"So who's next?" Cooro asked.

"What, tu want to tell your story now?" Tenemae scholded.

"No, no," Cooro corrected, "I just was asking an honest question.

"Actually, I think we'd all like to hear your story," Gatage said. "After all, tu are the most reserved of all of us."

"Which gives me all the más reason to keep quiet," Tenemae shot back.

"Come on, don't be like that," Cooro told Tenemae.

"Unless you're hiding something," Menae slickly stated.

"I have nothing to hide," Tenemae assured.

"Then prove it, flicky!"

"You're más related to a flicky than I, Menae. But, just because I'd rather have my story be disturbing to you, I can kill two birds with one stone."

"If tu only knew what irony was."

"If tu only knew I'm not an idiot. Can I continue?"

Menae rolled her eyes in defeat.

"In order to begin, all of tu need to know this: I used to work with the empire we are fighting against."

A commotion began at the bonfire. Gatage hushed them so that Tenemae could continue, and thus she did.

"I was good at what I did," she began. "I carried out the assignments, and didn't kill anyone other than the intended target. I was so good because I was kidnapped from my homeland, and taken into the Malumtis. I was promised to be able to go back to my family, but what good was false hope going to do for me?"

"So tu were a hitman?" Gatage asked.

"Yes, but I was about to change that on my own accord. Carrying on, I met someone. He was just my type..."

"Hey, what wing do tu work in?" asked a voice behind me.

"I don't have to tell tu anything," I told him, assuming it was a male por the voice.

"I was just trying to start a conversation is all," he said.

I turned around, and saw a hurón, ferret equipped with a rifle in hand. He wore a bullet proof vest, and had similar attributes to Gatage.

I turned away from my most reciente assignment, to kill a rata in the system. I didn't have much intel, but I did have some leads.

"I'm sorry. I have a stressful job," I told him. "I've been on edge lately.

"Where do tu work?" he asked me.

"In the life control section."

"So you're a hitman?"

I raised a brow at him. "Do I look like a man to you?" I joked.

He chuckled. "A Malumtis with a soul; who'd've thought it."

He tried to look over to my assignment, but I covered it with one of my hands. He gave me a small defiant look for a fraction of a second, but then returned to looking at me normally.

"Is that your latest target?" he asked me.

"Yes, but I don't know who it's supposed to be. They don't give me a name, o much information at all."

He seemed oddly interested in my assignment, as if he either knew something about the target, o wanted to help me.

"If you're done making sure people don't spill the beans, do tu want to go do something that doesn't require us having to worry about the Malumtis?"

"What'd tu have in mind?" I asked. I didn't have much of a deadlnie for this target, so I could take some time off during this assignment.

We arrived in a small burger comprar on the mothership. We ate, and we talked about personal matters that were completely irrelevant to my task. The comprar wasn't too bad of a place.

Later, I was invited to his house.

"Then what happened?" I asked Tenemae.

"That is none of your business!" Tenemae fired.

Gatage gave off a small smile, knowing what Tenemae meant, but not wanting to tell the others of what happened, even though Gatage was not exactly sure what happened, though he could still speculate.

"Continuing with my story, I later went back to my contractor's office..."

"Come, sit down," he told me.

I obeyed, and sat down at the guest's chair. The contractor sat in his chair, and clasped his hands together, a habit of his before he was going to propose something.

"I was dado some más information on your target, Tenemae. tu may be closer to our target than tu think."

"What did tu already find out?" I asked.

"Your target is someone por the name of Wilhelm."

My eyes widened, though I tried not to mostrar it. I was taken to a moment in past time when I was with that man I met earlier.

"What's your name," he asked me.

"Tenemae, o Tenae for short," I replied. "Yours?"

"Wilhelm."

That memory of him telling me his name made me cringe at this newfound information. Was there someone else with that same name that could give Wilhelm the abosolution he needed?

"Tenemae, are tu okay?" My contractor asked me.

"Yes yes, I'm fine," I told him.

"We also found another piece of information, and this was más interesting to me."

"What tu find?" I asked, hoping for the worst to not come to light.

"One of his affiliates," he answered, and showed me some fotos of Wilhelm and I while in his room.

"Who are those in the photo?"

"That," he dicho pointing at one figure in the photo, "is Wilhelm."

"And the other one?" I knew well who else was in the photo, but hoped futilely that he would think it to be someone other than I.

"The same person tu see when tu look into a mirror," he said. I lost all hope of getting out of this dilemma unscathed.

"What about it?"

"Tenemae, tell me, what are tu doing to him?"

"I wouldn't say it's something I'm doing to him," I defended.

"Both of tu are doing something to each other, and I'm not going to even get started on what it is."

"Well, that's because tu paid to have someone give tu these fotos that were taken while we were-"

"Please," he dicho cutting me off, "don't talk about what happened in the photo. I don't like talking about things like that-"

"Then what do tu like talking about, huh?" I demanded, returning the favor of cutting him off. "Ruining families? Destroying relationships? Terrorizing citizens?"

"Listen here, I don't like this job one bit, and I'm damn sure tu don't like your job either. However, dirty jobs like mine and yours have to be done por someone, and we both just managed to pull the short straws. If tu want to file a complaint, go to someone who won't get your head mounted on their wall!"

