The tent flap whipped gently in the wind. The warden of the East paced around his strategy table. He was alone, vulnerable. A bombing raid had rubbled a section of the perimeter wall and his personal guard had to be sent to reinforce it. The explosions hadn't let up, though they came from rifles and grenades rather than artillery. He must have assumed them to be a distraction tactic while the Alliance prepares an assault on the breach.

The tent was almost silent within, the quiet hum of an old style radio and the mumbled voices within it echoed from the wooden pillars holding the dirty roof.

A shadow grew from the door, though Hosun didn't notice. He buried himself in plans and maps as explosions rained in the distance. His ornate uniform, more fit for a ballroom than battlefield, had creased down the middle as he slumped down. The only part of his garments that betrayed the clean white - military - style was his gloves. Kevlar knuckles, the index and middle fingers manually cut out. Dirty and frayed from a long life of war. They ill fitted him, his hands much to large to fit within them. Though, kevlar hadn't been used since his youth; it seemed possible that he had once worn them as a much younger man, a much slimmer man.

"You've gotten fat." A dark voice whispered from within the tent. Hosun's head jolted, his eyes scoured the dim room for whoever dared insult him.

"Gardener?" He called, knowing full well that Jack Gardener had left the field of battle. The accent was right, though. A man from the undercity?

"Who's there?" He called out again. He rose from his chair but didn't shout. A part of him had accepted what would come next, he wouldn't resist. There wouldn't be any point. "Boy?" He whispered, his voice indignant. "Step out." He ordered.

"Where is Akemi?" The dark voice demanded from nowhere.

"Look me in the eyes, boy. Have respect."

"Respect?" The voice spat.

From the corner of his eye, Hosun spotted a lively shadow. It danced back and forth, cast by a candle. He hadn't lit any candles? He turned to look for the source of light but was met with a figure in the darkness. Not quite a face atop not quite a body. It was barely discernible from black that surrounded it, aside from two beady eyes looking deep within Hosun's own.

"Where. Is. Akemi?" He repeated. His voice came from all directions, it dripped with vitriol and malice. The urge to call for help built within Hosun but what would be the point? The boy had been trained by Akemi, he had probably poisoned Hosun hours ago. His guards were probably already dead, his camp in shambles.

He straightened up and clumsily twisted the little lamps power valve. A new light flooded the room and the long shadows grew slim. What would have been a face was now empty air. His hand shook and unconsciously edged closer to his holstered pistol. Reality caught his nerve and he cupped both of his hands behind his back as he stood proud, ignoring the bead of cold sweat crawling across his brow. He blinked it away once it reached his grim eyes and, with a quick scan of the room, he readied to speak.

"I will not converse at a disadvantage, boy. All will be told once you stop cowering in the shadows."

A creak behind him caught his ear and he swiftly span on his heel. The motion blurred his vision for but a moment, after which the boy was revealed. As tall as Hosun though much slimmer; his face covered entirely in matte black paint. In the pale brown light of the flickering lamp, all of his features blurred together into one. He was inches away and yet Hosun doubted he would recognise the man should they meet again in the daylight. A glint of light marked the boys threat, a blade - held close to Hosun's belly. Much longer than any blade Akemi would have taught him to carry. It seemed, in the darkness, inscribed with strange runes. He didn't take Reese for a superstitious man, nor the kind of man to carry such an impractical weapon.

"A sword?" He mocked, a facetious grin encompassing his thin lips. Reese didn't entertain him, he pushed the blade just beneath Hosun's eye and slit his skin.

"Through my SBA?" Hosun gasped. It had been a long time since his flesh had been broken, he had nearly forgotten the sensation.

Reese moved the blade to the old man's throat and stepped back, letting its length fill the distance between them.

"Talk." Reese demanded, his voice colder by the word. Hosun sighed and dropped his eyes to the floor.

"Akemi's dead." He whispered.

"Bullshit!" Reese spat through gritted teeth and a clenched jaw.

Hosun raised his eyes to meet Reese's. "I swear it."

"When?" The younger man asked, his tone now lesser - defeated but not kind.

"Ito Akemi died on the seventeenth of February, twenty-one-sixty-five." He said formally.

"That's ten years ago? How did I not know? How did it happen?" He asked. His voice had gained a frantic energy. Puzzles played out in his mind and a thousand questions never made it to his lips.

"The official story states that the Alliance operative, Josef Vie, committed a random act of terrorism within my - at the time - home of ASAG. Akemi and Yua were caught in the explosion but Yua was shielded from the blast by her mother. Akemi died at the scene..." Hosun hesitated. He tried to recount the events as clinically as he could but at the end of the day, this was his closest friend and confidant. There was only so much professional separation he could handle. "I inspected the scene myself a few days later. I-" He paused again, either for breath or to hide the welling tear. "I saw the body, son. It was her."

