of special circumstances that's all. Now, first question. During the duration of the mission were either you or your any other agent assigned with you injured?"

- "No."

- "Good, good. Were any civilian or prisoner lives harmed or endangered during the mission?"

Tom takes a minute to answer, clearly unsure, "No."

- "Uh-huh. Did you or any other agent cause or witness any action that may be harmful to the agency's reputation?"

He takes an another minute to answer, the idea of the footage of him killing David being already public stuck on his mind, "No."

- "Great. Did you or any other agent let a possible target or prisoner escape during the mission?"

To Tom it feels like the interrogator is being way too specific for it to be a coincidence, "No."

- "Got it. Did you or any other operative leave any evidence behind that may link the NPP to the mission?"

- "I don't think so."

- "Close enough. Lastly, would you, personally, consider the mission complete and a success?"

Tom's worry grows, it almost makes him sick to his stomach. The simple thought of his whole escape plan being ruined right here is enough to make his head hurt, "Yes."

- "Great! Now lastly is there any more you would like to add?"

- "I'm quitting."

- "What? But you just got back?"

- "I'm not cut out for this anymore. I don't have it in me."

- "I'm sorry to hear that. But I can't stop you, if that's what you want to do then that's it. We'll send you your resignation form tonight, we thank you for working with us."

Tom gets back up from the chair, "So I'm just free to go?"

- "Yup, the form should arrive at your listed residence by the end of today and once you've sent it back you wont work here anymore."

With a look of scepticism, Tom quickly leaves the interrogation room and heads back to his desk. He quickly looks through everything in the box on his desk one more time, everything seems to sill be there. Chris returns back to Tom's desk, "So how'd the interrogation go?"

Tom picks up the box and starts walking toward the office exit with Chris, "I'm alive, so it went okay."

- "So they really just let you leave like that?"

- "Mhm. Well they're sending a resignation form by tonight so technically I still work here for a while."

- "Resignation forms? Since when the hell was that a thing?"

They both stop at the exit of the office area, "I got no clue. Do you have any more questions or are you gonna let me go?"

- "Well, where are you going after this then?"

- "I wish I knew, somewhere away from here that's for sure."

- "Alright, don't let me keep you here. Just get out of here already."

Tom leaves the office, leaving Chris and everyone else to deal with themselves. On the way to the main exit of the entire building he keeps looking over his shoulder, his worry growing more and more with every minute to the point where he's jogging by the time he gets to the exit.

When he leaves the building his pace quickens once again, even though nobody is around it still feels like somebody is continuously watching him. As he gets to his car he quickly throws the box of items on the passenger seat and slams the door behind when he gets in the car himself.

He sighs in relief as the car starts up and the radio automatically begins to play. He begins to drive off as quick as he can and the view of the headquarters in the rear-view mirror slowly disappears. Tom can't help but laugh, to him the most difficult part of the plan is now done. All that's left is to get home, wait and get out of the country.

The view turns from the forests to the still buzzing city of Shreveport, one of the few cities that wasn't really effected by the bombs in '81. He refuses to make any stop on the way back home, every single minute is crucial now.

He finally makes it to the building where his apartment is and parks the car, though not quite well in the hurry that he's in. He leaves the box behind, taking only his gun and keys with him. In the quickest non-running pace he can, he makes it up to the third floor and enters his house. 

A feeling of relief overwhelms him as he finally rests on the couch. He attempts to call Udo with a phone number that was given to him a long while ago but there's no response. The day turns to evening and the evening nears to the night, with every passing minute the urge to leave grows stronger and stronger, but he knows he can't just abandon Udo.

He turns the TV on, shuffling through channels until something catches his eye, it's a news report.

"We interrupt the current program with breaking news. Multiple reports of chemical attacks in Texas came in tonight, officials are currently investigating what type of chemicals were used and what group of people were behind the attack. Current estimates suggest at least 130 dead and 900 injured with the injuries being wildly different from any known chemical, residents are suggested to stay indoors and to keep all doors and windows closed.

In other news, an unknown contact has sent footage of a suspected National Protection Pact agent executing what seems to be an unarmed civilian tied to a chair. We have a small clip but we warn you, the footage is gruesome.

(The TV plays a clip of Tom executing David. Tom begins to panic.)

The Agent has been identified as a "Thomas Karkowali", he has worked with the Pact for 9 years and reportedly quit the job just hours before the footage was sent out to every news channel in the country. The higher ups of the NPP has refused to comment."

Tom turns off the TV, head in his hands. He tries to dial Udo one more time, there's no response. He dials again and again, on the third attempt the dial ends before the final tone. There's a knock on his door, he sighs in relief, "Finally. You took way too lon--"

WHACK

He's knocked down on the ground with a punch, the person in front of him is not Udo, not a police officer and nobody he knows from the Pact, "Who the f--"

WHACK

He's knocked out with an another punch to the face. 

Tom wakes up in the backseat of a car, blindfolded and with both his legs and hands bound. An almost familiar voice comes from the front passenger seat, "Finally, our favourite agent is awake again. You've been making headlines on the news haven't you?"

