A few hours after Soleina Dillard's kidnapping, Serian called Edrimer and his teammates and asked to meet them in the apartment in Morth City. His tone suggested that the conversation they were going to have wouldn’t be a pleasant one. First, I get beaten up by the Tri-Surgeon, then I almost get choked to death by Edward, and now I have to be berated by Serian. When is it my turn to catch a break?
Edrimer and Elahysis sat on the sofa in the apartment's living room, while Johnaren, Samari, and Apex were talking amongst themselves in the kitchen. Elahysis tended to Edrimer's wounds. During his struggle with the Tri-Surgeon, he suffered several bruises to his lower abdomen and chest. In addition, his face was swollen and he had a black eye. Elahysis rubbed a special ointment on Edrimer's bare chest to ease his pain.
"That's quite an impressive tattoo," Elahysis remarked as he noticed the swirly lines that curled all over Edrimer's arm. "The Seditone… it feels like I haven’t seen this symbol in years. I used to see it everywhere."
"Well, you sure won't get to see it in the Fallhalt district," Edrimer said. "Law officials have zero tolerance for any kind of display of the Seditone."
The ointment helped to ease his pain, yet he still felt small stings of soreness whenever he moved his body too much. "It takes balls to be in Morth City with such a tattoo," Elahysis said. "But why would you have such a tattoo?" she asked. "I mean, you must have been a child when the Tearful Rebellion happened."
"My parents fought and died in the Rebellion," he said in a weakened voice.
"Oh," Elahysis said. "I'm sorry to hear that. I lost my grandparents the same way. I hate the Rebellion. I hate President Alford. Countless lost lives are on his hands." She seemed agitated.
"I heard that ever since the Rebellion he never left the Segregated Quarter. He became so paranoid and fearful for his life that he made sure a house was specially built for him between the high walls of the Quarter," Edrimer said. "He's probably wasting his days living a life of luxury and comfort to this day, safe from the wrath of the people."
"That bastard," Elahysis spat.
A few minutes later, Serian barged into the apartment, hot and angry as a human flame. He didn’t bother speaking to Apex, Johnaren or Samari, giving them only a sullen look. Instead, he headed directly for Edrimer and Elahysis, as he knew that they were the two who tackled the Tri-Surgeon. "How the fuck did this happen?!" he yelled.
"Serian—" Edrimer tried to speak.
"Don’t answer to me!" Serian raged. "Because of you an innocent woman is now lying in the hospital! Do I need to remind you that we are supposed to PROTECT citizens?" he buried his face in his hands. "This is my fault as well. I shouldn’t have given you a green light on this plan."
"Serian, we're so sorry about what happened, but we are very close to catching the Tri-Surgeon," Edrimer said. Within seconds, Serian drew so close to Edrimer's face that the young tenderfoot could feel the old man's breaths on his skin.
"Listen closely to me," Serian said in a deep voice. "The only reason you are all still Justicars is because I expressed to the ringleader how valuable you are. If I didn’t see any potential or intelligence in any of you, I wouldn’t stop him from kicking you out in the worst way imaginable. This CANNOT happen again. I won't protect you a second time. Is that understood?"
"Yes," they all answered together.
"Good," Serian said. "Now, bring me up to speed." Edrimer started telling him all about the true identity of Caedes Rendell and the suspicions that the Serath might have reached Alataria. "Oh, God, not the Serath," Serian seemed highly concerned. "I won't lie to you. We always feared that one day those maniacs who reach our country. We've been keeping a close eye on them. They have several hard-to-find sites on the Nucleus where they spread their word and call for people to join their ranks, and we've been monitoring them. Recently, several posts about Alataria have showed up."
"So does that mean they really are heading here?" Apex asked.
"We can't tell for sure yet," Serian said. "So far, they've only showed some interest in this country, but we haven’t seen any evidence of them coming here."
"Well, now you have one," Elahysis said.
