Last Words

He said he wanted to go to Red Square, that's where I went.

Once I got there, I was looking around everywhere to at least give me a clue where he was, he had a plan, that's why there was no shots being fired, everybody was walking like nothing was happening. Then I hear a police officer yelling at me to freeze, I thought I distracted all the police forces with the fake bomb in my Van, but no.

I cooperate, sit down on my knees while holding my hands up, putting down both of my bags full of weaponry and as I approached the ground, I got it, I knew where Kelevra was. The cop approached me, baby cops, tripped his leg, knocked him out with the elbow, got his gun and shot at the second cops leg. Grabbed all of my bags and went into the sewers, after a few minutes of wandering around, I saw him planting 3 C4's onto the gas line.

I shot him in the back with Gatling gun, the plan was to drive him away from the gas line and hit him with the R.P.G. Not sure if it would work, but I had to try.

His stupid costume took most of the impact, but a few bullets got through, he lost his balance, fell down.

"Sergei, good to see you man."

Those were 20mm round, a hundred per second and he was still talking and slowly getting up. To top it all off, he pulled the screens off the timers, no way of telling how much time left, while I was attending to the bombs, he was getting up, had to multi-task. Toy with the bomb, shoot him, toy with the bomb, shoot him and so on...

At least that was the plan, until he sank under water, couldn't keep my eye on him. So we know how this goes, at some point he jumps up and starts kicking my ass. The thought of me not succeeding started creeping in, had to block them out and concentrate, success, two blocks defused, one to go, so of course, this is where he comes up.

One charge left, one charge is enough to collapse the whole Square, the other charges were to bring down the city. His suit morphs around his arm and slams me into the concrete wall pretty hard, I lose my Gatling gun, my cheekbone cracks and splinters of my skull go into my brain and I can tell he's holding back.

"Sergei, I know why you're here, you're not here to stop me, I know what you want, but Sergei, I can't help y-"

He's talk tires me, I shoot him in the neck with 9mm, didn't hit my target, but it was enough to make him drop me. As soon as I touched the ground, I ran, ran towards the nearest Exit, he followed me, away from the gas line, that was the plan.

I shoot the lights out on the ceiling, it's dark, I move quietly through the water, while he was splashing like a kid in the bath tub. Judging by the sound, I aimed my R.P.G.and fired, that bastard, moved at the last second, I hit the wall.

"Sergei, I gotta say, you're starting to really piss me off."

I hear him running through the water like a damn battle ship, I fire my 9mm, hoping it will buy me 10 seconds. He cracked me good, head was still spinning, sounds are too loud, then I touch a ladder, I climb it, he's hot on my tail.

"You're not retreating Sergei, you're just advancing in a different direction!"

As I climbed, something yanked my R.P.G. off my back, pity I reloaded it, that wasn't part of the plan. I jumped from the Man hole and ran as fast as I can, I could hear the explosion happen behind me, that was my R.P.G. being used to make the man hole bigger.

"Good idea Sergei I was getting a little sick of the sick."

As Iran, looking back at him, following me, I turn my head for a second and stop dead in my tracks. That Church, the God Damn Church, I turn around and he's standing right there, ten bullet holes in his chest, bleeding that black ooze.

"This is it. It all comes down to right now. This is where it happened for you...and for me. Interesting isn't it, my parents owned this church, this is where I killed them, several years later, your family died in the same place, funny coincidence, isn't it?"

"This is where we both died."

After that he was coming at me. And it was going to hurt, but he's coming at me and that's what I need to have happen. The suit morphed around both of his arms into sharp ends, trying to spear me, but his back of the jacket disappeared because it turned into the sharp ends. I put one block of C4 onto his back from my bag, I could only hope he wasn't going to notice.

He turns around and slashes my face, my left eye goes blind, I tasted blood and I wonder where the ground went. One.

"This is the place where you "Died" HA! You wish!"

Got to my feet quickly, went for a tackle, wrapped my arms around him, but he doesn't even budge, doesn't matter. Two.

His Jacket wraps around my sides, lifts me in the air and starts crushing me, one of my ribs saps, I can't feel my hands.

"Really, it's what you want, it's why you're here today, it's why you're here everyday, you got a war and that's your objective, buddy."

He drops me to the ground, I struggle to get to my feet, since I can't feel them, stupid old body.

"But here's the thing Seriozha..."

Something big hits me in the head, something powerful, sent me flying through the window of the Church and now I'm inside this hellish place, Kelevra climbs through the same window.

"I can't kill you, no one can. I was born evil, maybe in the beginning I was Oleg, but somewhere along the way Oleg died and I was born, the moment I killed my family, to be precise. Now you..."

Once he walked over to me, he morphed sharp ends on both of his hands, swung up into the air, about to pierce me, survival instinct kicked in, I slid under his legs and jumped onto his back, trying to get to his neck, but the back of his suit morphed into sharp ends, piercing my stomach and chest in several places.

