Into the den

We all look at the hooded women with confused looks from the fact that we all got invited to one of the biggest, most important parties in New Eden, but don't know why since we just got here. 

"The queen herself, personally sent me to deliver this invitation to you, and also heard about the match between the guild leader and your friend over there," she says as she points at me across the table. They all look at me and back at the hooded women. "So the queen was impressed and wanted to meet the champion himself," the hooded woman says. Everyone starts whispering to each other, and then Cayden and Grace look at me. 

"I think we should go, I mean, nobody ever gets an invite from the queen, they don't just let anyone in, like it's an open invitation, " Grace says. It seems like a huge deal in New Eden to get an invitation from the queen herself, and it seems like everyone wants to go by the looks of it. But why would she invite us after what Thanan did, or was the invitation just for me? No matter, if she wants to invite me then she's gonna have to invite everyone I'm with whether she likes it or not.

"Did she invite the group or only me?..." I ask plainly.  The hooded woman looks at me and smirks, "She only wants the champion to come, but it's ok to bring friends," she says. Everyone looks at me waiting for an answer. 

If the queen wants to meet me then fine, but I'm bringing everyone with me because I want them to have a good time and take their minds off things for a while after what's been happening. "Alright I'll go, and they're not my friends...they're my family."

Everyone cheers from the fact that they are going to one of the biggest parties in the capital and I'm just sitting there drinking my ale. The hooded lady nods her head and leaves with her guards.

We walked through the city and looked around for a bit until we stumbled across a costume shop. 

"We should get masks since everyone is gonna wear one at the party," Grace says as Liz's face lights up with excitement and she claps her hands. 

"YAY shopping!!" Liz says as she pulls Rin and Grace's arms and practically drags them into the shop. 

We went in and looked around while Liz and the girls were trying on masks. As I was looking for a mask I spotted two men creeping up on the girls, pretending to mind their own business. I took a closer look at them and saw a Scarlet Viper symbol which means they were spying on us, so I had to do something to make that problem go away. It seems both of them have a knife, so I improvised and tried to do this quietly without anybody noticing. I walked up to one of them and as they turned around I quickly grabbed the knife out of their handkerchief before they did, and STAB it into their gut without a sound. As the other one was getting close to the girls, I snuck up behind him and SLICE his neck while my hand is covering his mouth, and as they both drop down dead, I put the knife back into one of the spies hand to make it look like they had a knife fight, and walked away. 

Liz calls me as I walk over to them, and she puts a silver venetian mask on my face and takes a good look at me wearing it. "This mask suits you, don't you think?" She asks as she turns me around to a mirror and has me take a look at it.

"Not bad.." I say as I examine it from each angle in the mirror. Liz clapped her hands, and then went to look for a mask of her own. 

A few seconds later she and the girls come out with beautiful masks. Liz is holding up a golden side butterfly masquerade mask, Rin is wearing a purple black venetian butterfly mask, Grace is wearing a black and blue lace mask with a flower, and Izzy is wearing an arcann mask. 

They are all wearing dresses matching their matching masks. 

Cayden grabs Graces hands and spins her around like a ballerina to examine her dress. "Wow...you look beautiful," Cayden says as they both hug. Liz and Rin are also complementing each other's dresses and masks, as well as everyone else's. 

"Alright now that we have our masks we should be good," I say as I get up. 

Rin grabs my arm, "What about you hmm? You're just gonna wear a mask?" Rin asks as everyone looks at me. I see Cayden and Thanan are wearing their masks, and also a suit. 

"Why don't you wear a suit since Cayden and Thanan are wearing one?" Liz asks, as Rin nods her head in agreement. They both go into the dressing room and come out with a black suit. 

"Like hell i am...." I say as I head to the door, but Liz and Rin raised their eyebrows and tackled me to the ground.

Few minutes later, I was in the black suit with Liz adjusting the jacket to make sure it fits me well. But why are we paying attention to this instead of the apocalypse? Well first off, we are in New Eden and there's barely any crime here and I'm explaining every detail in the city and what we are doing so get used to it.

"After the party I'm taking this off," I say as Liz and Rin chuckle from the fact that they knew I hate wearing suits. 

After we get dressed, we get out of the store before the bodies of the two men were even found. We made our way through the city and to the Valkyries castle. It was pretty much a stronghold by the looks of it, because it has 4 large machine guns at every tower with heavily armed female guards. We waited in line at the main gate where they checked for invitations. The invitation checker, with four heavily armed female guards at the side, calls for the next person in line...which is us. As we step forward, "Invitation?" She asks as we look at her. 

The hooded women didn't give us an invitation, but as I was about to say something, the hooded woman pops up behind me and puts her arms around mine. "They're with me," she says as the invitation checker nods her head and takes a side step, "Shall we?" The hooded woman says. As I looked behind me at the others, they shrugged their shoulders, and so we walked into the castle. We went through the hallways, which I recognized especially since Thanan kissed somebody here. 

"I take it you know this place?" The hooded woman says. I nodded my head. 

"I didn't catch your name" I say plainly as she smirks. 

"My name is Veronica, I'm the adviser of the queen," she says as I look at her while we walk through the halls. 

"You're a little short to be an adviser," I say as the group following behind us tries to hold in their laughter from the fact that I just called her short. 

"I may be short but that doesn't mean I can't kick your ass," she says as she gives me an evil look. At first I thought that was her normal facial expression, but it seems like it's not. 

"It seems you're a bounty hunter as well," I say as she raises an eyebrow. 