Reese looked at him, disgust mixed with rage before being swallowed by grief. He had always assumed Akemi must have died at some point, but to actually hear that she has been rotting in the ground for a decade? It made him sick.

"Why was she in ASAG?" He finally asked.

"I... I don't know." Hosun admitted. "She was clearly trying to hide from the war, maybe she wanted a different life for Yua."

"She was hiding from you, Akiyama. Why would she hide in your own home?" Reese questioned. He steeled the grip on his blade and held it close enough to Hosun's neck that it began to shave away at his beard. Hosun raised his hands in surrender before answering, acutely aware of the steel edge at his throat.

"I don't know." He nearly shouted as his voice began to quiver. "It clearly worked, I had no idea she was there." Reese lessened the blades pressure but kept it close enough that Hosun was forced to take shallow breaths.

"So a random act of terror killed her?" Reese doubted.

"Never." Hosun answered. He caught Reese off guard with his response and took the opportunity to slowly and gently remove the blade from his throat. He stepped backwards slightly and took a more relaxed posture.

"Josef Vie was an actor paid by an officer under my command. He couldn't find the true perpetrator and so as an appeasement, either to me or the people of ASAG, he framed the attack as having been orchestrated by the Alliance. It made him look good for capturing a murderer and the Alliance look like raving killers. A win-win in his eyes. In all likelihood I'd never have noticed, had he not brought a young girl to my home."

"Yua." Reese Intuited.

"Yes." Hosun nodded. "I learned that the two had been living as bakers-"

"Baxters." Reese interrupted. It brought a small laugh to Hosun.

"Yes, baxter, Yua is rather particular about that word too. A trait from Akemi, I assume?"

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

"She was very particular when it came to language. 'A man who speaks slowly chooses his words well, and is worthy of attention'."

"I don't remember her ever saying that?" Hosun questioned. For the first time, a smirk found Reese and he wore it grimly.

"You do speak pretty quickly." He mocked. It stung deep, and Reese knew it would. Hosun adored Akemi; the idea she didn't even respect him or think him worthy of attention.

He shook the thought off and continued. "Yua knew nothing of Akemi's work. Nothing of me... Or you." The final words he spoke with a masked grin. It gave him endless pleasure to tell Reese his own mother didn't think him worthy of mention. Reese gave him no reaction, instead continuing to listen to his story. "I took her in rather than letting her rot on the street. I gave her a home to live in, I fed her, clothed her... Trained her. I felt I owed Akemi that much."

Reese raised the sword again, his absent expression being replaced with the same hatred as when he first entered the tent. "So let me get this straight. Akemi uprooted her entire life, sacrificed everything and everyone around her to disappear, all for the sole purpose of keeping her daughter out of this life... And the second she died, you decided to forge Yua into an assassin? You felt that's what she would have wanted?" He didn't shout, despite his apparent rage. His voice was contained to a terrifying whisper. Each syllable dripped with the thousand insults and mockeries he restrained his tongue from loosing.

"I-" Hosun tried to respond.

"And how exactly did you just so happen to find Yua? You just, what? Picked her out of a crowd immediately after her mother died? Bullshit." Reese pressed.

"And Akemi! She just so happened to die about a week after she saved Serah from prison... A prison you just so happen to have stationed guards around?" He paused to gather his accusations before he continued his tirade.

"You always loved her but she never returned the feeling, did she?" He mocked. "But that was okay in your mind. She was a driven and singularly focused woman after all. Maybe she simply wasn't interested in men."

"Reese, I-!" Hosun tried to defend himself before the blade almost literally cut him off.

"So when you found her after the battle, when you saw she had a daughter and realised she had been with a man. When you realised it wasn't her; but you... You got angry, didn't you?" He suggested. "You thought you deserved her... And if you couldn't have her..." He paused. "You'd take the next best thing." He finished, spitting at Hosun's feet.

"That's not-"

"How long was it before you put a blade in her hands? A gun? How long did you wait before you put her in Akemi's fucking uniform?" The blade started shaking in his hand. "It's not a coincidence she wears the exact same armour as Akemi, is it? Uses the same weapons? Hell... Did you dress her the same? Let me guess; she's wearing purple and white beneath that armour?"

"I don't-"

"Did you tell her she has family? Other places to go, other options beyond a lifetime of murder and pain? That she could have been loved? No... Of course you didn't, cos' then she would have left. Why would she stay with you? You had to lie and manipulate a child just so you could feel like you had some final victory over Akemi. You knew she wanted better for Yua, so you twisted and corrupted her. All because... What? Akemi didn't give you any?"

"I loved her!" Hosun shouted. "I- I loved her and she disappeared without a word." He fell to the floor and covered his face. The massive old man reduced to tears. "I have raised Yua as a daughter. I have loved her as best I could. But her face... Its an insult, a mockery! To look so similar to Akemi and yet... I can see her father in her, whoever he was. It burns me, I admit it, but I never had ill intent towards Yua! I swear it!" He confessed, bawling into his hands.

