Jamal was awoken to the sound of rustling, to see the elderly man making something ahead of him. Looking down, he realized he was placed onto a cot, as he forced himself up, having his entire body ache. Recalling the events prior to his fall, he got up, to which the man turned around.
"Your awake, at last, drink up." the man held out a cup of what appeared to be tea.
Jamal hesitated for a moment, before realizing he couldn't resist or fend for himself in his current state. Grasping the cup, he began to sip on the liquid, tasting lukewarm, but was better than nothing.
"Why, why didn't you just kill me? Why?" Jamal mentioned to the man in defeat, to which the man looked at him.
"You know, accepting such an offer would have been futile to my goals." the man said, as he turned around to look at a photo.
Jamal moved to stare at what appeared to be a family within the frames. He could hear the man begin to sniffle, before watching a tear roll off his face.
"My son, he, he was so handsome, so intelligent, so courageous. And yet, they took him away from me. I hadn't seen him in years, and only recently did I ge-,get the news that he was killed." the man broke down, almost dropping the photo, to which Jamal caught with reflex.
"I'm, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean-" Jamal was taken aback.
"When you begged for death, I thought about him. How someone could wish to kill themselves for no gain. Life is too damn precious to waste away." the man looked at him. "And I can tell with your pain, you were willing to do so."
Jamal knew the man was right, not a single lie was said, and yet he was so close to doing so. All of it, was over a female. That didn't even sound right, Jamal thought about it now.
"You're right. I, was being selfish for petty reasons. It was over my ex, the woman of my dreams." Jamal admitted to the man, "It was wrong, and I have a lot of things I need to do before I truly fight Youden. But I don't think now is the time. I think I should just leave and-"
"Wait," the man cried out, as Jamal began making his way to the door. "I can still help you."
"With what?" Jamal turned around to see the man starting to smile.
"I can help you kill Youden. And we can end this terror once and for all."