"What makes you say that?" She says with a smirk. 

"That pin on your robe is the symbol of the Hunter's Blade, which mostly recruits bounty hunters," I say as she smiles. 

As we entered the main room, it was filled with people wearing masks, and flowers and statues were placed  all around the area. There's a big water fountain in the middle of the room and food, lots of food. 

"This place is big...." Cayden says as he and Grace look around the room. He's right, the room is big. 

"How about I take you to go meet the queen?" Veronica says as I nod and look at the group. 

"Alright, everybody go have fun and remember to be on your guard," I say as everyone nods their heads and scatters around the room like roaches.

Veronica leads me by the arm through the crowd and to the throne room. As we entered, there lies the queen wearing a valkyrie mask, and a golden valkyrie dress, sitting on her throne talking to her daughter, which I figure is the one Thanan kissed. As we approached the queen, Veronica bows her head. "Your majesty, I have brought the champion you wanted to meet," she says as the queen turns her head and looks at us. 

"So you're the one who beat the guild leader? Well it's nice meeting you again," she says as she crosses her legs and fold her arms. It seems like she recognizes me even under the mask. 

"Fancy seeing you here after what your friend did," the queen says. I looked at her and scoffed. 

"Same here your highness," I say, as the queen looks at me. 

"What brings you back here to New Eden?" the queen asks as she gets up from her throne and takes a closer look at me. 

"I only came here to get my family back," I say as the queen walks around me while Veronica stands at the side. As she was about to say something, a female guard comes out from the main room door and whispers something to the queen's ear. I can't tell of her facial expression under the mask, so I figured her face would be surprised after what she's hearing. 

"We'll talk about this another time, right now there's something I need to take care of," she says as she walks with the female guard and Veronica to a side door of her throne room. As they head in, Veronica motions me to go back to the main room with the others and closes the door. Right now it's just me and the princess in the throne room. She's wearing an a-line peach dress with lace short sleeves, but no mask, and her hair is a twisted crown braid. 

We both look at each other until she walks up to me. "....Hi Beta" she says as I give her a half smile, and bow my head a little. "Is Thanan here?" She says as I nod my head. She smiles,"It's been a long time since we talked, how are you and Thanan doing?" She says as I put my arm for her to grab as we walk to the main room door. 

"We're doing good, just Thanan is being a playboy with girls and there's me having to deal with him and his pink hair," I say as she laughs. 

Wondering how we have such a close relationship? Well after I came to get Thanan out, me and her were talking about a lot of things, which made her understand me like no one else. So she told me whatever I needed, just to come to her and ask.

"You shouldn't be hard on him Beta. I know he can do stupid things, but inside he has a heart," she says as we walk slowly. 

" I know, that's why I have him living with me because if I leave him out there he would be dead in the gutter somewhere," I say as we made it to the door. 

"That's good, now you can keep a close eye on him and not let him do stupid things like dying his hair pink," she says as I chuckle a little bit. 

"Yeah that was on me, I told him that's what girls like in guys nowadays," I say with a smirk. 

She rolls her eyes and smiles. "Listen, can you guys meet me at the library? There's something I want to show you," she says as I nod my head. She lets go of my arm and makes her way to another side door, to which I believe leads to the library.

As I walk through the doors to the main room, I decide to look for the others through the crowd, until suddenly a young woman bumps into me. 

"OH I'm so sorry about that!" She says as I adjust my mask, and she does as well.

"...it's alright," I say as we both look at each for a second and then look away. She's wearing a royal blue high slit prom dress with sparkly appliqués long sleeves, a blue & black masquerade mask with dragon scales, and her hair is in a braid.

"This is my first time being here in the castle" she says as I nod. 

"My first time too...actually the 2nd time being here," I say with a chuckle and so does she. 

"Oh really? Well you must know this place more than me then," she says with a laugh. 

"Probably....I only know a few places in the castle," I say as she looks at me with a smile. 

Everyone in the middle of the dance floor starts to slow dance, and so does Cayden and Grace as I spot them heading to the dance floor. 

"Would you care for a dance? It's the least I can do since I bumped into you," she asks with a smile. I nod my head and let her grab my arm, leading me to the dance floor. When we do, I put my right hand on her hip and gently grasp her right hand and then....we start to slow dance. 

"So how did you get invited?" She asks with a curious look. 

"I beat a guild leader in a fist fight," I say plainly. 

Her eyes go wide for a second, and then she chuckles. "You must be a dangerous man then," she says with a smirk. 

"You don't know half of it," I say as she grips my arm and smiles. 

"How did you manage to get invited?" I ask as she looks around. 

"I didn't....I just snuck in without anybody noticing," she says as she winks at me as I scoff. 

"Seems like I'm not the only bad one here," I say as she smirks.

As we slow dance, we talk about what we do and what we are. She told me she's a mercenary and a thief, but hasn't told me her name yet. 

"My name is Kehlani, what's yours?" She says as I look at her and smirk. 

"You'll know soon," I say with a wink as she smiles and bites her lip. 

"Mysterious....I like it," she says as we continue to slow dance. 

"After the party's over I'm gonna rip this damn suit off, because it's too.....formal," I say as she laughs. 

"Well after the party why don't you let me rip it off for you?" She says as she winks at me again. 

I look away for a second and then back at her, and as the music stops everyone scatters off the dance floor. 

"See you soon handsome," she says as she disappears into the crowd.

I stand there for a second thinking about what just happened and head straight to the group.

