Ethan was a little high on rosé wine tonight, he played in the garden with his two children, then did some "preparation work" with Michelle for the next child, then watched his wife drift off to sleep, and as the alcohol evaporated with his sweat, he got up and put on his pyjamas so as not to disturb his wife and the children's sleep. He put on his pyjamas and, in order not to disturb the sleep of his wife and children, he went into the study and took a bath in the bathroom there.

　　The warm water ran through his blonde hair before trickling over his soft skin.

　　That's when Ethan heard some loud noises coming from outside.

　　He thought it was Michelle at first, but when he came out, a tall black figure appeared in front of the window sill.

　　Adrenaline spiked for a split second, and realising the danger he was in he instinctively flung himself onto the desk in a roll and opened the drawer.

　　However it was empty.

　　"Are you looking for this?" The black figure asked, speaking and raising a Browning 1911-380 he held in his hand, unable to see his face because of the curtains, yet Ethan remembered the voice.

　　"Noah," he said through clenched teeth.

　　The black figure seemed to smile, "I didn't realise you remembered me, I thought you were about to forget me."

　　"What are you trying to do here now?"

　　"Do what?" Noah let out a soft sigh, "Ethan, that's what I wanted to ask you."

　　"What do you mean?"

　　"How long are we going to be in this war, exactly?"

　　Ethan snorted, "Spoken as if we're the ones who started this war."

　　"Isn't it?" Noah's tall figure said from behind the curtains, "You've been continuously waging your fifteenth siege against us."

　　"That's because you keep killing our citizens!"

　　"That was not our intention, it was the diseases that sought us out before weakened individuals lost their minds and walked into your midst, it was not our intention to spread the diseases, not to mention the fact that we would have been able to live with each other if you hadn't rushed into our gathering places, brutalised our children and evicted our aged people."

　　"The gathering place? That is our city! It is because you smuggled yourselves into our city first! We can't control the fear of our citizens!"

　　"We just want to live."

　　"Then go back to your residency!"

　　Noah let out a soft laugh as the evening breeze blew in through the bay window, "Residency? It's a reservation, isn't it."

　　"It's good for our respective races."

　　"Did the Indians think so then?"

　　"Do you expect Indians to invent electricity, cars, planes, or rockets?" Ethan closed his eyes, "Compared to the convenience and change our technology has brought you, all you're supposedly paying for is the shrinking of your territory."

　　"Oh, occupying Indian homes in order to serve all of humanity, so noble."

　　"There is nothing to condemn in the survival of the fittest."

　　"Yes there is nothing to condemn, just as the Europeans down on the Mayflower expelled the native Indians, you expelled us, categorised us as a different race from you because of our different appearance and skin, and imposed a system of apartheid on us." Noah says, "Forgetting that once upon a time this land was inhabited by our ancestors, who, along with you, clung to each other by the fire in the darkness of the night in ancient times, defending themselves against the ravages of the beasts of prey. You were just a little bit lucky to have the dawn of the technological age at your fingertips, Ethan, and if we were in a different situation now, you'd know what cruelty is."

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　　"No, it wasn't luck," Ethan said, "When the light of technology was born, we placed no limits on it, the trumpet of revolution sounded on every inch of the land, and the light of progress was in every test tube. It is the same old ways that have made you deaf, and it is the same old pride that has made you blind. You revel in your past achievements and grandiose ceremonies, you divided your countrymen, you counter-attack and collude, you take all achievements for granted rather than for their practicality, you call yourselves the most industrious and the most intelligent race on the planet without thinking about which splendid race has ever lacked these two virtues. You disdained and closed your ears to nascent ideas, trying to find a way to cope with the future from old volumes that had gathered dust, and your long history became a burden to your advancement instead, as you exhausted your people's resources to build a huge and ornate mausoleum for your rulers, and at the same time literally constructed tombs of your own."

