Scar's plan had worked flawlessly with the exception of one cog.
They had taken out the last guards to get to Snakeyes office when he realized that the manor was barely occupied. He barely had time to cover his ears as the walls exploded. The office doors swung open on their own accord while a good portion of his men fell on the floor around him dead and bleeding from the impact.
Among the bodies he saw the man who had just wanted to feed his family; who had been branded by snakeyes for life. He saw a young boy who'd been snatched from the orphanage at the age of eight. The boy had wanted out of the gang to become a painter and marry his sweetheart. Scar had seen some of his work. He had been good.
A once beautiful woman who had been Scarred so deeply.
Ghost's broken body lay in the rubble of the building. Dust fell across her face.
Hate bubbled in Scars chest as he stood amongst the smoky rubble.
From the depths of the office spun a silver net.
It was shot at Scar, and then the room held thrice as many bodies as Snakeyes men came from the roof like sewer rats to their nest.
His men laid down their weapons with fear and Scar looked through the glistening silver wire with malice as Snakesyes entered the room with Rat on his tail.
Rat had betrayed all of them.
Scar had almost forgotten how pitch black it was outside as the room filled with light and he had to force his eyes shut.
His men moaned and hissed and covered their faces.
Snakeyes approached them slowly with a glinting smile.
His chuckle lit a fire inside Scar.
"Well well. The fly thought he could be a bird when all he ever really was a maggot!"
Snakeyes was close his sorcerers hand holding a bright burning ball of fire like it was a simple spool of yarn, and Scar lunged at him aiming for the sorcers necklace. His belly lit up like fire with satisfaction as his hand curled around the silver metallic emerald and he pulled with all his might. Snakeeyes skin rippled and he looked shocked as his shirt was also torn wide open. The man appeared before him as he really was. Scar opened his eyes against the peircing light and saw Scars identical to the ones on his body had once carried before he'd seen the phantom dragon. The scars Snakeyes had given him were reflected on his own body, a body that looked ten years older and screamed weakness. His eyes flamed with unbridled rage.
Scar was kicked in the head. Everything blurred instantly. Like a swirling vortex of manic laughter and black rimmed vision eating him alive.
When he woke up next the first thing he noticed was the cold.
He was locked beneath Snakeyes manor in the basement cages. He was stripped down to his underwear and his face was half lying in a murky puddle of filth.
He pulled himself up. His eyes were adjusting to the dark underground when he saw the other six cells. There were bones everywhere, and half decayed bodies.
The men Scar had planned on saving from Snakeyes were undoubtedly dead already. He punched the ground and his knuckle split, blood trickled into the murky water on the floor.
He had been blinded by his own past connections with Rat, and now innocent men were dead; because of him.
He leaned back against the cold metal bars that bit into his skin, and stared at the opening of the basement through one good eye. The other was swollen shut.
A few of his ribs felt cracked again.
He had truly hit rock boddom with nowhere to go. There was no going up from here; just a flatline that would lead to his own personal hell.
Revenge had gotten him nowhere.
The fact that he was alive right now meant Snakeyes intended to torture him.
Scar figured he deserved as much as he thought again of Ghost. He gritted his teeth in pain and frustration before laying against the bars again, and surrendering to the black waters in the back of his mind.