As I approach them, they all look at me with a smile. I turn around to see who they were smiling at and back at them with a confused look. "What?.....," I say as Cayden walks up to me and puts his arm around my shoulders. 

"Ahhh my brothaa, we saw you dancing with that girl earlier, so what's up with that hm?" Cayden says as he shakes me a little. 

"She just wanted a dance, that's all," I say as Rin scoffs and walks up to me. 

"Didn't look like it from over here" she says as she crosses her arms. "How do you know she won't end up like what's her face," Rin says as I put my arm around her shoulders. 

"Trust me sis I'll keep my guard up and make sure that doesn't happen again, I promise," I say as she gives me a "You better look" and rests her head on my shoulder. 

"You promised. So if you break it, I will kick your ass," she says as I scoff. 

"So you need a wingman or what bro, because I'll be happy to-" Cayden says as Thanan frowns,"I thought i was your wingman?" He says as Cayden looks at him. "Nah bro, he doesn't need a wingman with pink hair to help him," Cayden says as they both get into an argument over whose being the wingman and then Izzy gets on it saying she's a girl and knows a lot. 

"...you should try their food, IT'S AMAZING!" Liz says as she eats a plate full of fruits. I took a piece of fruit from her bowl which made her give me a "Did you even ask?" look. 

"So who's the girl anyways," Grace asks as I sit down and think about her. 

"To be honest I don't know if I can trust her even though we just met, so I'll just see how this goes," I say as Grace nods. 

"Right and so will I" rin says. It seems like she doesn't trust her either, and is probably gonna keep watch as well. 

The argument on who's gonna be my wingman is still going, until I got up and tapped Thanan's shoulder. He turns around and looks at me.

"Thanan...I just met up with the princess and she said she wants us to meet her in the library," I say as he smiles and adjusts his suit. "The rest of you stay here, we'll be back," I say as everyone nods their heads. 

Me and Thanan head to the library and as we were, he makes himself look perfect by fixing his hair and suit. 

"When we see her you better tell her what's been going on between you and Jade" i say as he frowns. 

"Whyyyyyyyy," he says as he pouts. 

"You will not treat her as a side chick since you got a thing going on with Jade. Actually, you got a lot going on with a lot of girls, and if you don't tell her I will stick my foot up your-" as I'm about to finish, the library doors open revealing a young girl. 

"OH...you two must be the ones Leona was talking about...WELL since you guys are here and I don't have to go and look for you in the PARTYY, follow me," the girl says, which I figured would be the valkyries historian. 

As we followed her through the library, there were a lot of books everywhere in every corner like a two story house. You have to go upstairs to get the books. As we followed the historian through the library, we spotted the princess reading at a table, what seems to be a crime book since crime books are her favorite thing to read. As we approach her, she looks up at us from her book and smiles. 

"I brought them! Not exactly brought them from the party, they just came here when I was about to head out so I BROUGHT THEM!!" the historian shouts, as the princess walks up to us. 

She looks at Thanan, who is smiling and as he's about to say something, SLAP as the princess smacks him in the face for some reason.

"OW what was that for?!" Thanan says as he rubs his cheeks from the slap. 

"You think I didn't know what you were doing for the past couple of months?" The princess says as she puts her hands on her hips, as the historian's eyes go wide. 

"Well...At least you didn't have to tell her," I say as I sit down at the table. 

"Well it's nice to see you too Leona," Thanan says with a smile,"Who's your friend?" He asks as he looks at the historian. Leona motions her to come, and as she approaches, she's holding two books against her chest. 

"This is my best friend April, she's our historian," Leona says as she wraps her arms around April's shoulder. 

"It's nice to MEET you guys," April says with a wave. Thanan smiles and waves, and as for me, I just give her a peace sign. 

"So what is it you wanted to show us?" I say as I take off my suit jacket and roll up my sleeves while Leona and everybody else sit down at the table. When everyone is seated, Leona grabs a sack from the floor and puts it on the table. She opens it, revealing a knife that has a scarlet viper symbol, which means this isn't going to be good. 

"I figured you know the Scarlet Vipers, am I correct?" Leona says with her arms crossed. We both nod our heads. 

"What about them?" Thanan asks as she walks back and forth. 

"Well a few weeks, they sent an assassin to come kill me," Leona says as she continues to walk back and forth. 

"Well you're still here so I figure the assassin failed to do that," I say as Leona stops and gives me a "Are you serious right now" look and crosses her arms. 

"Anyways, the leader of the Scarlet Vipers wants me dead because they want to set an example to the people of what happens when they are to be trifled with, and not only that. I stumbled upon secret information about a takeover from the assassin they sent, which I shouldn't have known," Leona says as I think about her words.

I remembered that the leaders of the Raider Gang had said something about taking over the Badlands, which I figured had something to do with the takeover information and that the Raiders were planning on taking over the Badlands with the Scarlet Vipers, but now that the warlords are dead it's just them. 

"Did the information involve taking over the Badlands?" I ask as Leona's eyes go wide from the fact that I Know about the takeover. 

"How did you know that?" She asks as she gets closer to me. 

"I was on a mission to assassinate the warlords of a raider gang, along with three other mercenaries. We snuck into their base and took out the guards and we searched the base until I found them in their meeting room. When I went in there I heard them talking about taking over the Badlands," I say as Leona walks back and forth again thinking. 

"I was talking to my mother about it right after you came into the throne room, she said she was planning on sending a small team to eliminate their leader," she says. As I was about to say something, we heard gunshots and screaming coming from the main room. 

