Roma… ROMA!! He jolted awake as he heard a voice call his name..

“Just a dream huh.. What a joke..” He rubbed his eyes, he felt something vibrating in his pocket.. Roma was staying in a hotel, one of many that he would constantly travel between,

He turned on the tv before pulling out his phone,

“What is it, Nigel?”

“Bad news.. I know this isn't what you want to hear, but we have reports of the underground moving illegal weapons caches again..”

“What?! Are You Fucking Kidding Me?!! It should have ended when we took him in! How have they all not bailed out yet?!” Roma asked,

“It’s true, Colonel, now's the time to focus. Right now we have no leads, only a few sightings that all lead to dead ends. We're in the dark.” Nigel replied, Roma began listening to the tv in the background, as a group of news reporters began discussing the war that continued to ravage the world. A battle between Russia and nato, a third world war that has been fought for over a decade.

“Right now we have no way of knowing where they are or where they’re going.” Nigel continued,

“A group like that can't function without someone higher up.. There is a new guy pulling the strings in his place.. And I bet I can find out who.”

He glanced over, no matter what channel he tried to change it too, they were all the same news recording . The reporters went over Nato’s armies from the US and South Korea and their continuous attacks against China, as Russian and North Korean forces began moving to intercept. He rolled his eyes before grabbing his 443 grach from his bedside table and taking out the magazine.

“Are you going to talk to him?” Nigel asked,

“It’s full..?”

“What?”

“Do I have a choice?”

“Oh– well remember, he's a manipulative bastard, so don't let him switch his words. But I don't need to tell you that.” Nigel said,

“I'm not the man in the cage, he isn't going to fool anyone. Tell the rest, and keep them on standby until I know what we’re going to do next..”

“Roger.” …

Sometime later, Roma arrived at a classified facility where many foreign prisoners were secretly kept. Roma knew it wasn't right to hold these people in their prisons, but it wasn’t something he had any say in. He scanned his badge at the front doors, took a deep breath and walked inside.

“Colonel. Roma Ivanov, I'm here to see prisoner 217.” Roma spoke to the receptionist at the front counter.

“Two one seven, eh? An interesting guy, that one. Go on through, there will be someone waiting to guide you.” The receptionist smiled, Roma smiled back, before walking to an elevator, where a guard was standing by,

“What brings you here, Roma?” The man asked,

“I need to ask an old… ‘friend’ a few questions, prisoner 217.” Roma said,

“The black beret, Yuu Jin. He’s a man full of stories, I went to say hello a few times myself.” The man replied as they waited on the elevator.

“It’s nice to see you again, Dom.” Roma commented,

“Still hanging in there yourself?” Dominik asked,

“I might as well, there aren't many things to do when you're dead.” The elevator doors opened to reveal a long hallway of one way glass cells. He felt a white flash again, and the halls were suddenly covered in trails of blood and handprints. When he blinked again, it was gone.

“They look comfy..” Roma uttered, each cell was a huge white room with a glass wall dividing them in half, unusually, each cell had a bed, couch, table, and tv that stood in the corner.

“Well, if people found out we were letting foreign prisoners rot away down here, it wouldn't look very good.” Dom said before shrugging his shoulders.

“Since when did we care? Guess it doesn't matter.”

“Stop here, 217 is the next one over, sorry Roma, but any foreign objects we have to keep outside the cell, even if it’s you.” Dom said,

He emptied his pockets, before unholstering his handgun, his vision flashed again, and he was met with an empty gun splattered with blood,

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“Um, Roma? You there?” Roma shook his head as he snapped himself out of it..

“Y-yeah, I was lost in thought.”

“Alright then, just head on inside.” Dom said, and with a hesitant hand Roma opened the door and walked himself inside.”...

“When are you gonna let me out of this cage, Roma?” Yuu Jin asked in a warm welcome, Roma sat in a chair facing him and the glass wall.

“Just here to say hello.” Roma replied,

“Uh huh, so, what did you want to say hello about?” He asked, patiently.

“The underground is back, and I want to know why, and how.” Roma said, Yuu Jin never turned away from the tv mounted above him.

“Why is that my problem?” Yuu Jin put his hands behind his head as he laid back on the couch.

