As Brock stared back at him with a vacant expression, he stared hard. He clenched his fists in frustration. John wanted to take the blame and save Brock from the severe punishment awaiting him. But another part of him wanted him to take the fall and get away with it. Amidst his internal conflict, Bessita was getting impatient.

John blinked as Bessita spoke to break his reverie. “Well, was Brock responsible?” she asked. Before coming to a decision, he glanced back and forth between the two of them.

“It was both of our ideas.” Brock widened his eyes in shock as he expected to hear something else. Bessita's facial expression, however, didn't move an inch.

“I see. Then both of you will get punishments. Since you wanted food, I'll starve you for two days.”

Brock and John exchanged wide smiles as they looked at each other. Their punishment was a lucky one for them, they both knew. Instead of getting beaten black and blue, the two bandits were just starving. Anyone else hearing them would exclaim at their thought process. Seeing both of them nod, Bessita nodded in agreement as well. She spoke again, but this time in a more gentle voice.

“You're also separated for the duration of your punishment.” Their reactions surprised the old woman, who was expecting they would cry and plead.

What she forgot was that the children would suffer much more than that when she punished them in other ways. They followed Bessita to the other side of the orphanage, where they found two rooms. Bessita put the two into separate rooms and closed the door. The sound of soft clicking echoed after she closed, before it fell silent.

Brock's voice resounded behind the wall as John sat down in the corner of the room to fall asleep.

“John?” Brock spoke in a loud voice for him to hear.

Since they were on the other side of the orphanage, Bessita couldn't hear them.

“Yeah, I'm here” John also raised his voice.

Despite shouting across the rooms, nobody heard them. Both of them crawled closer to the walls. Despite their fear of splinters in their ears, they kept their ears against the wooden walls. Yet not completely against them.

“Why did you cover for me?” Brock inquired.

John remained silent for a while before responding.

Because you're my friend.” Brock remained silent.

“Thank you.”

“No problem.”

Although their conversations were stiff at first, the two got closer, chatting for the next two days until their solitude was over. Coming out, they joined the rest of the children, hearing a few whispers among them.

“Did you hear about the two little bandits?”

“Yeah, there hasn't been news about them for days.”

“Did they give up?”

…

Bessita slammed the wooden stick on the ground, a loud snap ringing through their ears that put an end to the whispering. After all their attention was on her, Bessita gave a satisfied nod before patting the child behind her on the back. Since everyone was too busy talking to each other, no one noticed him. When he stepped forward, numerous eyes landed on him, picking and scrutinizing him with innocent curiosity. Despite the fact that it felt the exact opposite to him.

The boy had an average build: neither too short nor too tall. The hair on his head was a mixture of orange and blonde, like autumn leaves in the middle of fall. Together with his unique hair, his amber eyes seemed to glow like the setting sun. The large scar covering his right eye all the way down to his cheek, however, ruined the picturesque portrait. He lowered his head, not daring to look anyone in the eye.

Bessita patted his shoulder, making the boy flinch.

“Come on, introduce yourself to the rest.” Hearing her, he still looked down afterward, but John, Brock, and the others heard low mumbling.

The children leaned in as he began to speak, trying to understand what he was saying. “H-hello… my name is Gerald,” he said.

Gerald looked up and saw a large crowd of children in a semicircle surrounding him. As he stumbled backwards, he sought refuge behind Bessita's back.

One of the children blurted out, “I didn't hear his name. He talks too quietly!”. Brock and John nodded in unison with the rest of the children. With Gerald being so timid, Bessita could only sigh.

“He's a bit shy, but I hope you give him a warm welcome.” Everyone looked at each other before nodding, albeit reluctant. Bessita relaxed when she saw their agreement. She pushed him towards them as she left the hall.

Silence fell over the room. It was a bit of an odd scene, seeing a crowd of children surrounding a single boy. With numerous stares landing on him once more, he buried his head to his chest, shrinking his whole body. Brock and John stepped forward at the same time, surprising each other. Looking at one another, they grinned before moving to Gerald, who was oblivious to what was going on. When Gerald saw two shadows on the ground, he looked up. John, who had a wide smile on his face, pushed his hand forward.

“I'm John, what's your name?” Gerald looked at his hand before grabbing it with a half-baked grip.

