A Relaxing Shower

"Evelyn…"

"…"

"Evelyn!"

Evelyn turned her head towards Daniel who was yelling at her to grab her attention. "Hey, are you alright?"

Evelyn sighed and didn't answer. She looked towards the food that Daniel had in his hands. He handed it over to her and she just played with it while in thought. Daniel didn't try to get her attention anymore, instead he just felt saddened by her condition. It wasn't the first time that he'd seen something like this. It happened often, even with experienced people.

In fact, experienced people often got hit harder by things like this depending on their circumstances. Daniel looked into Evelyn's training life when he picked her up and knew the reason why she was so down. Her squad mates were all dead, but she had only known them for around a month. Not to put her down, because the things she experienced were indeed awful, but imagine someone you knew for years died in your arms. It'd obviously have a worse affect.

They were currently sitting in different room than the rest of the group. When Daniel asked her what happened she only told him that her squad was gone and that she didn't want to be around Mathias. He complied and assumed that Mathias had failed to protect her squad leading to her resenting him.

Again, it was something he experienced before. In fact, he experienced it with Arlo, they had failed to get him back once the angels took him during their fight. It hadn't hit him so hard though because they weren't with their actual squads during this test. Everyone had their own separate squads that they were pulled from. Daniel expected Arlo's real squad to get hit really hard by the news, especially since they weren't there to see him go.

But when he saw that Mathias seemed perfectly fine, which was even weirder considering he was doused in blood, he was confused. Did Mathias not consider himself the cause of their death? Daniel rubbed his temples while thinking about it. It was their job to watch over them, but they had failed spectacularly. To be fair, how were they supposed to know that archangels would be dispatched to kidnap Avery Junior?

Daniel eventually grabbed the food from Evelyn and started eating it. All this thinking made him hungry, and he wasn't going to let her waste any food. She barely reacted to him taking the food, instead she just laid her head down on the table.

Leo was sitting in a makeshift kitchen eating cereal despite it being around midday. The television was on and turned to the news channel, but Leo wasn't paying it any attention. Andrew and Luke, however, paid a lot of attention to it.

"That's you, isn't it?" Luke asked despite the answer being painfully clear. The man they showed off in the video was covered head to toe in blood, who else would it be?

Leo shrugged in response as he continued to eat his cereal.

"Look, I'm not judging you, but don't you think burning down a police station and killing everyone is a bit… much?" Luke asked.

"Not really."

Andrew let out an exasperated laugh through his nose, "Not really? That's all you've got to say? You really are a nutjob."

"Andrew, is it?" Suddenly Max asked.

Andrew looked over and studied Max a bit before confirming that it was his name.

"Look, we only killed the cops in the station and its not like they were innocent people. I've read the reports, they've all taken bribes and shit like that. That's not an exaggeration either, they all did."

"As much as I'd like to believe-"

"No, it's true. The man that interrogated Mathias, I looked into his background. He was fired around a year ago because he flopped hard on a case, but that wasn't the only reason why. They also found plenty of evidence that he accepted bribes from the Ivory Eagles to let their men go. I looked into the files of the people he was bribed to let go, and let's just say it isn't pretty." John said while resting his eyes in a chair in the room's corner.

"I don't know why you three, well, I don't know anything about you," Andrew pointed to Max, "and I guess you've had enough time to cope with it John. But Mathias, I don't understand how you're so calm. I've been thinking about it all day today. Aren't we supposed to feel bad about what we did?"

Leo didn't answer, but he did turn towards Andrew while eating.

"Like all those movies, aren't we supposed to be crying our eyes out because we took a life? Aren't we supposed to, I dunno, comprehend our mortality or some bullshit like that? I don't get it? Am I a horrible person because I don't care?" Andrew said as he held in forehead in frustration.