"Sounds like trouble," I say as we get up from our chairs. "Thanan you stay here with the girls and protect them. I'll go get the others," I say as I'm about to head out, Leona grabs my arm. 

"Be careful..." She says as I give her a half smile. 

"Don't you worry about me" I say as I head out.

I went through the halls and through the main room. There're 10 assailants in the middle of the room firing their assault at the Valkyrie guards. I looked around for the crew and found them hiding behind a flipped over table. I ran up to them and slid to the table. 

"You guys okay?" I say as the shooting continues. They nod their heads, and it seems nobody is injured. 

"The shooting started when the queen was about to announce something," Cayden says. 

As I look over the table, it seems the assailants are firing at the Valkyries who are guarding the queen, who's hiding behind them. 

"Alright you guys, stay here I'm gonna go help the queen," I say as they nod their heads. 

I sneaked around the tables to get a better view of the assailants. As I get close, one of the shooters goes to take cover behind a table, which gives me a chance to take 'em out. I sneaked up behind him and wrapped my arms around his neck. As he struggles to get out, I snap his neck and let go of him as he drops down dead I pick up his assault rifle and aim at one of the assailants, BANG to the head as he drops down and another BANG BANG at two of them, they continue to shoot at the Valkyries and pay no attention to me as they do not realize one of their comrades is being eliminated. Seven more to go, BANG BANG BANG to the heads as three are dead, the Valkyries are still holding on as they distract the shooters. There's only four more left, so I improvised, ran up to one of the assailants from behind and cut their throat with my karambit. As one assailant saw me, I pulled out a pistol from the dead assailants pocket and BANG BANG BANG they all fell down as three of them lay dead on the floor. 

As the shooting stopped, everyone comes out from hiding, including the queen. She straightens up her dress and walks up to me with her Valkyrie guards as I drop the pistol in my hand. 

"Thank you, if you hadn't come I would've been dead," she says as she sighs and looks around. "The Scarlet Vipers will pay for this, mark my words they will," she says clenching her fists and looks back at me. "I knew something like this was gonna happen, I just can't believe I let it happen," she says as she rests her face in her hands. 

"Leona told me about the assassin," I say as she looks at me. She was about to ask if Leona was safe until I cut her off. "She's safe, her and your historian are in the library hiding," and she sighs out of relief from the fact that her only daughter is safe. 

"I'm not gonna ask how they got in, I'm just gonna assume they had someone from the inside get them in," she says as she calls her guards and order them to search the whole castle and find out where they came in. "Come walk with me, there's something we need to discuss," she says as she holds onto my arm for a walk. 

"You guys go meet Thanan in the library and wait there until I get back," I say as they all nod. 

I walked out of the main room with the queen, and as we headed out we walked through the hallway of Valhalla, where there are statues and weapons on display. They are honoring the Valkyries who have passed on. Their names are engraved into stone plaques at the bottom of each statue, majestically carved to embody the strength of each Valkyrie in respect, with their weapons they used in battle displayed at their sides. 

"This wasn't the first time they attacked," the queen says as I give her a look while we walk. 

"So this has happened more than once?" I say as she nods her head. 

"The only reason I hadn't done anything is because I don't wanna risk losing my Valkyries, I care about them," she says as she looks at the names of the statues. 

"Not a day goes by when I worry about my daughter, I don't want to lose her like my first," she says as she looks up. 

"You mean Leona wasn't your only child?" I say as we keep walking. She nods her head. 

"She was just a baby when her older sister died from the siege of New Eden," she says as I look at her sincerely. "A lot of lives were lost that day, if it weren't for the White Lotus we would have never taken this city," she says as we make it to the end of the hallway, we stop. 

"Does Leona know about this?" I ask as the queen shakes her head. Seems like the queen has been keeping secrets from her daughter. "Well I'm gonna leave that to you and your daughter," I say from the fact that this is only between Leona and her mom, she will know eventually about her sister. 

"There's something I must ask of you, and it's important that you listen," she says as she faces forward to me. Before she says anything, she pulls out an airsoft mask mixed with a gas mask together with a white claw mark on the left side of the mask. 

"I know this mask," I thought to myself. Almost every person who wore it had more kills than anyone, which got them the name: "Hunter." They have been around since the war, and only the most skilled who have a high combat experience with weapons and tactics can bear the mask. The Hunter had a reputation of being feared by every crime group in the Badlands and the Lost Empire. 

As I'm about to answer, a messenger came in from the main room and handed the queen a letter. She reads it for a second and hands it to me. "Seems like your uncle is in town," she says as I read the letter. 

My uncle is in fact in town. He just opened a bar not far from here and wanted me to join him for a drink with the rest of the family. The last time we saw each other he was running a crime family known as The Asian and Poly unity, which made him an ally to the queen. We both have a good relationship because before the war he would always take care of me because he knew I had a bad relationship with my parents, which caused me to run away. He took me in when I had nowhere else to go and taught me how the real world works. He wanted me to become a better person than he was. As I got done reading the letter he sent, I put it in my  pocket.  

The queen looks at me for a second until she hands me the mask. I looked at it for a second and took it. "I want you to kill the leader of the Scarlet Vipers," she says as I look at her and the mask. 

"Alright....I'll do it," I say as she nods her head in approval. We both head out of the hall and into the library where everybody is talking and chilling. As we approach them, Leona gets up from her chair and hugs me. 

"Thank goodness you're alright," she says as everyone looks at me with smiles on their faces. 