"A madman muttering a famous Serath saying is hardly any evidence. However, I want you to question him about it, given the chance." He looked at Edrimer.
"I will." Edrimer said.
"Let us all hope the Serath aren’t coming here, because if they are… we all have a reason to be afraid," Serian said. Shortly afterwards he left the apartment. The concerned appearance of his face lingered right until the moment he walked through the door.
During the next couple of days, the media had been frenzied about Caedes Rendell, the infamous Tri-Surgeon. Jonah Dillard had been evidently missing from the press, staying by his wife's bed at the hospital. Officially, he has made no comment on either Caedes or his wife's injuries. Vice Chief of Police, Archell Sherwood, however, has made a brief appearance in front of several reports, claiming that the Alataria Police Department are putting every resource at their availability into finding Rendell.
Edrimer, Elahysis, Apex, Johnaren and Samari had been keeping a low profile in the meantime, waiting to hear news of the ongoing hunt. I hate waiting, Edrimer thought to himself as he sat in the living room of his uncle's apartment. I'd actually rather listen to an OldGen's stories for two straight hours if it meant putting an end to all this waiting.
His uncle, Jeremy, entered the living room, sat next to him and turned on the television. He tuned the broadcast to the news. Edrimer was never one to sit and listen to the news, yet he wasn’t going to bicker with his uncle. The slick-haired anchorman started with the ongoing spread of the Serath, the menacing cult that had already caused much damage in the Middle East. News of their presence had now come from Romania, France, and several more states in the United States. There was no mention of Alataria during that story, yet Edrimer had a bad feeling about it. The Serath are spreading quickly and dangerously, recruiting members in a daunting pace. The fact that Caedes might very well be a Serathon could suggest they had already started their descent upon this country.
"What a bunch of lunatics," Jeremy spat.
"Lunatics or not, they've already shown the world what they're capable of," Edrimer said. "I mean, can you imagine what could happen if they gain a lot of followers in this country? These people are worshippers of chaos and anarchy. They might recreate the Tearful Rebellion."
Jeremy chuckled. He seemed amused by the idea. "That just might make President Conrad piss his pants. If there's something the people at the Segregated Quarter are afraid of, it's another Rebellion." Edrimer remembered Caedes's words. From ash and fire the strong will rise. A shiver passed through his spine just thinking about the Serath setting base in Alataria.
The anchorman then went on to talk about a shooting that took place just on a road southeast of the outskirts of Framstead, Northstock, between members of Harley Nation and members of Lady Dread. Several bodies were found laid on the road. Finally, he mentioned that the police were still investigating the shooting. Both Sunyula Trife and Fane Hallstead have Dillard and his high-ranking officials in their pocket, so I'm guessing that investigating isn’t going to end with any significant discoveries.
Suddenly, Edrimer's SmartWrist vibrated. It was Edward's number on the screen. Even before picking up the call, he knew what it meant. Caedes must have been tracked down, and it was now only a question of who gets to lay his hands on him. I promised Edward that I would let him take Caedes into custody, he remembered. Once he picked up the call, he learned that Caedes was spotted through a street camera entering a pub in the Heart, the capital city. Since Edward was the appointed lead investigator in the Tri-Surgeon case, he was the first and only one informed of that information as of that moment. Therefore, he was able to give Edrimer a head start to get to Caedes and wipe out whatever presence of Lady Dread that may be there before he sends officers to arrest Caedes. Edward sounded nervous on the phone. Clearly, he was planning on severing his ties with the Justicars by now, but his luck wouldn’t allow it. Upon hanging up the call, Edrimer's heart weighed heavily. He now had to choose how he would act. He thought about it for a while, eventually contacting Elahysis, Apex, Johnaren and Samari and letting them know of the situation. They all agreed to meet at that pub in the Heart, armed and ready for battle. When he spoke to Elahysis, the two agreed that they should ask Serian for backup as they had no way of knowing how many men Lady Dread would send.