Leo finally put his bowl down and wiped his mouth. "Look, you did what you had too. That doesn't make you a bad person, once you were in that situation, it was kill or be killed. Your mind already knows this, but it also has the preconceived notion that it should feel bad. Did you have to be in that situation at all? No. You could've just not joined the military, but you did, so the situation was inevitable. As for me, I'm like John, I've already coped with this situation before. When I realized that I didn't care, I stopped thinking about it. Am I a horrible person? Probably. Do I care? No. That's most likely horrible since that means my morality is being thrown out the window, meaning I'm capable of doing horrible things, but again, I don't care. So, if you don't want to end up like me, do the bare minimum and don't throw away your morality. It'll keep your mind intact. Either way, realize that what we're doing is horrible for your mental health and accept that if you want to keep going. If you don't want that to become your norm, quit and live a normal life." After Leo said that he poured himself a second bowl of cereal and began eating again.

"So that's how you rationalize it?" A voice said from behind them. Everyone turned, some slower than others. As Leo turned around, he saw an extremely tired looking Faust in a wheelchair and an armless Solomon.

Leo looked at Faust for a moment and shrugged. He started calmly eating his cereal once more.

Faust slowly started making his way over, pushing himself over to the table.

"Oh shit, are you alright? You're not paralyzed, are you?" Luke asked as he made his way over to Faust.

"No, no I'm not. Doctor told me to just take it easy for a while. Then they put me in a wheelchair."

"I tried telling him I don't think he's supposed to keep the wheelchair." Solomon said with a sigh.

"Well, I'll give it back to them when I get my checkup."

Solomon rubbed the bridge of his nose, "We're not going back, we're heading back to the military academy."

"I thought we graduated." Faust asked.

This time John answered, "You did, you just have one last thing to learn and then you'll pack up your bags and get sent on another mission. Well, not you guys, Faust and Mathias and going to need to recover. After that is when you'll get another mission."

"Mathias? He seems fine, Faust on the other hand, I can understand." Andrew muttered.

John opened his eyes from their rest and stared at Andrew so fiercely, Andrew took a step back, "He fell into a giant vat of pigs blood with an open wound. Blight only knows the amount of damn parasites swimming around in his stomach. Then, that's not even talking about the other wounds he's sustained and the smoke that he inhaled in the police station. He also stayed up for two days in a stressful environment. Regardless of how fine he seems, he needs rest and recovery."

Andrew looked back over at the nonchalant Leo and realized he hadn't even really considered what he had been through in the past day. Leo finished his cereal and began downing the milk leftover in the bowl. He placed the bowl and spoon on the table and got up. He left to go take a shower as all the eyes watched him leave.

As he walked away Faust called out to him. "Mathias, thanks for getting us out of the slaughterhouse."

Leo paused as he heard Faust call his fake name. A slight smile appeared on Leo's face that was turned away from everyone else. He began walking forward again and threw up a slight thumbs up towards Faust.

Leo stood in the shower as hot water ran over his skin. He scrubbed himself and looked at his body that was covered in scars. He traced his fingers over some slightly as he recollected the memories they evoked. With a sigh, Leo sat on the shower's floor, letting the water splash over him. He sat there and for the first time in a long time, he relaxed. He didn't think about overthrowing any governments, tricking people, or how to break into some place he wasn't allowed in. He just sat there with his mind shut off, enjoying the hot water.

Because of this, he seemed a bit lifeless.

He exited the shower after around an hour had passed. He threw on some clothes and a loose shirt that they had provided him. Leo left the locker room and began making his way back to the others when he passed by Evelyn. She turned and immediately left upon seeing Leo's figure. Leo didn't think anything about it and continued.

He entered the room, and everyone looked at his now clean figure. They had spent a month with him, but they forgot how pale he was when he was covered in the blood. Everyone, Solomon and Daniel especially looked over at John who was equally as pale.

"I'm not his dad, goddamn it!" John snapped.

Everyone looked away with expressions like they had nothing to do with his outburst. Leo ignored this and sat back down at the table.

"So, what now?" Leo asked.

"Now we head back. We were waiting for you, but I see no reason to wait around anymore. We'll head to Riftmoor's Tower and head to their teleporter. Fun fact: those teleporters can only head to other Towers, the capitol, and the various military academies we have."