"I got a message from my uncle, he invited me to have a drink with him and the rest of the family at his bar not far from here," I say as everyone looks at each other, It seems to me that half of them wants to stay instead of meeting my uncle, who's a crime boss. They all shook their heads except for Cayden. He stands up and walks up to me, "I'll go with you bro, since we barely talked to each other and didn't have time to catch up," Cayden says as he pats my shoulder. I nod my head and we both head out of the castle, making our way through the city. 

"So what have you and Thanan been doing lately?" Cayden asks as I chuckle. 

"A lot has been happening before we found you guys, I took out warlords, and Thanan dyed his hair pink, not to mention how I beat a guild leader for Maline's freedom,"I say we walk through town. 

"So your uncle runs the Asian and Poly Crime Family?" Cayden asks as I nod my head. 

"Don't worry about him, he's a nice guy. He's not like any other crime bosses I've met, he's extremely humble actually and is very wise when it comes to advice," I say as Cayden nods his head with relief as we made it to the bar. It's called "Tommy's," a bar inside a medium sized building with an apartment, and we both went in.

We saw Asians and Polynesians talking and drinking as we headed into the bar, and I saw my uncle talking to a couple of people. As we approached him, he saw me and got from his chair and spread his arms wide open. "Nephew! It's good to see ya hahaha!" he shouts as we both hug. He looks at me for a second with his hands on my shoulders.

Everyone i would like to make a toast to my nephew, who get things done without question, when he said he wanted to go out in the world on his own I was against it. it was too dangerous, too risky I say, but now that he's here standing, I say this, the Wasteland mistaken him as one of its sheep, either he wins or he learns, there's nothing stopping a wolf from killing its prey," he says as he raises his glass as do everyone else. 

He speaks in an Asian language I'm very familiar with, "Die on your feet" he says as everyone answers with, "Than live on your knees" my uncle and everyone drinks their glasses. After they drink they greet me with open arms, I got tapped on the back many times, along with handshakes and everything. After I greeted everybody, my uncle motioned me to sit next to him at the bar. 

"So nephew, how's life treating you?" He asks as I explain everything that has been happening. He understood and gave me some advice on focusing with the good. "No matter what happens always know family is everything," he says as he spots Cayden sitting next to me. 

"Who's your friend?" He asks as I put my hand on Cayden's shoulder. 

"This is my brother Cayden, Cayden this is my uncle Tommy," I say introducing them to each other. Tommy puts his hand up for a handshake, and Cayden shakes his hand. 

"Nice to meet you sir," Cayden says as Tommy puts his hand on his chest and nods his head in a humble way. 

"Likewise," Tommy says with a smile. "So how long have you and my nephew been knowing each other?" he asks Cayden. 

"Long enough to stay by his side sir, if it weren't for him, I would've been lost somewhere or dead," Cayden says as Tommy nods his head and smirks. 

"That's good, you guys should always stick with each other no matter what," Tommy says as Cayden nods his head. 

I look around the bar, admiring the place. Tommy did a good job making this place decent and chill. "Is Benny here?" I ask as Tommy takes a drink. 

"No, he went out with his fiancee to get supplies for the bar, and his mom is in the back cooking," Tommy says. 

Benny is a cousin of mine, we have a good relationship, it's just that we have different views of the world. "There's something I wanna talk about, but we need to talk some place quiet where no one can hear us," I say as Tommy nods his head. 

"Come, let's talk upstairs," he says as I put my hand on Cayden's shoulder. 

"Chill down here for a bit it won't take long," Isay as Cayden nods his head. 

We headed upstairs in the apartment, and as we entered I saw it's a nice place that's well decorated. I sit on a couch while Tommy sits on the other one across from me. 

"So what is it you wanna talk about nephew?" Tommy says as I pull out the hunter mask and lay it on the table in front of Tommy. He looks at it for a second and examines it, "You see the damages on here? They're bullet marks which means the people who wore it experienced war, like battle scars," Tommy says as he lays down the mask on the table. 

"The queen wanted me to kill the leader of the Scarlet Vipers," I say as he clasps his hands together. 

"I heard about the attack at the castle, I figured the queen would do something to retaliate against them, never figured she'd send you nephew," Tommy says as I look at the mask. 

"I was about to head out of New Eden until I got your letter," I say, the last thing I want is for the group to know about this, "I want you to keep this between us uncle, nobody knows except you and the queen," I say as Tommy nods his head. "It's just safer for them to not know," I say as I put the mask back in my backpack. 

As I'm about to say something else, my cousin Benny comes walking through the door. "Excuse me I'm looking for my cousin, he used to get pissed off at me for everything," he says with a sarcastic tone. 

I get up and scoff, "Kiss my ass," I say as we both handshake and hug. 

"Shiitt it's been a long time since we hung out, how've you been?" He asks as I shrug my shoulders. 

"Been doing alright, I heard you're getting married," I say as he nods his head and smiles. 

"That's right man! To the most beautiful women in the world, you wanna meet her?" Benny says. As I'm about to answer he puts his hand up, "Hold on, LACY GET UP HERE!" he shouts as I hear footsteps. A woman comes in, she's wearing a green military jacket with a black tank top inside, camo cargo pants with black combat boots, her hair braided in a ponytail and has a leg holster holding her XM17 pistol.

"Lacy, this is my cousin, cousin this is my fiancee Lacy," Benny says as he puts his arm around her. 

"Nice to meet you," she says with a handshake. I shook her hand but said nothing. 

"Our wedding is in a few weeks and the plans are not finished yet because there's a small problem we gotta take care of," Benny says as Tommy sighs from the fact that he wasn't supposed to say anything. 