“G-Gerald” Brock also put his hand forth, talking in a low voice.

“I'm Brock, nice to meet you, Gerald.” Gerald also grabbed his hand, but this time with a bit more conviction. He strengthened his firm grip on both of his hands before plastering a shaky smile. John smiled even wider and when he looked to his side, he saw Brock.

The biggest smile he had ever seen on his face.

***

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Present Time.

John felt Brock's hand wrap around his shoulder as he smiled. Seeing his faint arch, he felt that everything up to this point had been pointless. Even though his vision became blurry, he did nothing to stop the tears from trickling down his cheeks. Brock's face softened as he patted his shoulder one more time before backing away. As John and Brock reconciled, Gerald had an odd expression on his face. In contrast to his jovial appearance, he had a wicked smile. The two sides responded to his discreet hand signal with an affirmative gesture as he looked at them. When they were raising their weapons, something stopped them dead in their tracks.

A rhythmic clap reverberated throughout the plaza, catching everyone's attention. Upon realizing that something was wrong, Gerald wiped the wicked expression off his face and gestured for both sides to be on standby. Brock, John, and Gerald turned to see where the clapping came from and discovered it was something unexpected.

The lone man walked with a heavy gait. The black combat suit seemed to blend into the surrounding darkness. Except for the patterns along the uniform that illuminated a bloody red. Two silver handguns with black streaks running across their bodies holstered on his sides. It wasn't the numerous weapons hanging from his body that made him appear to be a killing machine. His snow-white mask was the only part that wasn't completely obscured by darkness. The two narrow slits accompanied by a bow-arched smile were odd to say the least. Still, it made one look away after a while for some inexplicable reason.

With his entrance, the temperature dropped a couple of degrees. The three men paid no attention to it. Gerald's loud voice snapped everyone out of their trance.

“Who are you? You're not supposed to be here. You better leave before you get hurt.” As Gerald said this, the three of them along with the rest glared at the unknown intruder.

When the lone man still wasn't moving, one of the troops walked over to him with an intimidating posture. When he was about arm's reach away, the lone man acted with a swift motion.

He flexed his right-hand upwards, allowing a metal construct to slip into his palm. Using his left arm, he spun the mobster in the opposite direction, leaving his back exposed. With a flamboyant flick, a sharp blade emerged, ready to strike. He stabbed the balisong knife into the side of his throat, his left arm coiled his neck tight. Blood spurted out non-stop, coating the black assailant with red. The mobster choked on his own blood, attempting to speak. Yet, all that came from his mouth was a mix of gurgling and low grunts. After a while, he stopped moving. The black-clad man unfurled his arm, causing the poor sod to drop with a thud.

It took a few seconds before everyone came back to their senses once again. When the rest of them raised their guns, ready to shoot, a voice stopped them from doing so.

“Wait.” Instead of Gerald, it was John who stopped them.

They looked towards Gerald when they heard his command. With gritted teeth, they lowered their weapons when he nodded. While it was not easy for them to lower their weapons after seeing one of their brothers die, they did so out of respect for Gerald. However, what they didn't know was that the unknown man noticed their actions, but did nothing about it.

When they all lowered their weapons, John continued with his questioning.

“Who are you and what do you want?” Hearing his questions, the man remained silent for a moment before speaking. When he spoke, it sounded robotic, as if he wasn't even human. Even though John and Brock felt confused, Gerald looked like he had some sort of idea, since his facial expression showed no confusion.

“I placed explosives that could blow up this whole town to the ground throughout the plaza. I suggest you listen to what I have to say.” The three of them looked at each other before turning back to him.

Even though the three of them tried to study his body language and movements to call his bluff, only he knew how much time it took to place all the explosives around the entire battlefield.

The man, of course, was Bryan.

When he saw their entire drama unfold, he decided to set things straight before they all died. After all, only Bryan knew how terrible it felt to die with regrets, being completely oblivious to the truth. Bryan turned on the voice changer once again.

“Let's play a little game.” Bryan saw the confusion on their faces increase even more, which he found amusing. Before it grew too much, he spoke again.

“I call it Two Truths And A Lie.” When he finished his sentence, their facial expression had a drastic change. While looking at their faces for the last time, an evil smile crawled on his face. He only had one thought running through his head.

This is going to be fun.