Edrimer left the apartment, taking his white Elastics and his gun, his head filled with every hope that this would go right. While driving to the Heart, he tried calling Serian, yet there was no answer. He tried calling a few more times but met with the same empty response. Eventually, his SmartWrist vibrated. At first, he thought it would be Serian, returning his calls, yet it was Elahysis calling. "Hey, have you been able to get ahold of Serian?" she asked him.
"No," he replied.
"That's weird. He's usually always available on his phone."
"Well, maybe he's just too busy daydreaming about Reus Mallistrom disbanding Men of Midas," he joked.
"That's not funny. And don’t underestimate Serian," she sounded agitated. "He's a very smart man. He's probably one of the oldest members of the Justicars. You should look up to him."
"He's a grumpy OldGen, that's what he is," Edrimer sneered. His foot grew deeper into the gas pedal.
"Yeah, well, that he is," Elahysis agreed, chuckling. "But that doesn’t dispute the fact that he's a wise man." Edrimer had long stopped caring when people call others wise. It didn’t really impress Edrimer, as he knew that that wasn’t the most important trait nowadays. Zachary was a wise man, yet he found himself riddled with bullets outside his store, his heart pinched as he remembered the old man. Even wise people end up dying in the foulest of ways. I don’t care who's wise anymore. I'll get my pearls of wisdom from scribbled writings on dirty bathroom stalls. They usually hold some wisdom.
"We need that backup," Edrimer said. "What are we going to do?"
"I guess we should just hope that our luck would save us from Lady Dread." Luck… that's another thing people lack a lot of, and even those who have it don’t always get a happy ending. No… I won't count on luck, especially not mine.
"I might have an idea," he said. "It's not the best, but it might just be the only one where we'll come out of this situation alive." He hanged up the call and dialed for another person, setting his idea into action.
When he finally got to the pub, he parked his car and hid in an alley nearby, where he could change into his white Elastics without anyone seeing him. Stepping out of the alley, he walked towards the pub. It was a small pub, only a few miles away from the high-walled Segregated Quarter. With his gun shoved in the back of his pants, Edrimer entered the place, dressed as a White Knight.
The pub was rather vacant, with only a handful of people sitting in it. A stench of booze and cigarettes was in the air. The bartender, an old man with a long beard, was dragging a wet rag over the counter, looking indifferent and bored. Only one man out of the handful in the pub sat in front of the bar's counter, and Edrimer quickly recognized him. With his head stooped and his arms crossed, Caedes Rendell sat there, alone, as if he was waiting for someone to sit by him. Pulling his gun in the middle of the pub, Edrimer drew everyone's attention to him. Their eyes widened and their jaws dropped as they saw a Justicar all of a sudden standing there. One person even spilled his drink all over himself. "Everyone, get out!" Edrimer yelled, letting off a warning shot at the roof. Within seconds, everyone cleared out of the pub. Everyone except for Caedes, who remained just as he was before, not even flinching or showing any sign of acknowledgment of Edrimer.
Edrimer sat next to him, his gun still in hand, and saw the awkward expression Caedes had. It was as if the man was in a trance. His eyes were open, staring at the wooden counter, and his fingers twitched and twirled, just as they did when he saw him at the warehouse. The makeup on his face was smudged and faint, yet it still showed on his face. The white powder that made his skin appear as pale as a cadaver's was now smeared away at random spots. The thick black rings around Caedes's eyes turned grayish and thin black lines ran down from those rings to his cheeks, suggesting that he may have been crying.
"A Justicar? Again?" Caedes asked as his eyes shifted towards Edrimer. Red veins framed Caedes's eyes, and his pupils trembled in them, looking ever so frightening. "I was hoping someone else would come."