"That's a whole different snafu. Sergei Kisin is Mr. Incognito, he didn't die here with his family, he just got his priorities switched up, that's all. No more little league, you know?"

He smacks me off of him, black ooze once again wraps around me sides and sends me crashing into the ceiling, I'm on the second floor, can't move, he rises through the hole I just made with my head on those four tentacles things, he's like a spider.

"You see Sergei, you survived any mission you were given, you came back and you came back from here, from what happened in this church."

He descended, picked me up by my collar, punched me once.

"And you just keep..."

Punched me twice.

"Coming..."

Punched me third time.

"Back!"

Slammed me against the wall.

"Sergei Kisin is alive. You grew up and had parents, and first dates, and movies, and perfect nights, and football, and screw-ups, and laughs, and love..."

He prepares to swing for another punch "Not hate, love."

That's when I see them, both of them, standing behind him, worried faces. It's the concussion, I know that.

"You feel every kill, you feel it and it shreds you. That's why you want to die!"

He throws me towards the broken up balcony of the church.

"Your old weapons. Your bacon and eggs. Your cot. Your bandages and your boot instead of quick-clot and a door ram. You know you're not playing to win, you're making a good show."

I struggle to my feet, for the n'th time.

"What's your prep? What's your strategy? You fly by the seat of your pants, the skin of your teeth, you've been in it, that's not how you roll. Prep, intel, execution, P.I.E., or you die. But not you, huh?"

 Starts slowly walking towards him, struggling to move, since my feet are numb.

"There you go! Look at this guy! Getting up after that apocalyptic beat down! Right there! That's the cosmic joke! Even with his epic half-assery, Sergei Kisin Lives!"

He laughs.

"You want to be the monster, but you're a human being! You want to kill, but every time you do, you want to die so much more! So you get shot, you get blown up, you get thrown out of buildings, and you always drag yourself away, because you're just like me Sergei, you can't die."

I see them again, last three seconds, feel like three hours. Kristine, Masha. This is where it happened, right here. I loved them, I still love them, I'm still there, I'm here, it's not over, it's never over. This is my life, this is my entire life and it just keeps going.

I still feel things, even if it's just disgust and rage, at a child dying, at a woman abused, at evil unpunished. I'm not a monster, Kelevra is. I'm something else.

I aim my last colt at him.

"That's a hand gun Sergei, not gonna do the job."

"I put starburst ammo in this colt. Incendiary rounds."

"You think that's gonna kill me?"

"No, the 2 bricks of C4 on your back, will."

Probably shouldn't have given him the heads up, once I shot him, jumped towards the edge of the balcony, as far as possible from the explosion. Once the smoke settled, he was still standing, bleeding, but standing, his suit was reduced to shreds, it was apparent that his suit absorbed most of the blast, since he couldn't use it anymore, the playing field was leveled.

"What's the matter Sergei? Don't you wanna finish our chat?"

He rushed at me, swinging, I ducked, tripped his leg, grabbed his head and slammed his face into the ground.

"You're a hard man to figure out, Sergei..."

Slammed him again to shut him up.

"It wasn't easy, nearly drove me mad, I'll admit..."

Shut up.

"But then it all clicked into place for me, just like magic..."

Shut up!

"Once I figured out what really happened, that day, in this church."

SHUT UP!

As I lift his head up, to slam it again, he heads butts me with the back of his head into my chin, making me fall back. He comes running at me, at this point he's like a slug, he swings once again, I duck under his fist and stab him with the knife into his neck. He grabs the knife, his eye is wide, he stumbles back, falls against the balcony. I think he's dead, walk towards him, he's still talking, how?

"I know why you didn't see it coming, I know why your family died..."

I start pushing the knife further in order to shut him up.

"You were walking with your wife towards the church, Masha way ahead of you. You leaned over to her and said something to her, your last words she heard out of your mouth..."

I slam his head against the edge of the balcony.

"I know what you said to her, Sergei."

Then he said it, those words, those words I blocked out for so many years, the words I forgot, those words that led me to get my guard down, those words that was the reason we went to the church that day.

"Didn't you? Didn't you, Sergei, old buddy?"

Anger took over, not anger for him, but anger of denial, I got up, lifted my boot and stomped on the knife so hard his head ripped off, fell off the balcony, as it fell, I still could hear the laughter, the laughter that still haunts me.

After that Dimir's men came busting in, knock me down to the ground, I don't struggle, not because I can't, I don't want to. And I see her once again, the pale woman, standing over Kelevra's body and then I lose consciousness.

When I come to, I'm in the hospital bed, in prison, Dimir informs me that the last bomb was defused and Kelevra was dead, then he tells me that I will die here and I just lay there, waiting for prisoners to come and kill me, I wait for it and I think...

I'm still thinking....