　　"And now?" Noah's eyes glowing in the darkness gazed at him, "It is time for the sins that belonged to us to be paid for after a war of near extinction."

　　"I know what you're thinking, the latest battle maps are inside the third drawer, you can take them and you can kill me, but it won't change anything, no war ever stops because of the death of a single commanding officer, not before, not now. But you can save yourself, you leave now and I'll pretend nothing happened."

　　"Do that for what?" Noah said, "Save yourself? Or is it because ------ you want to save me, like you did back three years ago."

　　"When did ------ you know that?"

　　"Losing your sidearm must have been very distressing for you," Noah said, "When we fell down the snowy slope, that gun over there just happened to fall beside me, but I couldn't move my legs, so I pretended to fake my own death, when in fact at that moment you only had to show the slightest hint of wanting to kill me, and I'd have immediately pulled out that gun to kill you."

　　"------ So that's how it was, no wonder you weren't seriously injured, but you stayed unconscious."

　　"Ethan, in that cave, I felt for the first time that the original human body temperature was so warm," Noah said, "You would feed me hot soup, you would tear your clothes into strips and bandage me, I knew that you weren't as cold and heartless as you appeared to be ------ "

　　"------ You weren't appeared either,until leading the Resistance to kill my fellow soldiers." Ethan said after a long silence.

　　"Like I said, Ethan, that was not our intention, and we are not without hope for peace if you are willing to lay down your arms ------ "

　　At those words, the blonde man standing behind the desk looked up with sudden alarm.

　　"So you're here to be a lobbyist, then I'm afraid I'm going to have to disappoint you, we won't stop defending our city-state just because of bloodshed and sacrifice," Ethan said coldly, "If you're trying to prove something with the fact that I saved your life then I can tell you that it was only out of a sense of humanitarianism in the first place, if I were on the battlefield instead, I would have shot without mercy."

　　"That's ruthless ------" Noah let out a chuckle after a few seconds of silence, "But that's not a smart thing to say at this point, you do realise that even death is divided into a peaceful death and a tortured death, right?"

　　"I'm prepared to face either." Ethan lifted his chin slightly, looking a little arrogant, "Come on Noah, take what you're going to take."

　　Noah raised his arm and aimed his Browning at Ethan before slowly pulling the trigger.

　　The young blonde commander slowly closed his eyes.

　　For a long moment, nothing appeared in the room except the rattle of clocks swinging, so the blue eyes opened in some confusion.

　　Noah lowered the gun in his hand, "I've changed my mind, you're right, you won't stop the war because of bloodshed and sacrifice, death will only inspire you to fight and then continue to drive us to extinction."

　　Ethan's heart dropped a little, whilst he didn't fear death, the thought of never seeing his wife and children was hard to resist.

　　He was about to say something, however a dart suddenly lodged itself in his neck, and after a moment of intense dizziness he fell head over heels onto the red carpet of the study.

　　Noah wiped the tranquiliser gun before putting it in his pocket, "So I thought of a better way to get you to change your minds."

　　Ethan's eyes were open as he tried to mobilise his limbs, yet as if his muscles had lost their liaisons, they completely disobeyed his brain's signs, and he felt himself being lifted from the carpet and placed on a firm back.

　　Noah didn't take him much further than that, but went straight back to the bathroom where he'd just had a shower, then lowered him into the still-wet tub.

　　He turned on the tap and watched the water rise until it gradually disappeared over the blonde man's knees as well as the small of his back before turning it off.

　　"If you won't stop for bloodshed and sacrifice, then I'd like to try and see if blood and new life can make you change your mind."

　　In the reflection of the water's surface, Noah wriggled his left and right opening and closing mouthparts and finished, cocking his head so that the blonde man's gaze, full of fear and despair, was reflected in the countless small hexagonal eyes in those huge black compound eyes, as he raised those scythe-like forearms, separating the man's silky pyjamas with ease before bending the abdominal knuckles used for mating downwards and sinking into the water.