"You didn't love Akemi. You wanted to possess her. You don't love Yua, you want to possess her. If you loved her, you would have told her the truth." Reese whispered, looking down on the pathetic beast before him.

"I gave her everything she ever wanted." He sputtered.

"She didn't need anything from you."

"Do- Do you know who it was... The father?" Hosun pled.

Reese considered not answering, letting him waste the rest of his life wondering.

"It was a farmhand, I think his name was Ruen. They spent the night together and never spoke again. He died a week later."

"A- A farmhand?" Hosun repeated in disbelief. "A fucking farmhand?"

"Don't forget a one night stand." Reese twisted with vicious eyes and a straight face.

----------------------------------------

Hosun broke down. All rage, despair and jealousy flooded out at once. Reese had little time for his tantrum. He pulled littleman from it's holster and readied a shot. The clack of steel pulled some form of sense back to Hosun.

"W- wait." He pled.

For some strange reason, he did. Reese had destroyed entire villages in the past for less grievous affronts and he hadn't so much as flinched. So why did he hesitate?

"I- In my draw." Hosun stuttered, shielding his head with one hand while pointing a quivering finger towards his desk. Reese furrowed his brow but didn't respond.

"What?" He demanded. "What could be in there that would save your life?"

Hosun knelt, he attempted to regain his composure. It seemed a drop of hope had flooded his small mind. He raised his hands to his shoulders as he walked back to the desk. He slowly pulled open the draw revealing a choice. A letter, old and unopened, lay beneath a mound of papers. A small wax seal with a crude smile carved into it kept it shut.

Further into the draw, just out of Reese's view, lay a small revolver. It wouldn't do much damage but the surprise could give him a chance to flee - or at least let his guards know he was in danger.

Reese didn't waver, his gun aimed directly at Hosun and the blade was held in a way that suggested he was ready to pounce.

"Slowly." Reese ordered as Hosun reached his hand into the draw.

His finger peeled back the letter, it's coffee stained envelope had stuck to the wooden base and it peeled away with a slight effort but he didn't remove it from the draw. His eyes lingered on the nearly two kilos of steel that could be the difference between life and death.

"Hosun." Reese whispered in an impatient, almost scolding tone.

He flinched at the sound. A second of time passed and a thousand thoughts battled within.

"The assassin I sent... What happened to them?" He finally asked, his hand inching closer to the revolver.

"You mean Yua?" Reese sneered.

"Y- yes. What happened to Yua?" He stuttered. He hunched over, his breath growing laboured. He knew his hand had been in the draw too long, that Reese knew what he had planned.

"She failed. I don't know where she went." Reese explained as he took a step closer to the desk. A small laugh seeped from Hosun's shaking lips.

"So she escaped the great Sentinel Reese. I guess my training really worked wonders." He mocked.

A final sigh escaped him and he resigned himself to his fate. The pistol was stowed deeper within the draw as he produced the letter.

"This... Was in a small lockbox in Akemi's home." He said, handing it to Reese. Faded ink ornately scrawled on the back marked three letters: Son.

Reese stowed the letter in his chest plate and pointed the gun back at Akyama.

"You thought a letter would save you?" He asked.

"No." Hosun sighed. "I just needed a moment to collect myself."

Hosun dragged the chair from behind his desk and placed it before Reese. He sat straight and looked his killer in the eyes.

"Allow an old man his final words?" Hosun asked. He received no response though the lack of a bullet marked consent in his eyes.

"For my role in what happened to Serah, I am truly sorry." He began. Reese gripped his pistol so tightly it started to shake but he still did not shoot.

"That Akemi felt the need to hide from me, to fake her death... I'm sorry." He continued. "That I didn't tell you of Yua, for that I know there is no penance." He finished with his head hanged.

A silence grew as Hosun sat in anticipation. The bullet would be soon; he was ready.

"What happened to Serah is my burden. For it, I don't hold you responsible." Reese answered. He raised the blade and plunged it into Hosun's leg. He wanted to scream but restrained himself with every scrap of will he could muster.

"Akemi fled more than just you. You were insignificant in her decision. I do not hold you responsible." He continued, removing the blade and placing the pistol beneath Hosun's jaw.

"But you're right. For Yua... For her, I hold you responsible. There is no penance." He spoke through gritted teeth as he inched closer to Hosun's face.

"Please..." Hosun panted through the pain. "Tell me what I can do to make this right."

"I'm sure you'll think of something." He answered as he cocked back the hammer. "After all... You have the rest of your life."

The shot rang out. Blood splattered everywhere. Memory of childhood adorned the linens. Hopes and dreams lay abed while fears and worry seeped onto Reese's boots. By the time the grand general - councillor of all the ministries forces - hit the ground, the room was empty. A corpse amongst naught but shadows. Three guards barged in and searched for the assassin but it was of no use. Whoever it was had already disappeared.