“It was your organization that you led!” Roma yelled,

“Stop being so dramatic, it makes you sound ridiculous.” Yuu Jin replied,

“Just answer the damn question so I can leave.”

Yuu Jin sighed and got up from his couch, and walked over to the table that was divided into both sides of the glass wall. He sat down in a chair opposite the table and began tapping the corner of a deck of cards on the table.

“How about you and me play a game. You win, and I’ll answer any and all questions that that brain of yours can spit out, but until then, let’s have a chat.” He said as he shuffled the deck,

“How’s the wife?” Yuu Jin asked,

“She hasn’t woken up, even five years later.” Roma replied,

“I wish you’d believe me, that it wasn't my call. My heart aches for your losses, truly. Your life was ruined because I let my men stray too far from the leash.”

He divided out 10 cards to both sides, and placed the deck in the middle,

“Rum?” Roma asked, Yuu jin took a card from the stock and placed it in front of him, Roma did the same,

“But enough about that, how's the world fair beyond these walls?” Yuu Jin asked,

“There's been a new government mandate, with more people fighting and less jobs being filled, they're taking the kids out of schools and they’re being told to work.”

He made a meld of 4, 5, 6, of diamonds and put it on the table, before placing a jack of hearts back in the middle.

“You guys still allies with those chinese bastards?” Yuu Jin asked as he made a meld with the remaining 3 jacks. They both took another card,

“They’re too powerful of an ally. If we tried to cut our ties now, they would destroy themselves just to take us down with them.”

Yuu Jin chuckled under his breath, they were both stuck in a loop with six cards,

“How long until people realize that these wars dont work?” Yuu jin questioned before he put down a meld of 3, 4, 5 of clovers. Roma scraped the cards in his hand with his nail, as he was forced to grab another card.

“This world needs someone who will lead above all. Don’t you get it? For as long as every country has to have their own military, their own navy, their own private security, their own air force, this war will never end.” Yuu Jin placed a 3 of diamonds into Roma's meld, and round two began.

“What are you trying to say?”

“All people like you know is what your government tells you. The fact that you think that I am the mastermind behind this is proof of that. You see, what you've been battling for the past five years is only a fraction. This whole thing is bigger than the two of us, and soon enough, it’ll be bigger than all of the world's military combined.” Roma scoffed at Yuu Jin's delusions, before creating a mold of queens on the table.

“This isn’t the first time we’ve talked, so why now?” Roma replied,

Yuu Jin flipped through the cards of his hand before making a mold of kings.

“You said it yourself, the underground is making moves again, which tells me all I need to know.”

Roma placed his final card into a meld after 4 rounds.

“What is your end goal?” Roma asked, and Yuu Jin looked up to him, “To end all wars permanently, and to do that, we will attack it at the source.”

“At the source? You plan to take on every nation's army at once?”

“God you're so thick skulled! We aren’t planning, Roma, the chess pieces are already in motion.” Yuu Jin replied,

“Was getting sent here part of that plan, too? Tell me who's in charge!”

“I DON'T KNOW!! Do you think I've been trapped in this room for 5 years because I let myself in?! I was set up! The only reason you found me that day is because I was betrayed. They were making moves without my say, slowly stretching how far they could bend the rules until you came and fucked everything up!” Yuu Jin yelled.

“That trash thinks he can toy with me? That he can just ‘take over’ what I've built from the ground up!? I might know where they could be.. It's an abandoned office building that I've had my people investigate right before I left. I had future plans with it. If they’re as stupid as I think then they’ve probably set up shop and finished the job.” He muttered to himself,

“Slow down, this is too sudden! What were you doing with it?” Roma asked,

“The main floor was going to be a manufacturing plant for assembling ak platform weapons out of imported parts. On the floor below that, our reload station, we took used cartridges by the tens of thousands and had equipment that would reload them. But most importantly, explosives, so watch what crates you shoot at.”

“Sure.. Guess I gotta ask, why would they want to betray you?”

Yuu Jin closed his eyes and leaned back, “They said the way I did things was old, because of that, business was slow. From the sounds of it, it took them 5 years to get things running again without me, so whoevers running it is an embarrassment! I’ll give you a few adresses, but in turn, I want that motherfuckers head sitting at my mansion’s front fucking door, capeesh?”

“For my best friend.” Roma ended. …