"I don't you're supposed to be telling us that." Luke mumbled.

"It's not a secret though. The secret is where these places are located, that's what the spies want. It's not like we'll see anything either, they still blindfold me when heading through the teleporter, so they'll probably sedate you all."

"Yeah, but he's here." Luke pointed to Max, someone who definitely didn't need any of this info.

"Well, he's going to be heading to the military academy for the Wardens. Then, he'll come back to Riftmoor and establish a base of operations here." John suddenly said.

Leo, Andrew, Faust, and Luke had gone to the military academy for the Army, which was different than the Wardens, so they were surprised to hear what just left John's mouth. Even Leo was pretty surprised.

"Yeah, I need something to do, thought it wouldn't be a bad idea to join up with you guys. I'm already too fucked to join the angels." He laughed but nobody joined in his laughter, well, that was until Luke chuckled a bit. Everybody watched the two angels laugh together in silence.

They weren't sure of what to do. Eventually, everybody got up and they started to head to the cars. Because of Evelyn's request, she drove with Daniel and Solomon alone as the three made their way to the Tower first. At the same time, John and the rest went to Max's residence to pick up his stuff.

The building where Max used to live also used to be the home of the Wolves' operations. But when Max visited it, it was still in shambles because of John's massacre. There was police tape all over the place, so they just decided to leave. Max didn't really have anything there that he wanted, well, besides one thing, but he didn't need that.

The car turned around and they began to drive towards the Tower, wherever that was. In the silent car, Max began thinking about the day that he and Mathias had met.

It was pretty simple. Max was stuck in the rain, on a day that it was particularly heavy. He walked through the heavy rain without any way to stop it, something that usually only tourists do. Eventually, he made it to a nice café. He looked up and headed in. At the refuge from the rain, he ordered a cup of hot tea and sat down by a window. Despite being absolutely covered in rain, he still loved it, so he watched the neon lights of the city as the rain fell.

That's when someone fell from the second or third story of the building they were in. Max immediately sprung up and ran outside. Mathias laid on the ground groaning while holding his legs. Max went up to him and lifted him up, bringing him into the café from the rain. When they got inside, Mathias handed Max a ring and then he went to go to the hospital.

Max was extremely confused but later met him again at the same café by pure chance. Max had become a regular there and Mathias just happened to notice him as he was walking by. When Mathias came inside, he didn't even ask about the ring, instead they just talked about random things. When Max brough up the ring, Mathias completely blanked on it. Until he remembered that he stole it out of spite. He didn't even care about it; he just didn't want the owner to have it.

Since then, Max had kept the ring. He thought it was a pretty funny story. The ring was what he would've like to take, if anything, from his house. In the end, just like Leo, he'd have to forget about it.

Eventually, those in the packed car made it to a bar in the entertainment district. They stepped out of the car and John introduced them to the establishment.

"Gentlemen, welcome to Riftmoor's Tower." He said with a slight wave.

Luke's eyes showed clear disappointment.

"Not much of a Tower."

Earlier that day…

A completely beaten and bloody Freddie slowly crawled out of the pile of corpses that he laid in. His legs were smashed in and he definitely had some broken bones somewhere in his body. He had finally done it though. He had survived everything this hellish city had thrown at him.

He had survived that twerp Max, he had survived that horrifying demon, he had survived the Wolves. He had made it despite everything being out to get him. He pushed those horrible memories away as he made his way slowly to the exit with a smile on his face for the first time since that morning. Once he crawled through the shattered glass that littered the ground, his eyes finally adjusted to the outside.

Then he saw it. He saw the red and blue lights reflecting off the buildings as they quickly made their way over to the building he was at. The sirens got louder and louder as they pulled over and dozens of officers stepped out of their cars and ran up to the building. A large police officer stood over the battered Freddie with angry eyes.

The man pulled out handcuffs and bent down towards Freddie who once more had lifeless eyes.