Revenge Is A Dish Best Served Cold

Encounter With A Madman


Raz heads to Karuhat village alone. Determined to face the Strange man that wiped Alpha Team out, he called his attention loudly. He stood by the fountain area in the center of the village. After a couple of shouts, the Strange man finally appeared from the sky, dropping down from the surface slowly.

"So you came, SOLDIER operative. What brings you here?" Strange man was surprised for his appearance.
"I'm Raz, SOLDIER operative. I'm here for some answers. Who are you?" Raz angrily demanded.
"Answers, eh? I'm Jeffrey. I commanded those monsters your group faced sometime ago that's why your other men met their doom when they transformed into something powerful and was forced to kill you. You're lucky enough you got out there alive or else, you could end up like them too." Jeffrey smuggishly remarked.
"You're Jeffrey!? You're the missing SOLDIER operative!" A surprised Raz exclaimed.
"Yes I am. So Biggs is looking for me now? Tell him my regards. Joining SOLDIER was a waste of my time." Jeffrey replied.

By this time, Raz's tone started to change. He finally met the missing operative that Biggs was telling him about. He got more serious.

"That monster, that was my partner in that mission. We had to kill each other out of your power! What is wrong with you!?" Raz said.
"You'll eventually get used to it. I'll tell you what. You can join forces with him once again if you side with me. We will conquer this city together. It'll be domination. Nothing could stop us!" Jeffrey replied.
"Domination? That's absurd. You can't rid the world with a large army of yours. SOLDIER will stand to destroy any impurities that stand in the way." Raz remarked.
"You still believe that you could rid evil from our world? There are so many bad things right now that you're group will not be able to do." Jeffrey explained as he walks around and points to the corpses near the area.
"Evil will exist but the good will perish like dust. We can work this out. Join us and I'll help you get rid of the 'evil' your group is trying to achieve. The evil is within them!" Jeffrey added.
"You won't convince me to do that! We seek justice and rid that evil for good. Not to spread the evil around." Raz defended.
"SOLDIER has a lot of goals to achieve. They seek justice yet they do it the hard way. They get rid of evil yet there are a lot of obstacles on the way. They remove impurities yet they are lacking the manpower they need to do such. You work hard for the missions yet when a single mistake was committed during the operation, you get scolded by your masters telling you that you failed to do your mission. Isn't that annoying and painful to hear at times? You work because you wanted to please the master and you ended up losing his respect. That's not good for business." Jeffrey further added.
"And how did you know I got scolded?" Raz asked surprisingly.
"Because I am the eye of shadow. I can see it from your face that you got dismayed after the loss of your friend and your men during the battle. If you forget all about it and join me, you'll never witness such painful experiences anymore." Jeffrey ended.

Raz then had a brief moment of silence. He briefly looks away from Jeffrey and looked around.

"If you think I'm joking, I'll show you why. Head over to Glassheim and get rid of the evil there. You'll see what I mean." Jeffrey commanding Raz.
"What's in there other than the 'evil' you speak about?" Raz asked.
"You will never know unless you find out. I need to go. Do what I'm telling you to do." Jeffrey hastily said as he looked upon Raz.

It was already the wee hours of the morning. Jeffrey immediately left and handed Raz some bullets that are enhanced with poison. Raz was left pondering on what to do after meeting the Strange man as he looks on the sky and slowly pans away.

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