Sebastian froze for just a single, short second. And in that short second, a thousand thoughts rammed through his dead. He doubted whether he heard what the wanted scientist said correctly. "What is he talking about? What does he mean? What is he planning? What's about to happen?"
"He's getting away! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Benedict screams at him.
He regains consciousness. Crowe was still standing in front of him, not making a move. As if the man was waiting for HIM to make a move.
"SEBAS—"
SHHOOM
Sebastian disappears. Benedict and about half of the suits in the mission control room who were watching them through a satellite view were left completely speechless.
This spelled trouble for Sebastian. Benedict knew it instantly. Perhaps the most wanted fugitive in the entire world right in front of him and he unexplicably leaves.
"Farewell, Agent Isaac," says Crowe before slowly and calmly disappearing as well into his own artificial void portal.
SHHOOM
Sebastian warps in the middle of Rina's apartment living room. Eyes wide, breathing heavy, cold sweat running down from the side of his forehead to his cheek down to his black suit. His heart was beating out of his chest.
He hurriedly looks around the apartment, visibly panicking. He sees Rina comfortably sitting on the couch, both feet up, wearing the same casual clothes that she was wearing when he left, hair tied back, peacefully reading a book while wearing black-framed glasses with large lenses; looking at him, visibly confused.
"What's going on with you?" asks Rina, brows furrowed, look of puzzlement painted on her face.
"I—you.. Are you alright?" Sebastian was relieved but worry and concern still evident.
"Are you?" replies Rina, letting out a muffled laugh out of surprise.
Only then, the realization sunk in for Sebastian. Crowe bluffed him. And he fell for it hard.
"Goddamnit!" he crashes on the nearby chair, disappointed and angry. Rina gets up to get the fuming Sebastian a glass of water.
"Fucking Crowe. FUCK!"
"Wait, Crowe??" Rina places the glass on the low table in front of them. "Your mission was Crowe???"
"No, he.. He wasn't, but he was there. The target was his monster."
"'His' monster?? He has a pet monster???"
"No, he created it," Rina's eyes widened.
"WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED??!!" Benedicts screams at Sebastian's ear.
"Shit," he whispered. He knew what was coming.
"I have a lot of questions. First, WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU??" all Sebastian could do at the moment is scratch his head.
"Second and most importantly, wait, what is it, I forgot. Oh, right. WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED??!!"
"Are you done?" Sebastian wittingly replies. "I'm already gonna hear this from the old man, I don't need it coming from you, too."
"You think you're the only one who's going to get chewed up by the Director?" Benedict rebuts.
"He threatened Rina."
"Yeah well, the man was obviously bluffing. You're going to have to come up with a better excuse," Benedict was completely apathetic to Sebastian's reason.
"And even if he wasn't, do you really think that she couldn't handle herself? She's been in the same business for as long as you have, she's not some damsel in distress that needs immediate saving."
Sebastian couldn't say anything back. Benedict was completely right. He also knew this, but his instincts simply took over.
"What about the old man"
"We've informed the Director already. We're still waiting for a response."
"Brace yourself," Benedict added. "Standby for whatever decision the Director makes."
Sebastian immediately returned back to his apartment after his conversation with Benedict. He refuse to say anything else to Rina except that he was leaving and instantly teleports out. He was well aware that he messed up big. He was in no mood to talk or be around anyone. After all, he took great pride in his ability to complete missions. And this time, he crashed and burned.
He waited hours for Benedict's call which came at around 12 midnight, telling him that the Director would like a word with him the following day, first thing in the morning. With this, he takes a much needed sleep.
A large, dimly-light library which also happens to be a makeshift office. Its walls are nothing but 10-foot tall wooden bookshelves. Despite looking like it was barely used, the room was neat and tidy. Books on the shelves were properly organized and sorted, not a single piece of furniture had a speck of dust.