That was when Edrimer realized it. Caedes, once a brilliant doctor, a killer so clever and careful that he was able to pull off multiple murders without leaving a clue to his identity and managed to kidnap Soleina Dillard right under everyone's nose, wouldn’t just walk into a pub, knowing he was a serial killer hunted by the police. He wanted to get caught. "Why did you want someone to come for you? Why would you want to get caught?" Edrimer asked him.
Caedes didn’t even look at Edrimer. His eyes kept staring down. "I see their blood in my dreams every night. Their screams… their agony…" he grabbed his head with his hands, looking helpless. "I was hoping it would stop as time went by, but it… doesn’t. It never stops. I just want it to stop." His stutter is gone. So I was right, it really was only a side-effect of excitement. I guess it only happened to him during one of his killings. "Revenge…" he mumbled. "Revenge is something I could never fathom before. Why would one want to inflict more pain on another person and fill this world with more hatred? Why?" he looked at his hands. His lips shivered as if they were trying to form a smile but failed. "Only after I lost my family did I realize what it was all about." His creepy eyes shifted to Edrimer. A chill went through him. "Father Blood explained it very well when we met. He said the world was already filled with enough hatred to destroy it. In order to correct it, one simply needed to shift that hatred, to inflict that revenge onto those who ruin the world with their corruption and selfish desires."
"Father Blood… who is he?"
"He's a man much better than you and I. He's stronger. He's smarter. He's… better." It sounds like Father Blood is simply a deranged person who was able to take advantage of Caedes's moment of grief and madness to twist him up and make him do his bidding.
"What's his name?"
"Oh, I don’t know. He never told it to me."
"Did he tell you which victims to kill?"
"Yes, but… he has nothing against Lady Dread. I was the one who wanted to hurt her. Father Blood simply helped me find the targets that would do the job. And the way I did it… the eyes, hands and heart… I only did it because of… that guy…"
"What guy?"
"He… he started appearing shortly after I met Father Blood," Caedes's eyes started to tear up. "I always thought he looked familiar, as if I knew him once in my life. Sometimes he took other forms, like a shapeshifter. Once he… he even made himself look like my wife," his hands quivered. He's getting really upset just by talking about it. "He promised that he would reunite me with my family! He promised that I would see my wife and son once more! All I had to do… was to kill for him… just the way he wanted. Eyes, hands, and heart. He wouldn’t have it any other way." An imaginary person telling him to inflict such brutality. This explains why he was seemingly talking to someone who wasn’t there when we found him next to Soleina Dillard. "Father Blood never liked it. I think he found it quite gruesome, but he accepted it." The insanity kept on spewing through Caedes's voice. Edrimer felt sorry for the man even though he never forgot what a monster he was at the same time. Losing his wife and son pushed Caedes over the edge, turning him from a successful family man into a horrid fiend that most people wouldn’t even consider human. "That person… the shapeshifter… he told me that with every person I was killing, I was not only making this world a better place, but I was also getting closer to reuniting with my family." Which is why he felt excited every time he did. Looking at Caedes, Edrimer noticed the sincerity on his face. He truly believed in what he was saying. At that point, Edrimer was no longer sure if this was all the outcome of Caedes's madness or the influence of Father Blood.
"Where can I find Father Blood?" Edrimer asked.
"Oh, he moves around. In fact, I believe he left Alataria shortly before my face started to appear on wanted posters."
"Is he a Serathon?"
"Caedes Rendell!" a voice suddenly shouted from outside. It was rough and demanding, like a debt collector who had come to get what was his. "You have ten seconds to come out here or else we'll open fire at this pub!" Edrimer knew that the voice couldn’t belong to any of his teammates, nor would an APD officer say such things. Therefore, it could only mean that it was a member of Lady Dread. These people have the worst timing. Caedes looked careless, almost as if he didn’t even hear the person outside, but when he got up from his seat and started pacing towards the pub's doors, Edrimer knew that Caedes was simply embracing his fate.
