“Wow, so many volunteers! One at a time, please!” Levi called, falling back. Emboldened, the lead Apostle threw out their hand. An invisible wall of force crashed into Levi.

Levi rolled to the side, around the edge of the invisible shield, and darted in close. An invisible plane sliced into the arm with the knife.

Before his arm fully severed, he threw his knife to his other hand over the back of the force field. He drove it home, through their mask and into their eye. They screamed, grabbing their face. He kicked them away and raced toward the next Apostle.

Levi laughed aloud. “This is what I needed! Fuck you, Alpha! Time to die!”

“We aren’t Alpha,” the next Apostle said, confused.

“You’re so much better than him,” Levi said, shaking his head as he shanked the knife into the man’s gut. He let out a grunt and dropped.

Bam!

A bullet slammed into Levi’s shoulder. He stumbled back, then looked up.

The final Apostle, the gunman, held the next-to-final Apostle by the shoulder, the gun held just under their ear. They lined up the shot.

Levi clicked his tongue. He darted to the right, toward the Apostle the gunman held hostage.

The gunman turned their gun to follow him, then cursed when the hot barrel pressed against the other Apostle’s neck. The Apostle held hostage shrieked and jolted, throwing their shot even further out.

Levi whirled around the hostage-held Apostle and the gunman both. Before the gunman could turn, he grabbed the man’s shoulder and drove the knife up into his ribcage. He felt the man’s heart kick against his knife before he yanked the knife out. The gunman hit the floor.

“Let the bodies hit the floor! Let the bodies—” Levi turned to the final Apostle. “Is that inappropriate?”

The Apostle stared at him with wide eyes.

“Damn, what does it take to get a little audience participation around here?” Levi asked, stabbing them in the solar plexus.

With a gasp and a gurgle, the final Apostle fell backward onto the floor.

He looked at all the dead Apostles on the floor around him and let out a satisfied sigh. “Yeah. That’s what I needed. None of that depressing ‘he’s already dead’ bullshit. A good, hard, mass murder.”

Levi adjusted his mask and made sure his robe was on straight, then took off, running deeper into the space. Ahead, two options split off: a hallway to the left, and one to the right. He cut a hard left.

A group of Apostles approached him. “What happened? We heard the shots.”

“They’re—they’re coming! Run—the back entrance! I’ll go warn the others!” Levi whipped around and ran down the left hallway, leaving the other Apostles behind with his SPD.

Down the other hallway, he encountered a room full of Apostles playing cards. Throwing his hurt arm forward to make the blood more dramatic, he threw himself against the doorframe and panted, exhausted. “They’re—they’re coming! From the left hallway! They look like us…stole our voices… they already killed the guards in the back entrance…” Levi slumped, falling down the doorframe.

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The Apostles looked at one another. As one, they all jumped up and ran over Levi, running for the back hallway.

When they’d all run past, Levi sat up and grinned. He lifted his hand and counted down. “Three…two…one…”

Gunshots rang out. People screamed.

“Teehee, did I accidentally cause a little friendly fire? Whoopsie,” Levi said, covering his mouth in mock-shock. He stood and walked away, leaving the Apostles to fight it out behind him.

He wandered deeper and deeper into the compound, occasionally pausing to catch his breath. The wound on his arm slowly closed. Levi wandered by pallets of boxes, not quite sure what he was looking for. “But I’ll know it when I see it. Just like porn,” he muttered to himself.

Levi reached for his phone, then hesitated. “Nah. Let’s keep this one clean. I don’t want Maury to know anything about it. She already knows I’m after the guy. That’s enough.”

It wasn’t like she was close with him, as far as he knew. But they’d been colleagues. Even if their relationship was only to the extent of chatting about pets and vacation plans, he’d rather not alert her to the man’s impending death.

An Apostle came around the corner. They ran to Levi and grabbed his shoulders. “Where’s the fight?”

“I mean, she knows. She’s not stupid. But you know. There’s a difference in doing it, and doing it, right?”

“What?” The Apostle stared at him. Faintly, he could see them squint behind the mask.

“I don’t want to throw it in her face. That’d be cruel. Though I don’t know. Maybe she hates his guts and wants to see him dead? Feel like it would’ve come up by now,” he reasoned. He patted the Apostle on the shoulder and pointed over his. “That way. Battle’s that way.”

“O-oh, thank you.” The Apostle ran off, shooting a confused look over their shoulder.

“Wait!” Levi shouted.

The Apostle slowed to a halt, albeit reluctantly.

“The boss, where is he? I need to deliver urgent news!” Levi said, suddenly terrified.

“Uh…”

“Please! I’m having a psychotic break and talking nonsense to myself because of the insanely high stress right now. But I remember that I’m supposed to deliver the boss this vital news!” Levi pleaded.

“He’s just that way, the way I came. Uh, do you need some help?” The Apostle gestured vaguely at his head, at his arm.

“Nah, I’ll be fine. Just need a minute and my smelling salts.”

A gunshot rang out, and the Apostle jumped. He cast Levi one last uncertain glance before running toward battle.

“Hehe, victory,” Levi cheered to himself, making the V sign at no one. He scurried away, running in the direction the Apostle had come from.

Around the corner, only one dark room remained. Levi slowed, entering the room at a walk. He peered around, then fumbled on the wall for a switch. “Damn, it’s dark in here.”

“I knew you would come.”

A single light snapped on in the back of the room, just as Levi found the light switch. He flicked it on, instantly overcoming the spotlight effect.

On the other side of a cluttered, somewhat dirty lab, an old man stared at him. Levi stared back.

Slowly, the old man put his face in his hands.

“O-oh. Sorry about that. You know, I do appreciate flair…I feel pretty bad about this, actually. I can turn it back off, if you like?” Levi said, reaching for the light switch.

“No, no, leave it on. What’s done has been done,” the old man complained. He looked up, then met Levi’s eyes. “Hello…Beta.”

“No, that really would’ve been much more impressive with the whole spotlight thing. Are you sure you don’t want me to turn off the lights? We can run it back. Start from zero,” Levi offered.

The old man sighed. “God, you didn’t get any less insufferable with age, did you.”

“I like to think it’s one of my good qualities,” Levi said, beaming.

“You would, wouldn’t you.”

Levi clicked his tongue. He shook his finger at the man. “You know, you aren’t the only one to say that lately.”

“I wouldn’t be, would I? Not when you’ve been playing with that beautiful creation of mine.”

“What?” Levi squinted.

The old man chuckled. “It’s a pity her ‘little brother’ escaped, but things can’t always go exactly to plan. And I did want Alpha out of the way, so I suppose it all worked out in my favor.” He threw back his head and looked down at Levi from the corner of his eyes. “From the beginning, since the moment you met Fira…you’ve been playing into my hand.”