"Problem? What problem?" I ask as Tommy puts his hand on my shoulder with a relief face,"It's nothing you need to worry about nephew, I got it under control," he says as Benny scoffs. 

"Under control? We wouldn't be in this mess if you would've just listened to me, Jesus Christ!" Benny says as Lacy hits Benny in the chest. 

"Watch that mouth of yours," Tommy says in a respectful tone. 

I look at both of them, "Uncle what is it?" I ask as Tommy sighs,"We've been having problems with another crime family in the city, we kept it a secret from the queen because she made it very clear to not have war with each other, since the city is already in peace," Tommy says as I cross my arms from the fact that somebody already wants to start trouble.

"After the queen chose me to be her ally, the leader didn't take it well because he was also aiming to be an ally as well," Tommy says. Then he told me about an Italian mob that he's been at peace with and that they haven't been seeing eye to eye lately, but that Tommy and the leader go way back. "The leader of the group is named Leonardo Calzo, and his capo is his son Danny Calzo, I'm sure you and Benny know Danny pretty well," Tommy says. 

He's right, me and Benny know Danny pretty well. Before the war, we met him at one of his parties and he got into a fight with some guys, so me and Benny had to back him up. After the fight, Danny offered us some free drinks, but I'm not a drinker so he gave me juice and as for Benny, he got beer. So we talked about our families and how Danny grew up with money, which makes him think he's better than everybody around him except us. He treated us like we were his second family because his father was always busy, so he told us he would have our backs no matter and to always call him if we need something. 

"Yeah we're tight as shit with Danny, it's just been awhile since all three of us hung out," Benny says as I nod with agreement. "I forgot to mention, he heard that you were in the city so he convinced his father to have a meeting with you at their manor," Benny says as I look at Tommy and back at him. 

"What for?" I ask and Benny just shrugs his shoulders. 

"I don't know, they said something about you winning a fight at the underground guild," Benny says as Tommy raises an eyebrow. 

They both look at me, including Lacy. "I'll explain later," I say as I walk downstairs to the bar. As I came down, I see Cayden talking to some folks and drinking, until I walked up from behind and tapped his shoulder. "I want you to go back to the castle and wait with the others, there's somewhere I gotta be," I say as he nods his head and sips his last drink.

"What about you, where are you going?" he asks. 

"Don't worry I'll be back," I say with reassurance. 

I headed out of the bar and went straight to the manor. I arrived at the manor and saw they have a gate. It looks like I'll climb over because I don't do gates, just like I did at the border of Mexico, I jumped over. And then I went straight to the manor, the manor is big and has guards, but that didn't stop me from walking in. As I made it to the door, I knocked, and after a few seconds someone opened the door, revealing Danny. He has a tapered comb over, wearing a dark blue business vest and pants with formal business shoes, a beretta m9 in the back of his waistband.

"Well well well, if it ain't the big bad wolf!" He says with an Italian accent, we handshake and hug, "Man oh man it's good to see you again," he says as I nod. 

"Same here Danny how have you been?" I ask as he laughs and invites me in. 

"I've been good, just been doing a lot of business here in New Eden," Danny says as he walks me through the manor. 

There's also other guests here, and as I walk by they look at me from the fact that there's an armed mercenary in the manor. Danny seems to notice as well, so he tapped my back, "Aye if any of these losers have a problem with your presence they can take it up with my old man, he'll tell them to KISS HIS ASS!" he says with a laugh as we make it through the manor. 

We went into the backyard, which is big and filled with trees and tables, and we see his dad Leonardo sitting in one of them. As we approach him, he sees us and gets up from his chair. 

"Ahh you must be Danny's friend, it's a pleasure to meet ya son," Leonardo says as he raises his hand for a handshake. I shook it but didn't say anything...as always. "Take a seat....Now, I done heard you gave old Ricky a beating and won," Leonardo says, referring to the guild leader whose name was Ricky. "Now nobody ever beat him in a fist fight, but when I heard you did, I couldn't believe it myself," he says as he continues on,

I nod my head. "So I had to meet you in person and congratulate you.....but that's not really why I wanted to meet you in the first place," he says as he leans back on his chair. 

"I want you to take your uncle's place in the crime family, I mean no disrespect to your uncle, hell me and him go way back, it's just he's not getting any younger now and I want things to change for the family," he says as Danny looks at me waiting for an answer. 

"No....I can't, that's not the kind of life I want and I wouldn't do that to my uncle, he took me in when I had nowhere else to go," I say as Leonardo and Danny look at me with a little bit of disappointment.

"Listen son, you're loyal and that's something you should always hold sacred in your heart,"Leonardo says as he gets up from his chair. "Can't say that I didn't try," Leonardo says with a laugh. 

"There's also something I forgot to ask you," he says as he puts his hand on Danny's shoulder. "I want you and Benny to help Danny break into the Scarlet Vipers stronghold and steal some important information over there," he says as I look at him for a second from the fact that I was already on my way there. 

This will be a good opportunity for me to go in there with backup and kill the leader, my ex talia. "What's the pay?" I ask as Leonardo sits back down on his chair. 

"10,000 medallions" he says. That's a lot, enough money to take care of the family.

"Done," I say as Leonardo and Danny laugh from the fact that I didn't even hesitate.

"Haha makes me like you even more son! You answered without question, I like it!" he says as we shake hands, "Now I'll fill you and Benny in the information for now, I want you guys to discuss the plan." Leonardo told us to meet up at a local junkyard and come up with a plan on how we are gonna get in.

