Once I departed from Eclipse, history repeated itself. I was on the run again, scarred and beaten without a goal in sight. Except now, I couldn't even find solace in the shadows. I couldn't tell who lay beneath them anymore. Still at my paranoid pace, I could already see my exit was making waves.
Though tsunami would be a more accurate descriptor, I never got the chance to see the full effects, but what I could scrounge up from stary rumors and tips was enough. Seemingly overnight, Nexus went from an urban legend to an underground sensation as they exposed Eclipse's wicked web. All while deleting any trace of my ties to them. How sweet.
Politicians in power immediately got pushed and packed into jail cells. Millions of malignant munitions got milled at confiscation. Drug dealers with fellow dregs got devastated. From the few news cycles I could catch, Eclipse's sins seemed never-ending as their bid to govern their secret empire under cloak and dagger was over. I wish I could say that the fact quieted my fears, but instead, they got heightened.
At least Rebekah had the luxury of knowing Eclipse was after her. Now, with them scattered to the winds, they were more elusive and unpredictable than ever. So I didn't dare take any chances, instead pinballing between locations, each more remote than the last. Eventually, when I entirely covered my tracks, and my exhaustion peaked, I settled near the Funiu Mountains in China.
By then, winter was already showing itself in full force, cloaking the typically lush forest into a deadened maze of whitened snow. The biting cold didn't bother me, though. I was far too numb to care. What did bother me, though, was working with such minimalist resources. Often, I spent hours prowling for food, only to decide between musk deer or sika deer for dinner.
However, if this dreaded journey of mine has taught me anything, it was how to survive. Jasmine, Asad, and Zhi's lessons worked overtime to create a sorry excuse for a camp. And as I wondered how long I could stomach this pathetic excuse for life or how much I could stomach my wretched self, violence knocked on its door. Just like it always does.
As the sun started to peek its head toward the sky, I was aroused awake by the tug of one of my wiretaps. Sensors that could only get triggered if someone wasn't trying to be seen. Knowing the omen my silent alarm brought in, I thought right then and there I would finally lose it, shrivel up into a speck, and let myself fall after weeks of talking with nothing more than the dead.
Or maybe even ecstatic that I could lose myself again in a cavalcade of combat. Yet both emotions failed to stir within me. All I felt was emptiness—a feeling that carried me to my new hunting ground. Using my home-field advantage, I circled a quarter mile from my camp.
Along the way, I counted about four agents, all clad in white army camo and clenching silenced pistols with enough tension to snap bone. A part of me was insulted by the small number but also satisfied. Because at least clean-up would be a helluva lot easier. Targeting the woman watching the rear first, I picked up a nearby rock and smashed her head in the millisecond I saw a blind spot.
Desperate survival instinct spurred me on as I took her now bludgeoned, befuddled brain and smacked her against an icy sheet near a tree. Trying to regain ground, the Eclipse agent threw a spinning elbow to get out of my hold. I swerved out of the way just in time and countered back with a spin-back kick to her solar plexus.
Any chance of calling for help vanished when I used my sharpened tree branch to slash her throat. Jets of blood sprayed against the snowy ground and my weathered clothes as I pocketed her pistol, knife, and garb. Actions took enough time for the other Eclipse agents to notice their missing corpse.
Unfortunately, their hurried footsteps against the crunching ice might as well have made them bulls in a china shop. I was already long gone by the time they arrived. Now perched up on a ledge of ice, I saw the trio of enemies look at their fallen friend with the same care you would a swatted fly. Instead of panicking, the trio regrouped and tried to find my location.
A task that wasn't exactly difficult. Since the second one of those poor souls locked eyes with mine, I sent five bullets straight their way. I couldn't relish the feat, though, as the last two soldiers immediately tried firing back. Between my cloaked clothes and cover of snow, though, their shots came up empty during my sprint until I lost enough footing to be sent spiraling from several feet up.
Even with the soft flurry underneath, I landed back to Earth with a sickening thud alongside getting a fresh sheet of snow landed on me harder than any heavyweight punch would. Still, the tumble had benefits as the two agents, through my blurred vision, started moving closer to my frozen graveyard, unsure if one of their shots did me in.
They didn't have to worry; it took me longer as I suddenly moved enough to angle my pistol sufficiently to empty the entire magazine. The female agent on the right was immediately gunned down, covering the area in a bloody mist I erupted out of. Sheer surprise took over my remaining enemy as I unleashed an intense look so cold it froze him solid.
He left me plenty of time to blast the last bullet at his right shoulder. I could hear his teeth grind from the pain, but the agent held firm as he pulled out a knife. Like a cornered animal, they bit back through a joust that nicked my right shoulder. I tried to grapple him from there, but the agent was clever, seamlessly transitioning into a brutal shoulder charge, which pushed me back. He tried for a third hit, but I dodged his next sweep kick and caught his knee.
From there, I caught and spun them to the ground, broke their leg, and slashed their femoral arteries and tendons. Before long, whatever screams he had faded into shock. I was far too distracted to listen to them. During my brief reprieve, I saw dawn's shining ascent blanketing the forest, giving a full view of how well I reddened the snowy field.