A man enters the room, removing the gloves he was wearing revealing his pale, wrinkly skin. At the far end of the room near the long, vertical windows, is a large wooden desk. He neatly places the gloves atop and promptly takes a seat on the chair sitting behind it and makes a call.
"There is a slight change in plans," says the man in a thick, German accent.
"In the meantime, I would like to see more of Agent, Isaac."
"Yo," Sebastian gives Benedict a call. At 8:47 in the morning, he was still at his apartment, fixing his tie in front of the mirror in his bathroom.
"What part of 'first thing in the morning' didn't you understand?" Benedict is already scolding him. "And I've called you over 20 times in the past hour, you don't pick up. NOW you call?"
"Okay first, it's called a 9 to 5 job for a reason. As far as I'm concerned I'm still early. Second, what floor is the old man on again?" Sebastian is unbothered by the early scolding.
"You're not an accountant, you moron. You don't work a 9-5, none of us do, we're all on the clock all the time. And the Director is not in Eden HQ, he's here."
"He's coming over?"
"'Came'. He's been hour for nearly an hour now. Why do you think I've been calling you nonstop, you jackass."
"Alright, alright. Jeez. Ask him to help you take out the stick up your ass."
"Ha-ha very funny, get over here in my office. He just stepped out to get some coffee because you're extremely late. AGAIN."
SHHOOM
Sebastian teleports outside Benedict's office 13 minutes after their conversation ended. Waiting inside is Benedict, the Director who was sitting on the chair with his legs crossed in front of Benedict's desk.
"Nice of you to visit," says Sebastian, referring to the director. He immediately takes a seat, no invitations needed.
"Good morning, Agent Isaac," the old Director politely greets.
Sebastian was still standing. Benedict eyes him, essentially telling him to sit down. Sebastian sighs and groans.
"Fine, let's get this over with," he says, taking a seat across the Director.
"What do you mean?" the Director, slightly tilting his head out of confusion, asks him.
"Oh please. As if you didn't come here to nag me for fumbling Crowe."
The Director laughs at his response.
"The situation has already been explained to me clearly. And I understand your decision at the time," says the Director. "I would've done the same, too. I do not blame you."
"I am simply here so I can hear directly from you what happened, what Crowe had to say as you two seemingly had a brief conversation."
"Yeah, well, while we're on the subject of Crowe, you mind telling me first what you guys are still hiding about the weirdo?" Sebastian was bargaining. "You told me before that it's below my paygrade, which, by the way, I need a raise, and before I just let it go. But now, I'm not taking that excuse."
The Director takes a deep breath. "Very well," the Director obliges.
"The only thing we have confirmed so far is that Dr. Crowe was and probably still is, creating monsters."
"I got that from last night, what else you got," Sebastian was dissatisfied with the answer that he already knew.
"What you may not know is that the doctor wasn't simply making these things from scratch. He had various methods and on various subjects. He was trying to mutate humans, living and dead, and turn them into monsters. He tried it on animals. He tried merging human and animal DNA. He tortured and killed countless people," the Director explains.
"According to some of the documents and notes that you brought back, the doctor apparently tried to get a child in its mother's womb to mutate. As soon as the child was conceived, he apparently started running his experiment on it. The man injected and overdosed an unborn child still in its mother's belly. He ran this 'experiment' for over 20 more times. Every single one ended with both mother and child dead."
"And that is only one example of the doctor's cruelty. His insanity."
"Not only that, but he also stole from us," the Director added.
Sebastian lets out a subtle smile, one he was holding back. Chasing the mad scientist crimes against humanity was perfectly reasonable. But the organization chasing him for stealing from them made even more sense than the initial reason.
"Are we talking money or?" the director lets out a little smile hearing Sebastian's question.
"Oh, no. No, no, no. Crowe does not care about money. He holds very little value for it. What he stole is something far more valuable. For him and for us."
"Oh my god, just spill it out already," Sebastian does not like these ominous build-ups in revelations.
"Ancient and void fragments," Benedict does the reveal for the impatient Sebastian.