Knowing that Lady Dread's men would open fire on him as soon as they see his white Elastics, Edrimer rushed towards the windows and peeked through them. There were three cars and eleven men dressed in purple Elastics outside and among them stood Jeffery of the Ravage, one of Sunyula Trife's lieutenants. Edrimer recognized his face from the newspapers and media. Oh, I've heard about this fucked up freak. That weirdo will screw anything that moves and I'm betting he's hot for Caedes. Lady Dread's men were all armed with heavy weaponry and looked eager for a fight. There's no chance I'm walking out of this pub right now. These fellows will rip me to shreds. Across from Lady Dread's men, Edrimer noticed a police car, with three officers standing by it, idly. Just as I thought. You can't count on the police when you're facing those purple motherfuckers. I'm going to have to execute my idea. I'm sorry, Edward, you're not going to like it, but I've got no other choice.
Caedes walked up to the door, ready to walk out. "Caedes, wait!" Edrimer stopped him. "Please, I need to know. Is Father Blood a Serathon? That sentence you said, it was a saying of the Serath." Caedes remained idle against the door. His head wouldn’t even budge to look at Edrimer. "Caedes, answer me!"
The Tri-Surgeon looked hopeless. Edrimer knew that Caedes was simply ready to embrace his deadly fate, and he was about to do it with every inch of willingness in his body. There was no saving him at that point. He was already a dead man walking. His hand reached for the handle but a second before he turned it, his head rotated sideways to look at Edrimer. He now had the same demented expression on his face as he had in that warehouse. "A great fire is coming to consume this country, Justicar," he said. "And none of these gangs and organizations can stop it. Not even APD. It will be gory. And it will be gruesome. And it will be… just. Because from ash and fire the strong will rise." Upon finishing his cryptic prophecy, Caedes twisted the handle and walked outside. He didn’t raise his hands, nor did he look nervous, but rather peaceful. Perhaps he thought that soon he would get to reunite with his family, in death. A great fire… coming to consume this country… the words lingered in Edrimer's mind.
Staying hidden in the pub, Edrimer took his radio device and called for Apex. "Do it now," he said to him.
Edrimer knew that with no backup coming from Serian, there would be no way that he and his teammates could stand against Lady Dread. He knew that they could very likely be outnumbered, at which he was right, and not to mention that he considered the fact that if a fight broke out, the officers of APD might prove to be another enemy to be dealt with. Fighting, therefore, was not an option. Yet Edrimer refused to let Lady Dread have their way with Caedes. Even if the Tri-Surgeon would meet death at their hands, Edrimer insisted on depriving them of that privilege. That was why he told Elahysis, Johnaren and Samari to stay put instead of coming to the pub. That was also why he told Apex to position himself at a lookout point and wait for his command. Only a second after Edrimer said the words, he heard the sniper gunshot outside. It was swift and sharp, yet it echoed heavily. He saw Caedes's body fall to the ground with a thump. The bullet hit him in the head. Edrimer expected nothing less from the veteran sniper.
Guns were immediately drawn and aimed in all directions, as everyone was trying to figure out where the gunshot came from, yet Edrimer knew that Apex was probably gone from whatever roof he was on a second after he pulled his trigger. He heard curse words spewing out of some of the purple-clothed thugs while the blood pool around Caedes's head grew larger and thicker. I promised Edward I would bring Caedes into custody, but I had no choice. Either way, if you ask me, Caedes got a much more fitting end.
He sneaked out of the pub through the back door. After watching the men in front of the pub for several minutes until they all cleared out, he made his way to his car and drove away. Picking up his SmartWrist, he called Edward and let him know what had happened. At first, Edward remained silent, barely saying anything, a response which most terrified Edrimer, but eventually he spoke. "I need you to meet me," Edward said. "The rest of your team too. Meet me in that apartment of yours in Morth City." Edrimer didn’t know why Edward wanted to meet, yet he agreed nonetheless. He kept his gun close to him all the way there.