Tom attempts to struggle out of the bindings, it's no use, "Who the hell are you? The fuck do you want from me?!"

- "Oh I don't want anything, well not particularly from you. I just need you to get something instead."

- "Are you feds? Agency? Local cops? Whatever it is that you want I'll get it for you!"

- "No no no, this goes way beyond your little agency. But don't worry about it too much."

The car slowly stops and two people get out of the car, one from the passenger seat and another from the backseat. He's dragged out of the car, the cold sand of the desert hits his face. He's carried out a few steps and raised back up to his knees, the blindfold still on him. "Where are we?"

The familiar voice speaks again, "Not too far away from what they call "Old Christian Place", don't know why the Texans call it that but that's what it's named. It was a bit of a long drive so we had to keep you asleep with some drugs."

- "Texas? If this is about the cult then--"

- "No, Tom you just don't get it."

The blindfold is removed from his head and infront of him stands two people. Samael and Udo. "This isn't about the cult nor is it about your silly little agency."

Tom doesn't even pay attention to what Samael is saying, "Udo? What the hell did you do to him?!"

- "Oh him? We didn't do anything. See we had a little deal, he gets me out of that cult and proves his worth and he'll get to be in higher rankings of a much more valued group than the agency. Now that the first part is done, he's got to do the second part."

- "Is that true..? Udo?"

Udo doesn't respond, he almost looks ashamed about just being here.

- "His silly little feelings and whatnot has started to be a bit of a roadblock, he really was adamant on not killing you but the deal is already done."

- "You're gonna kill me? Over some fucking deal?"

"Oh my days you still don't get it. It's not just some deal, its THE deal. It's the deal of a lifetime for him. He does this and he gets to feel true freedom." Samael says, handing a gun to Udo. "C'mon, you know what you have to do."

Udo's hand starts to shake, he's on the brink of tears. Samael guides his hand to aim the gun at Tom's head, "All you have to do is pull the trigger, that's it."

Tom looks up at Udo, "Please. Don't do this.."

Tears start rolling down Udo's face, he opens his mouth but no words come out. He lowers his shaky hand, "I can't do it.."

Samael looks disappointed and angry, "Oh my god! You're really gonna let your feelings for him stop the biggest moment of your life? You took the deal and now you have to deal with the consequences thats just how this works!"

The gun drops to the ground and Udo drops to his knees, he puts his arms around Tom, "I'm so sorry.. I'm so fucking sorry..."

Samael gets clearly annoyed, throwing his hands in the air, "All this planning and work and this is what I f--" His sentence is cut off by his phone ringing, "Actually. Hold that thought."

When he answers the phone only small bits are heard as he keeps getting cut off by the person calling him, "Yup. Yeah he's-.. But we were supposed to--.."

While he's having the phone conversation Udo is still holding Tom, crying harder than he's ever cried before, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry about everything I did and said I--.. I didn't want any of this to happen.."

- "It's gonna be okay.. We'll get out of here and everything's gonna be okay.."

Samael ends the call and walks back over to Tom and Udo, he picks the gun up from the ground, "You two are lovely and all that, but you're gonna have to get up now."

Udo slowly gets back up, his eyes red from the crying. Tom tries to get up aswell, "No, not you. Just Udo. There's been a bit of a change of plans."

Tom looks up at Samael in confusion, "What, are you gonna let us go?"

- "No."

BANG

A bullet goes straight through Udo's chest, his body collapses to the ground, the blood seeping into the sand and quenching the thirst of the earth. Tom screams as the gunshot rings in his head, he tries to get closer to Udo but he only causes himself to fall to the ground, "GET UP!! PLEASE!!"

Samael adjusts his coat and clears his throat, "I don't think he'll be doing that any time soon. I would say I'm sorry for killing your almost-lover if I actually cared, but it's just simply business. Try to understand, will you?"

- "I'LL KILL YOU! I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU I SWEAR!"

- "But you won't though. I know it's hard to lose a loved one but hey, look on the bright side. You'll die right beside him, you'll get to see the sunrise too."

Tom looks over to the rising sun, it's truly beautiful. Tears roll down Tom's face once more, "I'll kill you.. I'll do it Samael... I'll fucking kill you...."

- "Oh stop calling me that name already, it's ridiculous. You can just call me Tony for these last minutes of your life. Your devotion to him really is beautiful, you seemed to dislike him so so much when you first were put on the job with him but here you are crying your eyes out for him. It's amazing how quickly that can happen."

Tom's voice is strained and dry, his eyes focused on Udo's corpse, "Get up.. Just this once.. Please.."

- "It was truly great working with you and your partner, thank you for getting me out of that shithole, I really hated it there. But I'm afraid we're running out of time, I've got to bury you and your little boyfriend here before someone eventually finds it. Well.. MAYBE finds it. I find it unlikely for anyone to be searching here."

"..Fuck y--"

Tony raises the gun once more.