Jacob and I crouch silently on the tree branches. We wait for Tony's signal, which will be a flare gun shot in the air followed by a flash of light from a stun grenade.

There must be at least a dozen of men hanging about in the trees. It's too dark to know the exact number. Plus, the leaves are quite useful in covering all of us.

The flare gun is shot, and we shut our eyes immediately as the flash goes off.

That's when we attack as the enemies are stunned.

All of us leap off the branches and land neatly, somersaulting out of the landing and getting up quickly. We begin running without a moment's haste, shooting and knifing anyone in the way. I feel like one of the Avengers, fighting like a badass mofo.

Jacob and I make eye contact and nod towards the center tent. He gets my message: get the big bad boss.

It is no surprise we are halted as soon as soon as the enemies recover their sight. Most of the bigger, tougher looking men surround the middle tent.

A man who must be over six feet tall and packed with only muscles leers at me as we approach. Then, more men who looks like him surround Jacob and I.

"They must have a thing for circling people." Jacob says as we get closer to each other.

"No shit, Sherlock," I laugh.

"If this ends well, then I'm taking you out on a date." Jacob smirks as we fight back to back.

"What a great way to ask me as we are fighting for our lives." I reply sarcastically.

"You know me," his smirk widens. "I'm not normal."

"Wow, well do I not get a choice in the matter? Cocky much?" I laugh as I duck from a knife swipe. I sidestep his next jab, grab his bicep, and chop straight down on his elbow. I hear a satisfactory pop as his elbow dislocates. Then, I kick his knees so he falls off balance. Swiftly, I slam the butt of my knife and knock him unconsciously.

"Let's bet on it then," he grunts as he takes in some blows before effectively disarming his opponent and knocking him unconscious.

"Ugh," I groan. "Not you too? My brothers are idiotic enough with their stupid bets. Let's not start with yours." I grimace as some blood splatter on my clothes. Thank god I chose to change into an all black attire so I do not see all the stains.

"Well, I'm expecting a date. We will discuss the details later," he winks at me as he fires a bullet at someone without looking. Of course, his aim is accurate: right in the center of the guy's forehead.

"What a way to ask a girl on her first date," I roll my eyes once more. I throw one of my knives towards a man across from me just as Jacob fires a bullet into the guy's noggin. Teamwork.

"First date?" His tone suggests he doubt my words. "Switch." He adds as we switch spots without hesitation or disruption of movement. Gosh, I love how well we work together.

"Yes, first date." I raise my voice as people shout all over the place. "Sheltered life remember? Plus, I was laying low at Elite."

"We are going to change that."He replies confidently. "Damn, we got incoming."

I see as another group comes towards us.

"Pancake." He says suddenly. There goes his wacky terms.

"Wait-," I begin to tell him. I take out my two guns and hold one in each hand. "We haven't practiced-" But by then, it's already too late. He has already linked arms with me. I grumble under my breath as he lifts me on top of his back. Then, he spins me in circles as I fire away. I stop once my bullets run own.

"That was rather effective." He whistles as he lowers me down. I stand a little dizzily.

"You're lucky I didn't hit anyone else." I shake my head. "Let's go find Alfredo Sauce." I start jogging towards the middle tent. I push my way through, twirling and dodging peoples' bodies. Some I have to knife in a hurry and wince as I go for a one-hit-KO. I shudder at my desensitization as I fail to pause anymore whenever I stab someone in their carotid artery.

We cautiously approach the flap of the tent. Empty.

I head towards the laptop on the small desk. Grabbing my USB drive out, I upload the files from the computer to the drive.

Glancing back at Jacob, who is already standing guard, I go back to watching the files downloading.

"This has to be a trap." I tell Jacob.

"Figured it would." He nods. "Nobody like him would leave this tent without his computer, but let's not wait for anyone to come attack us."

I take out the flash drive once it finishes downloading and stand next to Jacob. We head back outside to the fight.

"Do you see him anywhere?" I scrutinize the people around us.

"Nope," Jacob shakes his head.

"There." I point to the right. "He's fighting Niccolo and Lorenzo."My eyes widen as I see that they are struggling against Alfredo. A worry worms its way into my mind. Niccolo and Lorenzo are outstanding fighters. If the two of them can't handle Alfredo, then...I don't want to finish that sentence.

