Running through an alleyway, Ivan unloaded six shots, firing behind him at the lightning storm chasing him.

“IVAN!!”

Ivan spun, vanishing just as a hand swiped at his neck.

“Jack!” Ivan let out, grinning as he clutched his neck, his burned skin steaming and regenerating at a slow pace. “Buddy! How's it going?”

Jack stared at the gunslinger, unresponsive as the man backed up into a corner.

“What? Kitlin got your tongue? Is this anyway to greet a friend? I swear it's almost like you're trying to kill me!” Ivan chuckled before his smile faded and the barrel of his gun came up.

Jack vanished, his fist striking the building as Ivan teleported. However, this time Jack was prepared.

Reaching out, Jack's eyes activated, his hand outstretched, Gehenna in effect with guidance from Lilith that disrupted the gunslinger’s skill, pulling Ivan out from his teleport.

“F-fucl!” Ivan let out in surprise, tumbling onto the ground and firing a salvo of shots at Jack that were dismissed by his silver feathers.

“You like? A little something I've been cooking up since last we saw each other,” Jack said coldly, approaching Ivan. “No more teleporting. No more fleeing. No more running Ivan.”

Ivan blinked, backing up, the man still grinning with his eyes darting to and fro, almost as if pondering his escape.

Then, the gunslinger did something Jack didn't expect.

“Ah… well. Seems like you've got me then. I know when I've been beat,” Ivan shrugged, hands held up, revolvers dangling from his fingers in a gesture of surrender. “Good job. Although Selfia might have something to say about it.”

Jack blinked once before his brow furrowed, his eyes dancing with lightning.

“Choose your next words carefully,” Jack said, one hand on Ivan's throat, the other, poised to strike with a hundred silver feathers surrounding the pair.

“Let him go, Jack.”

At the voice, Jack spun, eyes wide, Selfia standing behind him in silver armor alongside Jin.

“You…” At a loss for words, Jack's voice trailed off, his mind racing as he found himself surrounded by a dozen mechanical orbs of Selfia's design.

No…

“Jack, I'd do what she says. Believe it or not bud. We're actually on the same side,” Ivan choked out.

Jin stepped forward, hands raised. “Jack, you've done good. Now it's time you let us take it from here.”

“You… lied to me,” Jack said slowly, his face contorting as he stared at Selfia before realizing Jin was covered in blood.

“I didn't lie to you. Please. Let's just.. go somewhere else and talk,” Selfia said. “I need Ivan alive.”

“Talk? Talk about WHAT?!” Jack snapped, the sky roaring with thunder as the city seemed to shake in response to Jack's emotions. “Tell me... Selfia. You didn't know about the attack. Tell me this wasn't all just another ploy of yours. That you didn't kill everyone at the galla, that you didn't endanger my wife and my unborn CHILD! Tell me you aren't working with them!”

“Jack. I'm not working with them, I'm using them. Please. You have to understand-”

“No. I don't have to do anything! Leslie, Yun, and Tyrah died because of your plot! Kamila nearly died! WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IF ADA WAS HURT?!” Jack roared, his grip tightening around Ivan's neck, the man shimmering in place as he tried to teleport, only for his skill to be disrupted as Jack drained him.

“Leslie was a traitor! I had to root out who in Gamma squad was-”

Jack squeezed his eyes shut, his mind racing, trying to cross the Ts and dot the Is. “Shut up! I've had enough of your conniving!”

Stolen novel; please report.

“Jack listen to me!”

“How am I supposed to trust you when you've endangered those I love?! How am I supposed to listen to you when you lie to me? Keep me in the dark?!” Ivan began to kick at Jack, the former's face going pale as the air, mana, and life began to fade from his body.

“Uhkz. Choking. Choking me!” Ivan coughed.

“I HAD NO CHOICE!” Selfia screamed, a rare moment of flared anger directed at Jack. “You're a monster! The literal antisises of every awakened! You can out heal most injuries, summon Anti-Army skills, rip mana from people, and command the literal FUCKING souls of the deceased! The world, our world is unprepared to deal with something like you. To deal with an organization powerful enough to create a monster like you! And perhaps worst of all, you're such a goddamn FUCKING bleeding heart, you would have ruined my plans with your hero complex!”

Jack recoiled at being called a monster, his face twisting as he stared at the Imperial Queen who now stood in his face with a multitude of floating arms.

Somehow, it hurt being called such by Selfia.

