Chapter 12: Farewell

"…Arias?" 

Craig, the man, stumbled to his feet, suffering minor wounds from his violent collision with the furniture. 

"Arias?! How?! Craig, what's going on?!" The woman reacted with tremendous horror when her husband mentioned the name. She couldn't see what was happening on the other side since she was trapped on one side. 

*Waah~* 

The child in Arias's arms was soon awakened by the loud noises, which made Craig, who had just stood up, display an ashen appearance. 

"Johnny! No, please, not my baby!" The woman wriggled and worried even more, bursting into tears.

 "Be silent or…" Dmitri instantly brought his gun close to the writhing woman after Arias threw a sidelong glance at her. As the cold metal brushed past her hair and made contact with her skin, she gasped. 

"Arias, stop! My family has nothing to do with this—you want me! Please, I beg you." Craig fell to his knees, powerless to change the situation. He was in a position where his child and the woman he loved were both in danger of dying at any moment, and there was nothing he could do to intervene.

 "Dmitri, let her go and use the cuffs over there on him." 

It wasn't until the pieces started to fall into place that Dmitri realized the man in front of them was the same cop who had fired at them earlier at the club. At the time, he assumed it was simply one of the corrupt officers working for Eric, but now he realized that the man before him had actually betrayed Arias, nearly killing them both. 

*He's not really going to kill this guy's kid, is he?* Dmitri thought while putting Craig's arms behind his back in cuffs. 

"Arias, please, I don't know what's happening, but you're like family… if you need money or anything, just say so. I beg of you, please don't hurt my son," the woman, who seemed to know Arias, pleaded in a quiet, tearful voice, her gaze fixed on the infant in Arias's arms. 

"I hold no malice towards you, Savanna, but I simply can't ignore the fact that your husband attempted to kill me." 

At those words, Craig squirmed more nervously. 

"They are not involved in this at all! Take me instead!" Craig cried out in agony, but Arias seemed unmoved. 

"Well, since you've also been working as the little dog to the crime families, you must hold a decent amount of information they wouldn't want going public. Give me that, and all is forgiven." Arias didn't speak with hostility, and his voice had softened, giving the impression that he was more at ease. 

"If they find out I gave you that information, they'll kill me and my family! You know this!" Craig grimaced helplessly, realizing he was completely out of alternatives. 

Arias simply grinned in response. "That sounds like a personal issue. Either live today and worry about the future, or you and your family can die right now. The choice is yours, Craig." 

While waiting for his reply, Arias pulled his gun and pointed it at the woman. 

Craig nodded slowly as his eyes started to water. "Fine, I'll give you everything. In the lower drawer, there's a small box with a couple of flash drives—that's all the information I have on the crime families as well as all the dirty cops within the Gotham PD and their parts in certain operations." 

When Dmitri followed Craig's instructions, he did indeed find a tiny jewelry box full of flash drives. He checked them on a nearby computer to see whether they had any encryptions, verifying they were genuine. 

"They look real," Dmitri murmured. 

Arias nodded in response. 

"Then we're done here." Just as Savanna started to think it was all over, he murmured before pressing the trigger and shooting her straight through the head. 

"No!!" 

*Bang~* 

A bullet to the leg stopped Craig in his tracks as he tried to stand up. 

Dmitri was horrified as he stared at the woman's motionless body and watched as blood trickled from the hole in her brain. He was at a loss for words. 

"You promised you wouldn't hurt them!" Craig screamed, but Arias's gaze remained icy as he placed the child on the bed. 

"Did I? A shame then." Arias made no further comment before pulling the gun a second time and shooting Craig in the head. Craig collapsed to the ground, his face still etched with horror. 

"Let's go. Those gunshots were bound to have caused someone to call the police." After taking the jewelry box, Arias lowered his gun. 

"What about the baby?" Dmitri asked in a low, uncertain voice just as Arias was ready to leave the room. 

"Killing a baby serves no purpose because it can't be a witness." 

Dmitri continued to listen to the infant's cries for a short while before leaving the area with Arias. They quickly made their way back to their car through the back passageways as police sirens could be heard in the distance. 

… 

Instead of taking them back to his apartment after they fled the scene, Arias drove them to the closest harbor. He put a large brick on the accelerator and started the car when the two got out. The two witnessed the million-dollar car being instantly thrown into the ocean. 

"Let's go, we're done for today." Once the vehicle had fully sunk, Arias sighed and turned to leave. 

Dmitri watched Arias walk away while remaining silent for a little while before speaking. 

"I can't. Arias, I can't live like this. It's just too much." 

Hearing this caused Arias to halt before turning to look at Dmitri, keeping his hands idly in his pockets. 

"Then what will you do?" 

When Dmitri heard the inquiry, he shook his head and bowed it. 

"I'm not sure, but making others miserable is basically doing what was done to us. No matter how furious I feel, I can't bring myself to kill anyone, so for the time being, I'll just leave Gotham and look for my mother. Maybe help people like us along the way… who knows. I'm sorry." 

After giving Dmitri one last look, Arias smiled and shook his head. 

"No, I'm the one who should apologize. I was mistaken to believe that this way of life would work for you. I wish you all the best." 

Dmitri nodded and returned the smile. 

"Thanks, I wish you—" 

*Bang~*

 Dmitri's words were cut short by blurred vision and blood dripping from his brow. He was perplexed as he shifted to look at Arias and saw that his childhood best friend was pointing a gun in his direction. Before even knowing why… his heart stopped, and he closed his eyes. 

Arias kept his gun pointed directly ahead, smoke still coming from the barrel, and watched as Dmitri's body plummeted to the ground. 

"In the end, leaving you alive is too risky." 

Arias murmured and then scanned the harbor for another heavy object. He eventually found thick anchor chains, which he used to bind Dmitri's body before throwing it farther into the harbor. 

'It should be a while before they think to start looking here. That's more than enough time to send Gotham spiraling.'