As soon as I touched the ground, I took off running. Rebekah already had a headstart, and I was already a woman down. Forcing me to stomp on the gas pedal and pour on the speed. Through every strong stride and vaulting leap, I felt my heart do more somersaults than Simone Biles while gaining ground.

Realizing she started running out of the roof, she made a daring leap to her left side. I tried lining up a shot, but by the time I caught up, she was already gone as she acrobatically rebounded through a couple of window sills before disappearing into a crowd of people out of an alley through sheer athleticism. I would've been impressed on any other occasion, but I didn't have the luxury. So, instead, I grappled down the streets and tried shifting through the crowd.

I might as well have been a fish swimming upstream, though, as I attempted shifting around a sea of faces to point out my target. It's here where I forgot a crucial detail. This isn't a chase. It's a battle. Reminding myself that probably saved my life as, amidst the static of the crowd's chatter and calls, I heard a different type of crackle from my peripheral.

For the first and only time, I was thankful for being Zhi's apprentice as I subtly lunged out of the way of a raised Taser. I disarmed the weapon over my knee without missing a beat and followed up with a defiant elbow. The blow connected, only to hit a random bystander in the face.

"What the fuck is your problem?" the man barked.

The real answer is too many to count but I simply replied.

"Sorry."

The good news is the man got his instant payback as an unexpected spinning roundhouse sent me straight near a speeding car! I avoided the vehicle by a hair's breadth only by tucking and rolling back. Still, the sheer jolt had me hyperventilating, much to the dismay of a screeching cab that started beeping up a storm. Realizing stealth is getting me nowhere amidst the rivers of people, I decided to cast a stone. I then pulled out a Smith and Wesson magnum pistol and removed the silencer.

One shot immediately sent everyone scurrying like rats without a plan. Except for Rebekah, who was now making another break for it, shoving people aside. I was surprised she didn't try going for a hostage the entire time. Then again, I needed to give her a list of options as I kept firing shorts into the air to disperse the crowds further.

Getting tired of this brief stalemate, Rebekah again ducked into the alleyways, hoping to separate from people. When I turned the corner with the pistol, they were ready as my head went up against a raised trash can. Frazzled panic fueled my actions: I shot widely, slightly clipping Rebekah's right ear and shoulder.

Yet both flesh wounds seemed to do nothing to her as Rebekah forged on with a cold intensity that could freeze fire. My split-second block did nothing as the trash can cut into me halberd while exploding debris everywhere. Adding a good spinning roundhouse on top sent me crashing right between a set of garbage cans and an above fire escape.

Pure stubbornness rose back up as Rebekah forced me down twice as quickly with a dropkick to my solar plexus. After that ludicrous love tap, my vision had more black spots than a ladybug. When it finally realigned, I saw my target's shadow make its way up. I rolled away to get a clear shot before realizing my gun was out of ammo, and my only magazine was surfing beneath a mountain of used condoms, cut condiment packs and balled up tissues.

As such, I clawed my aching body up the fire escape into the final stage of our fight. I could only tell precisely if Rebekah knew every hiding hole in Luxembourg City or if my luck could have been better. I soon had to navigate a small storm of unattended sheets and clothes hung out to dry. Another harsh wind blew through the broken battlefield as Rebekah's voice soon broke through.

"How does it feel?"

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"To be covered in trash? Not great," I said while pulling out a dagger.

"No, to feel out of breath and unease. To never know when the next strike's coming, like all your other victims."

Some of me wanted to come up with a clever comeback, but just so, like so much of my odyssey, my words lacked conviction.

"Victims? Please, I was a victim once, and I can tell you those people I put down were anything but."

Once again, my peripheral vision worked overtime as I saw a pair of wrinkled jeans levitate and transform into a deadly weapon. Using the pants legs, Rebekah wrapped them around my throat tightly. Like a wild bull, I tried thrashing back, jousting my knife, hoping to end up in her stomach. Instead, Rebekah jerked left, opening up her right side to pistol whip her right cheek.

However, Rebekah barely flinched, kneeing me straight in the gut and pushing me back numerous times while continuing her tirade.

"And what about those people's families, loved ones, children, and friends," she said as she suddenly twisted me into a judo throw through a T-shirt. "WHAT ABOUT WHAT WE DO AFTER?!"