"Said the monster to the monster," Jack snickered, “You could have told me Selfia.”

Selfia closed her eyes and looked away.

“No. I couldn't have. If you knew the things I did today. The orders I gave. The lives I snuffed. You would have stopped me. I did what I did today because I had no choice."

"Choice?! We all have a choice Selfia, and YOU, chose to put my family in danger! To put the woman I LOVE in danger. But of course how could you know what I feel when you've never loved anyone in your life."

"I..." Selfia looked away, her demeanor deflating, "Your family was never in any real danger.”

A sinking feeling built up in Jack's chest, his eyes moving towards the blood covered man in black armor.

Jin’s green eyes looked away.

“What did you do?” Jack asked, a mortified look on his face.

“What needed to be done to guarantee the survival of mankind,” Selfia said.

“The reason… all the guards weren't there. Why there weren't any awakened…”

“We killed them. As we speak, a purge is taking place, all across the empire. Three hundred and sixty-nine lives are being snuffed, maybe more if they're unlucky. Political opponents, rivals, dissidents. Anyone that would slow the advent of the New Republic dies today,” Selfia said much to Jack's horror.

“You… the list. You said… you'd arrest them. That with them out-”

“Out of the picture I could solidify my power,” Selfia said, finishing Jack's sentence and cutting him off. “I didn't lie about that.”

“No, you just lied about the method.”

“Of course, I did it for your sanity. If I said, hey Jack, I'm going to kill hundreds of people. Would you sit there and be ok with it?” Selfia said. “Of course not! This way-my way, gives me a target to blame it on.”

Jack furrowed his brow, taking a moment to process the words said.

“Did… did it for my sanity? Do you even hear yourself?!” Jack spat. “The names on that list. Children. Entire bloodlines… You put Ada and everyone I care about in danger-”

“I know!” Selfia yelled, four of her arms flying upwards in exasperation. “And I’d do it again in a fucking heartbeat! We are talking about the fate of the entire world. The continuity of mankind! And I have made it my life's mission to guarantee a future where monsters like me don't need to exist! If I have to chop up infants, if I have to level cities, if I have to kill thousands to ensure the millions that populate this earth survive then so be it! I have sacrificed EVERYTHING! My arms, my morals, my heart, any chance at love! For. This. Mission. And it's time you understand that the gloves can no longer be kept on!”

Jack clenched his jaw, the audible sound of his teeth grinding against themselves being the only thing that permeated the space.

“Tell me one thing, Selfia…” Jack said, turning to the gunslinger he now had pinned to the adjacent building before looking back at the Queen. “Did you know about the attack on my village? On my people?”

Thunder roared, the air swirling, Jack's body arcing with electricity as the nearby lights fluctuated.

For a moment, Selfia feared she would die in that alley, her entire life flashing as an unfamiliar feeling of fear bubbled up.

Jin took a step forward, hand gripping his spear tightly as he saw something with red eyes shimmering behind Jack, a specter of an angry woman glaring at him and his queen.

Selfia sighed.

“No. I swear to you I did not know. The honest truth. Ivan is an embedded agent. Part of a deep infiltration. I wasn't aware of your survival and the details until after… In fact, you two weren't supposed to meet again,” Selfia said solemnly. “Please... I need him alive.”

“It would be a fickle thing to snap his neck,” Lilith whispered in Jack's ear, the specter of vengeance wanting the gunslinger dead just as much as Jack.

“If he can help us fight the round table. We should at least spare him. For now Jack,” Sahaqiel commented, the twin spirits playing advocates in Jack's mind.

Jack stood in silence, moments passing before he looked up at the gunslinger.

“You're lucky you aren't mine to kill,” Jack said, a visible look of relief on Selfia, Ivan, and Jin’s faces. “But you don't need to be in one piece to be alive.”

Before anyone could react, Jack reached over, ripping off Ivan's arm in a display of blood and gore.

Ivan screamed, the man's seemingly permanent grin lost as Jin and Selfia attempted to save him only to be greeted by Ruby who blocked their path.

“JACK!” Selfia and Jin cried out, both horrified by the gruesome display as Violet landed in front of her sister with the pair rallying to their masters.

“Don't worry, I won't kill him,” Jack said, standing over the moaning man missing his arm. “But I will hurt him.”

Jack's golden glare mixed with red fixed on Selfia. “And after, you and I are going to have a more in-depth one on one. And you better pray that I like what I hear.”