Four. This person was four things to Martin.

First, she was his target for assassination.

"Tell me," the tiny old woman whispered to the dark-suited man. "Was I good to you?"

He stood amongst the beeping machines in the secure, windowless hospital room. His mind was as blank as the walls as the enormity of the revelation washed over him.

"…" the mute man stepped closer to the bed.

"Bah, what am I saying? Of course I was. I suppose I'm not right now though," the woman sighed.

Second, she was the reclusive Director of the AgInServ Administration. When Martin was a kid, that was just a large corporation. Now, in his fifties, it was the sovereign entity of Earth, ruling with suffocating efficiency and tyranny. The supposedly majestic and Olympian power structures of the old world had folded like wet tissue paper in his thirties.

Until this moment, he'd not had a single inkling who the Director was – almost no one did. The information was heavily compartmentalized. In a very real sense, this job was the Big One that all of his comrades gossiped and dreamed about – the one that would finally make a difference.

"One of your easier jobs, huh, TIGER?" she commented, looking up at him with foggy eyes, "Just in and out. No jumping out of any moving vehicles or sneaking around."

"..." the man with graying brown hair pulled up a chair and sat. The woman's gaze followed his movement.

"...?"

Slowly, he first touched his forehead with the tips of the fingers of his right hand, and then brought his hand forward and down, folding his middle three fingers while sticking out his thumb and pinky.

"Why? Dear, I'm 112 years old. It's time. There's nothing left for me to do… TIGER, dallying isn't like you."

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Third… she was his handler in the Resistance Intelligence Service. Her voice was unmistakable. So… the hated ruler of the world was moonlighting as a mid-rank spook, in the organization which was her greatest adversary? How did she get that past the Commander…?

In any case, she'd been sending him on missions and assignments for fifteen years. She had treated him well, never using him callously the way that other handlers treated their assets… And she'd just ordered him to kill her.

"Right here, TIGER," she tilted her head vaguely at the machine next to her. "Unplug that, and I'll drift away. The world will have its hero to rally around."

Sitting frozen in the hospital chair like a statue, his gaze bore down on his target in accusation.

"..."

"Oh… perhaps you meant, why the hostile takeover of the world?" she muttered idly. "Obviously. Bah, I'm far too old…"

Shifting her head, she directed her gaze into his own.

Fourth, and finally… She was his grandmother, Melanie. He hadn't seen her in forty years, but he could tell. She didn't look so different from when she was in her seventies, when he last saw her. He'd thought she was dead – of course he did. Who expects a frail old woman to survive such brutal times?

His childhood was the sweetest time in his life, the memories he cherished most when the bitterness of the present became too much. And Grandma Melanie… would visit every Sunday with a blueberry muffin, and then they'd go to the park, or the arcade, or sneak into an R rated movie at the theater.

"Call it a premonition, dear. If I hadn't done what I did… Well. You know how the world is. Someone was going to get stupid and blow everyone up if they were left alone. And I… didn't care to allow it. I'm afraid there were a few too many people in this world that I cared about."

To know that the cause of all these ashen years, the one responsible for the death and suffering of so many of his friends… was the same person as…?

Dipping his head so that he wasn't looking at her, Martin felt like a brittle shell.

"..."

"I'm sorry. I'm a horribly selfish person. And I'm being selfish again. Please… finish the job. Make sure the world has space in it for you. This world… it shouldn't fly apart the second I'm gone. If the world doesn't end while you still live… I'll consider it a job well done."

Silently, he lifted a hand, reaching… and placed it on top of one of Melanie's, rustling the hospital bed sheet.

"... Alright, then. Just a minute more, Martin."