So me and Danny headed to the junkyard and picked up Benny, on the way, we made it to the junkyard and saw it has a small house. We went in and set up our equipment and started to come up with a plan. While we were planning it, we also caught up and talked about our past life with each other. 

"I remember the time we went out to college and got hella drunk?" Danny says as Benny nods his head and laughs. 

"Yeah I remember when I hooked up with one of the college girls too and did the nasty in the bathroom," Benny says as Danny laughs.

"Yeah I know, I was spying on you guys as well," Danny says as Benny stops laughing from the fact that Danny was being a little creeper. 

"Well after we get this job done why don't we go to Tommy's bar and have a drink to celebrate," Benny says as we all nod our heads. 

"Alright, so here's the plan, the Scarlet Vipers headquarters will be difficult to get into since they upgraded their security system because some group made it out alive," Danny says as I say nothing and think about how me and the others got out. "So if we wanna get in we gotta disguise ourselves in their uniforms and take their humvee as an invitation to get through the gate, and after we get in, we walk in their base without raising suspicions. And after we get inside the base, all three of us will will have different roles. Benny, you're the getaway driver so you stay in the car and have it ready for us, I will go to the armory and find explosives," Danny says. 

As he was about to say something I cut him off. "And I'll kill the leader," I say as Danny and Benny's eyes go wide. 

Danny puts his hands up and laughs. "Alright brother, that's all you, but just make it back in one piece because I heard their leader is one hell of a fighter," Danny says as I scoff from the fact that this wasn't the first time me and Talia squared off with each other. 

"So after that we dip and get paid," Benny says as Danny nods his head.

So we all make our way to Danny's jeep and head out of New Eden. As we rode through the gates, I looked back at the city thinking about the others. I thought to myself, "I hope you guys are safe." I kept looking at the city until the gates closed. So I turn back around, facing the front of the road. 

"Once we get back, I'm grabbing myself a drink," Benny says as he's driving. 

Danny taps his shoulder in agreement. "Same here brother, same here," he says as we continue to drive through the wasteland. 

-----------------------------------

Rin's Dream

I opened my eyes, and as I did, I had blood on my hands and a pistol. I look around and see fire and the destruction of New Eden. I looked up at the sky and saw a swarm of flying demons, so I got up and looked around for any survivors, until I found a corpse of a person whose body was ripped in half, their guts spilling out and also their blood. I cover my mouth in horror, wondering who would've done this, until I turned around and saw a flood of bodies all over the streets and buildings. I couldn't contain myself from crying as I ran towards the valkyries castle, which was destroyed. 

I ran inside the castle to look for the others, until I went into the throne room. I opened the doors and saw the dead bodies of the group, their limbs were ripped off and they're covered in blood, except for Beta and Maline, they're the last ones standing, except Maline is holding a wound in her right gut having a hard time standing, and Beta is covered in claw marks and dirt. I didn't know what I was witnessing until I saw a monster sitting on the throne, they were looking at it until Beta turned around and saw me. 

"Take Maline with you," he says as Maline comes limping towards me. I wrap her arm around my shoulders to help her walk. 

"What about you?!" I say as he signals me to leave him. I didn't want to, but then I also had Maline to worry about, she's hurt and I needed to find her place to be safe, so I listened to him and got out of the throne room with her. As we're about to head out, I heard the monster, shouting and roars coming from the throne room. We kept going and made it out of the castle, and as we did, a swarm of demons came running at us. 

I looked at maline and gave her a smile, I carried her to a broken food cart and covered her with a blanket. After I did that, I stood in the middle of the street and readied myself with my pistol and knife as a horde of demons came running at me. And as they got closer, I let out a war cry before running towards them. As I did, everything turned black.

-----------------------------------

-----------------------------------

Rin's Pov

I woke up sweating and my heart was beating fast from the fact that I had a nightmare or was it the future? As I buried my face in my hands I heard KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK, somebody knocking on the door. 

"Who is it?" I ask as the door opens, revealing Liz. 

"Morning! Sleep well?" She asks as she walks over to my bed and jumps onto the bed, landing right next me. As she looked up at me, she noticed me sweating, so she felt my head to see if I had a fever. "Are you okay? Why are you sweating?" She asks as I just give her a smile. 

"It was probably getting hot in here while I was asleep," I say as Liz looks around the room and feels the air.

"Oh...well you should come outside in the cold breeze, feels like summer and winter combined!" She says as I look at her burying her face in my other pillow. 

"So you're saying it's warm out there?" I say as she lifts her head up and nods. 

"Yup! And they made breakfast for us down at the mess hall, everybody's there already, we're just waiting for you!" Liz says as she gets up from my bed and walks to the door, then turns and stands there, waiting for me. 

"You go ahead, I'll be there in a minute," I say as she nods her head and walks out closing the door. I sigh and lay my head back down for a minute, and after a one minute rest I got up and changed to my usual outfit and headed straight towards the mess hall.

As I made it, there were four valkyrie guards standing at both sides of the door. I walked past them and entered the mess hall, there were four long tables that reached halfway across the room filled with valkyrie soldiers. As I walked through the mess hall, I found the group eating at the end of the third middle table, they were laughing and were probably talking about fun stuff they did when they were in the city. I walked up to them, forcing a smile on my face, and as I approached them, Liz noticed me and waved me over to sit next to her. 

"Hey guys," I say as everybody smiles and says hi back, I sat next to Liz and it seems she saved me a plate. 