"NOOOOOOO!" I scream and stop halfway as I see Alfredo stab Niccolo right in the center of his chest. The knife plunges through his chest and protrudes from his back. Niccolo drops to the ground with his eyes wide. Then, he slumps to his side and lays there unmoving.

Lorenzo freezes briefly before crying with anguish, "NICCOLO!"

My eyes tear up as I stare at Niccolo. I just finally got to see him today. it's as if my vision is centered on his unseeing eyes and blood seeping from his body. I can't move. I can't breathe.

"Shay....RICCA!" Jacob slaps my face.

I look at him. "What?"

"Thank God." He sighs out of relief. "You almost just died three times in the span of one minute. Hey, I know how you feel right now, but we can't have you distracted right in the middle of the fight. You will die." He reminds me sternly.

I glance at Alfredo, who is still battling Lorenzo. Lorenzo fights furiously and viciously. He's attacking without thinking, his mind overwhelmed by grief and rage. He's sloppy. I sprint towards Lorenzo, hoping to get there before Alfredo kills him. And he will kill him mercilessly soon if I don't calm Lorenzo down.

I faintly hear Jacob shouting after me, but I ignore him. All that is on my mind is: make Alfredo pay and save Lorenzo.

I'm only a couple feet away before Alfredo pummels Lorenzo to the ground. Lorenzo tries to get up, but Alfredo's boot on his back pushes him back down. With one hand, Alfredo grabs Lorenzo's hair, bringing his head up to him. With one moment, Alfredo slices Lorenzo with his knife, gutting Lorenzo across his neck.

I stop and hold back a deep sob. I cannot do anything but watch as Lorenzo begins to choke on his own blood. I make eye contact with Lorenzo. His eyes are still full of fight, sadness, and anger but it's fading along with his life. This time the tears run freely down my cheeks. I choke back my sob and watch sadly as his eyes go expressionless.

"HOW DARE YOU!" I scream furiously at Alfredo who stares at their deaths coldly. I can almost imagine he's probably thinking it's just another two bugs to add onto his list. That enrages me because he probably didn't even count the two as people.

I charge at him, throwing my weight on him. I think I catch him off guard as he falls with me. We roll together shortly down a small hill. Then, we get up and face each other. By now, we are both coated in dirt, blood, and other things I don't know what they are.

I take in my surroundings. I have no idea where we are. There is nobody around. A flash of fear takes root in my stomach as I realize that I have no backup and none the wiser that we are here.

I take out my two daggers, each at least one feet long, from the sheaths on my back. i haven't used these in a long time.

"You're going to fight a defenseless man?" Alfredo chuckles as he dusts himself off.

"You're not defenseless, nor are you a man." I spit at him. "You're a damn monster."

"Harsh." Alfredo states unblinkingly. "But I am defenseless." He holds out his empty hands.

"Then, why don't you take out your pair of knives or even your gun?" I point to his body.

"Not bad," he says at my observation. As he reaches for the weapons, I attack him. It's been a while since I've used two daggers so I'm a bit rusty. Plus, my hand is still not recovered nor stable. He easily parries the daggers with his knives. Ah, so he chose his knives over his gun.

I jump back in time as his knife slashes at my stomach. I look down at the slash through my clothes. That was close, but luckily I'm wearing a Kevlar vest underneath. It does limit my movements though.

After a while of attacking and defending, I feel like we are getting nowhere. Is he toying with me? We cannot be the same level of skill.

"I must say," he smirks. "I expected more from you." His eyes liven up as the fight progresses. I forget he is also sadistic. At every injury I receive, his grin grows.

I narrow my eyes. I throw my daggers straight toward his face. He blocks it, but I close the distance between us while he is distracted and slash him with my extra knife. It cuts through his clothes. A foot long diagonal slash shows but he's wearing some type of protective vest underneath. I sweep a foot under him, but he jumps over it nimbly.

I keep slashing and kicking at him, but he blocks every single attack. I grow frustrated and tired as I fail to land a hit.

"Yo. Asshole!" Jacob's voice comes out of nowhere. Alfredo looks towards the voice momentarily. I put all my strength and bring my knife plunging down into Alfredo's chest.

He barely manages to dodge it. The knife lodges in his shoulder instead. His eyes flare up in anger as his hand grips my wrist. I gasp in pain and let go of the knife. I find myself being held hostage as he rips out the knife and brings it to my throat. I gulp at our position. My back is tightly positioned to his chest as the knife dangerously cuts into my throat.