I skidded across the concrete floor like a ragdoll, my clothes collecting numerous tips and tears as I tried to desperately tote my empty pistol to what quickly became a fabric-worn jungle.

"What do you mean what we do after? Cleanup?"

"Don't you dare play co-. No, you already know, and soon the whole world will too. I'll make sure of it once I take you down," she said with a crazed coldness.

Remembering my first fight with an Eclipse agent, I employed my countermeasures, keeping my distance while trying to keep my weapons raised. Something Rebekah wanted as in my slight retreat, she pounced like a lioness. She swept my feet at blistering speed, disarming me in my split-second free fall and pointing the gun at me from a raised position. Keeping the same steely-eyed eyes as before, she pressed the gun into my chest while saying.

"Don't worry. After this, I'll surely put the next bullet in my head."

She then pulled the empty figure, the first move in this entire fight where she even got a hint of surprise.

"I'll be sure to hold you to that."

Not daring to miss the golden opportunity, I braced myself before headbutting Rebekah! I then pierced her right foot for good measure before pushing her off with another elbow. I hoped all those blows would at least send her reeling and tie up those devilish legs of hers. However, while I barely could make my way up, like a goddamn terminator, my opponent counterattacked by kicking me so hard I got sent flying out of the bustling set of clothes.

And as my head spun around like a broken compass, Rebekah, far more angry than hurt, pulled out my blade. Any sense of pain they had was masked instantly as they shouted back with daggers in hand.

"You think this little cut will stop me!? Eclipse taught me everything there is to know about pain! You can't hurt me! You can't stop m-"

Rebekah's sentence got cut short, along with every finger on her right hand. Our hearts sank as dread downpoured more heavily than the crimson droplets at Zhi's reappearance. The spotlight shifted towards her in seconds as she gave a devilish smile so haunting it still plagues my nightmares. Zhi strolled towards them casually, with our enemy now frozen in abject terror at her apperance.

"That's strange. If Eclipse taught you everything about pain, I guess I wasn't a good enough teacher."

She slashed into Rebekah again using her signature weapons, a pair of barbed hookswords.

"Because if I were, you'd know crossing me would be the last thing you'd ever do."

Rebekah's stalwart resolve crumbled like shifting sands, petrifying her until her neck tore open. She then started to step back, applying pressure to her wound while stepping back.

"Naag. Ooah," she stammered while gurgling on her blood.

Zhi didn't have it, though, twisting her hook sword to embed it in her palms. She then pried them open, like a demented version of the Jaws of Life, and let her gash bleed further.

"Oh, yes, because you live and die by my hands. No one else's."

Zhi then knocked Rebekah down, using the brief impact to spin the hook swords inside Rebekah's mouth. Muffled screams of scarlet spewed out of her mouth, but Zhi kept the pressure up, forming a sadistic smile as her arms started to shake.

"Now, do me a favor and shut up."

She gave her swords the final push and ripped out Rebekah's jaw. Reddened teeth, tissue, and muscle exploded like a shaken-up soda can. And just like that, a seemingly invincible opponent was sprawled out on the ground within seconds. Her last few members of life ebbing into fading twitches.

Despite being former associates, Zhi didn't seem to pay any sympathy, wiping her bloody boots off Rebekah's face before hurriedly fiddling around her ruined clothing for a few minutes before having her frustration peak again.

"Shit!" she said while kicking the corpse's head in.

Exhaustion filtered her following words as she finally turned her eyes to me. Unchecked fury and disgust over my battered body until it retreated to her usual biting tone.

"Can you move?"

I couldn't piece together whether it was a request or an order, but I sheepishly responded.

"Yeah."

"Then clean this mess up. I've got to call this in. The drive isn't here," she said as she walked away without a word.

Thus, I was forced to do the worst part and look back. I did The same thing for Leopold's son, Alix Sith's wife, Gerard's Rhodes brother, and every other victim or widow I've left behind in this odyssey. Until now, I could churn away the guilt for the sake of a godforsaken chase. Yet, somehow, Rebekah's mutilated corpse brought these boiling feelings entirely to the surface.

Since, like me, she was nothing more than a ghost, a body without a name or identity to speak of anymore. Who swore the same oath as I, only to risk everything to bring it all down. A mystery I now couldn't possibly ignore as I held the broken flashdrive. Whether it was fate or dumb luck which let me secure it when I made contact. All I do know is that now I can't ignore these feelings anymore.