"So what were you guys talking about?" I ask with curiosity. 

As Thanan was about to answer, Liz cuts in, "Well! We were talking about how we all went out and Grace drew an inappropriate drawing on Cayden's forehead while he was asleep!" Liz says, practically shouting, while Grace smiles as she eats her food and Cayden is just looking down on his food and eating. 

"Wow.....um ok, it seems like you guys had fun last night," I say as I began eating my breakfast. As I was eating, I expected Beta to be here too. "He's still not back yet?" I ask as everyone shakes their head. 

"Don't worry, I'm pretty sure he's gonna be back tonight or in the afternoon," Cayden says as I start to get kinda worried, but at the same time calm because he already knows how to handle himself when he's out there by himself. 

"Hopefully he comes tonight," I say as everyone nods in agreement. I also seem to notice Leona rests her head on Thanans shoulder as they talk and laugh, so I pretend to drop something on the floor to look under the table to see if they're holding hands or not. And when I did, I could clearly see that they were holding hands without anybody noticing, so I just got back up to the table and threw an apple at Thanan. 

"OW what was that for?" He says as I shake my head and continue to eat my breakfast. When we were done eating we headed outside to the shooting range they have in the castle's backyard. BANG BANG first one hits the target but the second one doesn't. 

"So what's been going on before you came here?" Liz asks as I reload my pistol, I aimed and pulled the trigger BANG BANG BANG, managed to hit two targets but missed the third one. 

"After the group split, I went out to the wasteland on foot. When I made it there, I found a ruined town run by raiders, so I tried to lay low and sneak past any raiders I saw until I figured out there were ghouls there as well. One came up behind me and almost chomped on me with its nasty teeth, so I pulled out my knife and stabbed it in the eye, right where the brain is, but it made a lot of noise, which made the raiders hear me, so they started shooting at me. As I was hiding behind a car, I got a flesh wound on my arm from a bullet that shot right through the car. I managed to get out of there while they were being distracted by other ghouls that came, and I kept running until I got out of the town. After I got out I started walking through the Wasteland for 2 days until I found New Eden. They took me in and treated my wounds. Right after I recovered, I saw injured people that came from the Wasteland, including children. As I looked at them I started to think about how I struggled in the Wasteland and came here, so I volunteered to help treat the injured to recovery. As days passed by, I became a combat medic and very good one too," I said as I readied my pistol and aimed. BANG BANG BANG BANG, I got all four without missing, causing Liz to cheer as she claps. 

"YAY!! You got all four without misssingggg!!" She shouts as she hugs me from the side. I gave her a smile and hugged her back, we both had been practicing our aims for about an hour now, until Cayden came in with a rocket launcher. 

"I'll show you how it's done ladies," he says confidently as we both back up. He aims at the targets, and after a few seconds FWOOSH he launches the rocket and BOOM it hits all targets as everyone looks at him including Grace, who has her hands on her hips.

"How was that?" He asks as me and Liz as we look at each other, Grace walks up to him and pulls him by the ear and leads him away by pulling his ear. "Ok ok I'm sorry OW," he yells as me and Liz laugh, we both cross our arms together and make our way to the castle. 

We headed straight to the lounge room, and as we made it there, we saw Thanan's arms around Leona as they laughed while sitting on the couch. Me and Liz looked at each other for a second and approached them, as we did, Thanan saw us standing right next to him without saying a word. 

"Oh uhh, hey guys what's up?" He says as we both look at him for a second until Leona sees us right beside them, me and Liz sit on the other couch across from them. 

"So what's been going on with you two lately? I ask as Thanan looks at Leona then back at me. 

"It's been awhile, we've been talking and all that," he says as I sit up with my arms on my knees and my hands wrapped together. 

"Tell me the truth and don't lie to me," I say as Thanan clears his throat and straightens up. As he was about to say something, he pulled out a kevlar vest from the couch and as he puts it on, I thought to myself, "This should be interesting." 

As he finishes wrapping the vest around himself, he clears his throat again. "M-me and Leona are going out again," he says as Liz's eyes go wide and I raise an eyebrow. 

"Again?" I say, which means this wasn't the first time they went out. I sigh and bury my face in my hands as I think about what's gonna happen when the Queen finds out. 

"Does the Queen even know you're dating her daughter?" I ask as he looks at Leona and back at me, they both nod their heads. 

"Oh really? And what did she say about it?" I ask as I tilt my head. 

"She's fine with it as long as Thanan doesn't cheat on me," Leona says as Thanan looks at her with a smile. They both hug each other. 

Liz is just smiling and clapping her hands with approval, and as for me, I just gave them a smile. 

They seem pretty happy together, and as I'm about to say something, Cayden comes running through the door with Grace, Maline, and Izzy at his sides, I had a feeling something was wrong.  We all got up from the couches when they approached us with worried looks. 

"Guys, what's wrong? Did something happen? I ask as Cayden looks at me and Grace then Maline and then back at me. 

"The Queen wants us all to meet her in the throne room, she says it's important,'' he says as we all look at each other with concerned faces, we headed straight to the throne room. As we made it to the throne room, the Queen got up from her throne and walked up to us.

"Thank you for meeting with me...there's something you need to know," she says as we all look at her with a worried look. She breaths in and out, as she's getting ready to say something, she pulls out a stainless steel wing pendant. She hands it to me and we all look at it, this is the necklace Beta always wears. 

"Why are you showing us this?" I ask as she puts her hand on my shoulder and looks at all of us.

"...Beta is dead."