"I'm sorry, did you just say 'void' fragments?" Sebastian was hearing this information for the first time. He knew about ancient fragments, everyone did. Void fragments are completely new to him.
"As you may know, majority of our 'forces' make use of the ancient fragments. Smaller pieces of the Ancient's heart," the Director starts explaining again.
"Yeah, yeah, I know that. Tell me about the void fragments."
"The void fragments are.. much more complicated than the ancient fragments. More powerful, unstable."
"We discovered the void fragments years later after the Ancient's discovery. It was a meteor that crashed down on the Congo basin. Upon discovery, we have already had some small success with the ancient fragments. So our scientists went to work immediately on this black, crystalline meteor. It was much smaller than the Ancient's heart. Probably just an eighth of it. But it was much harder to control. In fact, you, Agent Isaac, happen to be one of only the VERY few successful implementations of void fragments."
"The what now," Sebastian was shocked. He looks at Benedict to see if he had the same reaction but to his dismay. The man apparently knew about it, too just based from his lack of reaction.
This revelation perfectly explains how he was the only agent who had access to certain void-related abilities.
"Wait, wait, wait, I've gotten over the fact that you people put an 11-year old on operation, an EXPERIMENT with a 20% success rate. Still shitty, by the way. But now you're telling me that you did a worse version of what I already knew?" his confusion was starting to turn into aggression and frustration.
"You put an unstable rock of unknown energy inside a child's heart and you're sitting here bragging about it like it's an achievement? Are you serious?"
"Considering what you have become and just how the operation turned out, IT IS an achievement," the Director reasons out.
Sebastian simply scoffs and smiles at the Director's response. Crowe and the entirety of Eden were simply two sides of the same coin. But there was no reason to get mad over it now. What's done is done. And even if he did, he knew it wouldn't matter. The Director and the rest of Eden wouldn't care.
"Going back to our favorite scientist," the Director backtracks the conversation, dismissing the current.
"Dr. Crowe managed to sneak away with a considerable amount of both fragments."
"How, don't you people have those locked inside a vault"
"We have them locked inside six vaults a thousand feet below ground. But the doctor had unrestricted access given that he happens to be the head of the department directly working on them. He could stroll in and out whenever he liked."
"We're assuming that he's using them to continue his work."
"He is," says Sebastian. "His monster was using void energy."
"And he was also apparently capable of using void-powered teleportation," Benedict chimes in.
"This means he's been making a lot of progress," says the Director. "This is bad."
"His sucks, though," Sebastian referring to Crowe's teleportation. "A remote-controlled portal that he has to enter? I could cut off his hand before he clicks on his stupid little remote, what does he do next."
"Why didn't you, then?" Benedict teases.
"Shut up."
"Did he mention anything to you?" the Director asks Sebastian.
"Nah," Sebastian answers. "He mentioned something about an 'associate', though."
"An 'associate'? Interesting."
"So he's not working alone?" Benedict chimes in.
"Apparently," says Sebastian.
"Did he say anything about this 'associate'?" asks the Director.
"Nah, he pretty much just blurted it out. Nothing else."
"Why is he doing this?" asks Sebastian.
"The monsters? That part, we still have not figured out yet. I was hoping he would have mentioned something to you."
"What about the monster?" asks Benedict.
"What about it"
"It was using void energy, it's right to assume that it has void essence rather than the usual ancient essence. How was fighting it?"
"Eh, about the same as the usual S-ranks. Probably just a level or two better. Still easy, though," typical confident answer. "Use of void energy, I was much better. Fucker just had a larger reserve."
"Of course it would. It's probably living off of void essence," Benedict comments.
"Speaking of the monster, did you notice how it looked eerily similar to the large one on Red Square?" asks Sebastian. "I can't be the only one who saw the resemblance."
"It did."
"You don't think—"
"The monster behind the Red Square mission was the doctor's creation," the Director says what Sebastian was thinking.