My lamentation didn't last long though as I was cut short by a creeping shadow covering my entire body. When I turned to their source, the figure was already gone as they jumped into the air and briefly covered the sun before descending upon me like a thunderbolt. My raised pistol and knife miraculously held strong against two glinting hook swords while I greeted my opponent.
"Hello, Zhi. I knew you'd show up eventually."
"And I'm glad you're still alive traitor. For a few weeks there, I thought I'd never pay you back," she said as I tried to push her back.
Zhi immediately answered the attack, though, jumping back to have one of her hooks disarm my pistol while using the other to reel in my leg like a fish. I tried keeping my footing, but the sheer speed of the move still had me wide open for a roundhouse kick, which sent us both airborne. My blurred vision and shaking skull barely tracked Zhi's next movements as she immediately circled to my blind spot and hooked my new white jacket over my eyes.
Leaving me wide open for a barely blocked, teeth-rattling punch to the right cheek. Combined with the hooked handguards, brass knuckles would've hurt less. Still, it seemed even my reactions to Zhi's blows displeased her demented image as she then hooked my jacket again to spin me towards a nearby tree.
Jolts of pain erupted from my cut right shoulder on contact, but my newfound leverage proved life-changing as I ducked out a dual pierce aimed directly where my neck would've been. That small mistake paid its weight in gold as I promptly stopped on Zhi's foot to keep her in place for a straight pierce to her head.
The only reward I got for it was a deep gash across the left side of her face, pissing her off enough for me to head-butt her and throw her to the ground. I tried to prep up an axe kick to the head for good measure, but Zhi had other plans. She attempted to destroy my vision once again and lobbed a makeshift snowball in my eyes before the blow struck. When I wiped the snow away, Zhi, including her weapons, was already gone. The first chill I've felt since coming to the mountains enveloped me as Zhi's voice echoed throughout.
"You know, for these past few weeks, as Eclipse fought fires from all sides, I got forced to scrounge up whatever pieces the police, triads, and Titan hadn't already taken down. One question reverberated in my skull."
Suddenly, I ducked out of another hail of snow from above as Zhi continued talking.
"WHY?! Your life was in my hands, and I let you keep it! I brought you up when you were at your weakest?! I gave you a life that would've kept your empty soul filled and fat for all your days. SO TELL ME, SARAH?! WHY?!" she said in crazed anger.
I didn't answer her for a few seconds, wondering what had pushed me to these hellish heights. My mind then flashed back to our first conversation, where my answer became clear.
"Because I always had a choice. I'm just making sure this time it's the right one."
Zhi then reappeared back and switched to full offensive. Like a mirror, we then matched each other blow for blow. Muay Thai, tawekendo, judo, and krav maga met in a collage of split-second strikes. Our stalemate lasted for a minute on end, but even still, I broke through my whittling endurance to finally parry and disarm one of Zhi's hook swords.
I then tried going for what I thought would be the final strike, only for my former partner to employ one last ace in the hole: Wing Chun. With unearthly speed, she used her free hand to immediately deflect my knife and push me back so my chest could get another hook word-addled palm strike. This time, the blow sent me straight into a wall of blackened ice, leaving me in a crumpled heap while Zhi kept talking.
"Just because I taught you everything you know doesn't mean I taught you everything I knew."
Immediately, I tried getting back up, only for her words to cut me down again.
"Throwing my own words back at me was cute, but do you think that changes anything? Do you think it makes you some white knight? Because it doesn't. You deserve to be right there, bruised and bloodied in the dirt like the rest of us," she said venomously.
Truth poured itself into every word of hers, and yet, despite it all, I tried fighting anyway.
"Maybe so, but at least I'll drag you in the mud with me, " I said as I readied myself to fight again.
The blow didn't even come close to connection, though, as I instantly found another knife in my side, courtesy of another Eclipse agent who appeared to me like magic. A dozen rapid-fire questions flashed through my mind until I saw ten enemy agents start crawling from the woodwork.
"I'll give you this, Sarah, for all the hell you've given me this past month, your absence did have its advantages. I always thought that Eclipse could've operated better under new management. Now I finally get to prove it," she said with a cruel smile.
Through a simple nod, the agent pulled the knife out, unleashing a new world of pain. The same chill I felt before then increased a thousandfold, giving me blackspots across my eyes while my body spasmed and seized. Like a cockroach, I persisted as I pathetically tried crawling away from the deadly horde. Zhi relished every second of it, though, especially when my bloody trend ended. Or, in this case, a 40ft drop towards a coursing river.
"Now, Sarah, don't tread too far. You still live and die by my hands. No one else's."
Every nerve in my body surged at her comeback as I desperately tried to figure out what choices I had left to play. Until I realized there wasn't exactly a choice at all. So, with what few words I could muster up, I fired back what I thought would be my last words.
"Even if I die … by my own?"
I then pulled myself off the ledge and descended toward the lake below.