"Out." He just has to say one word and there is so much power behind it. I hope Jacob doesn't come out.

This time, I'm not going to be a nice hostage. I elbow Alfredo hard in the ribs, which loosens his grip on the knife slightly. Then, I dig my nails into his knife wound. Now that has a reaction from him. He hisses and drops the knife to the ground in pain. I deftly grab it and jump back away from him.

Jacob comes out and stands next to me. "You good?" He gives me a once-over worriedly.

"I'm good." I nod, never taking my eyes off of Alfredo. We circle each other. Then, I charge at him once more.

This time I unleash all my rage upon him. My vision blurs and all I see is red. I don't know why I snap. Perhaps it is the accumulation of stress that has built up inside myself. Perhaps it is the death of the twins, my many near-death experiences, my constant running, the deterioration of my Family, or all of the above.

Anyways, I don't even know what happens. One minute I am seeing red, and the next minute...I'm back? it's really hard to describe this feeling.

I'm sitting on my knees in a pool of blood. "J-Jacob?" My voice wavers as I stare at the blood splattered ground.

I gasp in horror at my blood stained hands, clothes, and hair. What the hell happened? Oh damn, I hope to whatever God out there that I don't have some secret personality that goes berserk and kills every living thing out there. I don't need more on my plate.

I'm not one to faint at a little bit of blood, but my stomach does feel queasy at the sight before me. I take one look and have a strong desire to empty my stomach's contents. Sure, i've seen corpses. I've just never seen mangled corpses like these. Some are beheaded, some are dismembered.

I shudder and let go of my bloodied daggers. I do hope I did not do this.

"S-shay?" Jacob's voice comes up weakly.

I turn around and see him walk over hesitantly.

"What happened?" I ask fearfully.

"You injured Alfredo quite badly and then I stopped you before you can deal the final blow." Jacob starts.

"YOU..WHAT?" I almost scream at him.

"You should've seen you." He shakes his head. "It wasn't like you. Your eyes were as cold and dead as Alfredo."

"Well, he got what he deserved! Why did you stop me from killing that cold-hearted machine? He doesn't deserve to live!"

"You don't get to decide who does and doesn't get to live! "Jacob replies sharply as if he is personally attacked. "You would have done the same as me if it was any other person anyways."

"But you let him get away!" I exclaim.

"I did, but I saved you." He sighs sadly.

"What happened to them?" I point to the people around us.

"Don't worry, it wasn't you who did that." He reassures me. "I'm glad you came to though. You were kinda scary."

"How long was I gone?" I wonder.

"You were here, but you weren't here. I think it was only a couple minutes. Anyways, are you feeling alright?" He picks me up and holds my cheeks with both hands. He stares down worriedly.

"I'm fine." I bring my face away from him. "Let's go catch Alfredo."

"He's long gone by now. Don't bother." He sighs as we head back. The scene is disastrous.

The trees all around the place are either broken or gone. Splinters are all over the place. The ground has blackened and charred spots all over the place. Some of the tents have burned down.

There is a small congregation of tired and worn men in the middle. I spot my brothers and sigh in relief that they are okay.

"Did you get all the hostages?" I say as soon as I run to them and give them huge hugs.

"All are accounted for." Dante nods.

"How about casualties?" I almost tear up once more at the thought of NIccolo and Lorenzo's death. Their deaths will not be in vain.

"We lost at least half of us." Leo speaks quietly. The small group parts to let two more people walk in.

My parents walk toward us. Leo orders the rest of the group to disperse. Then, he pauses before telling Jacob, "Can you go check on the hostages?"

Jacob looks at me briefly before parting.

The six of us enter the tattered remains of Alfredo's tent. Ah, a wonderful family reunion. I wonder how this will turn out.

______

A/N

that was more gory and depressing than i thought it would be!

FINALS ARE FINALLY DONE!!!!!

I just took an AP exam today, thought it was okay.

1 AP down, 3 more to go :/

^^^^This explains why I've been MIA and late on updating :(

How'd you like the chapter lol.

Comments, criticisms, and votes are welcome as always <3

Thanks :D

EDIT: i just saw AVENGERS!!! WHO SAW IT AND HOW MANY OF YOU FANGIRLED TOO!? OMFG I LOVED IT YES YES YES NO SPOILERS BTW. IM A TOTAL AVENGERS FAN!!! :D <3