Of course, any complaint whatsoever to almost anybody who worked with the Malumtis would get tu killed.

"And I'm not going to like doing this to you, but if it makes tu feel any better, I can keep these from coming to public light. Let me make to tu a proposal-"

"No, please, don't do this to me, don't try to negotiate-"

"Just shut up and listen! I'm trying to keep your head on your body here!" he yelled pounding his fist on his escritorio and standing up from his chair. "You're one of my best workers, and I'd hate to have tu killed, but it's out of my hands now."

"Wait," I began, fearing the worst yet to come, "you didn't..."

"Yes, the Baron has seen these photos," he answered remorsefully. "I'm sorry, but orders are orders." He then began reciting the law that drove him to do this, which I joined him to demonstrate that I knew that law: "'Any and all evidence that shows any Malumtis actuación in o with an unrulely conduct is to be presented to the Baron, and the perpretrator is to be dealt with accordingly por the Baron's order."

"Yes, yes, I know that rule-"

"It's not a rule, it's the law, and that law can get tu killed."

"If tu hadn't shown him these..." I placed my head on my hands. "I'm ruined and I'm dead..."

"There is one way tu can get out of this, and prevent that tu have to meet this judgement," my contractor proposed.

"What?" I asked, lifting my head from my hands; clueless.

"Kill Wilhelm, and your dreams of an absolution will become true. It will be as if none of this ever happened. The Baron knows you're a hard worker, and be grateful that because of this, he's giving tu a chance to redeem yourself."

"Yes, yes, all hail the merciful Baron..." I muttered sarcastically.

"Can't I just run away?"

"You mean forever? He'll eventually find you."

I began to think something that would most probably get me killed for thinking of it on the spot.

"And if I kill the Baron?"

My contractor launched himself at me, and placed a hand on my mouth.

"Don't talk like that, o you'll get us both killed!" he whispered.

He then lifted his hand from my mouth, and sighed. He then stepped off me, and returned to his chair.

"You really got yourself into something tu can't get out of..." He muttered.

"I think I have a plan to kill him, but hopefully keep him alive."

"Don't do this, Tenemae," he warned, and I walked toward the door.

"I'm going to do this, and get this right, if it's the last thing I do!" I yelled at my contractor, and slammed the door shut.

I was infuriated. Kill the one person I loved most, o be killed for the person I loved the most? Was that even a fair choice? Wilhelm had once told me how much of a bastard the Baron was, and I'm being brought into the light of truth: saying the Baron was a bastard was a complete understatement. If I had it my way, I would call the Baron the bastard child of a murdurous mother-

"A lot on your mind?" someone familiar asked me. I jumped at the voice, and realized Wilhelm looking at me. He must've seen me slam the door and yelling at my contractor.

"Yes, but there's a perplexing matter at hand," I replied.

"Before we get into that, let me give tu this," he said, handing me a book.

"A book? What for?"

"To read it."

I had never, not once in my life, recieved a gift. A gift is not the same as a reward, which is what I get all the time with my work.

"Thank you," I told him. "I'll read it and cherish it."

"I hope tu do, because I know what you're going to have to do." His face became one of dismay.

"What are tu talking about?" I asked, honestly confused as to what he was talking about.

"I overheard the conversation tu had with your contractor. tu aren't exactly the quietest of the mutes," he joked. I never got how he could joke at times like these.

"You don't understand: it's my head o yours." I was completely worried about my wellbeing, and the wellbeing of Wilhelm.

"I understood that tu had a plan," he told me, which was true. I was beginning to wonder how many other people had heard this.

"Yes, I do, but I'll only have one shot at it; literally."

"What do tu mean?" he asked, rather confused, but then his face was startled. "You aren't going to..."

"Of course not, as long as I miss."

We traveled to a deep part of the sewer system, where nothing but the mobian and human eye could see us.

"I'm sorry I had to do this to you," I told Wilhelm.

"Just don't miss. Hey, and if tu do it right, I might not be changed much. If tu don't miss, I'll remember these good times we've gone through."

"Yes," I dicho placing the gun to Wilhelm's left eye. "And I'll remember what happened here all my life."

I quickly turned the gun to the left so that Wilhelm would be unconscious, but not dead, because I wasn't aiming the gun at Wilhelm's head any longer. I then pulled the trigger. My life would change forever from this point on; I just knew it.

A couple of weeks later, once Wilhelm recovered, I went to the medic's guarida, den of which he was being taken refuge. I just wanted to see how sucessful my attempt at saving both our lives was.

He was outside of the den, standing, which was remarkably good, but he was standing in a different manner from his usual self.

"Hey, do tu remember me?" I asked Wilhelm.

"Who are you?" he asked in return.

"I'm Tenemae, I just saved tu from a terrible fate," I informed him.

I then proceeded to tell him what had happened, leaving out some details. Seeing that something had happened to Wilhelm when I shot him, I simply didn't want to return him to himself; it was impossible. Just to see what happened, I went toward the doctor that tended to Wilhelm for me while I was gone.

"What happened?" I asked the docotor.

"He was shot in the head," she told me.

"I know that much, but can tu tell me what happened to him because he was shot in the head?"

"His brain was damaged. Because of this, his thought processing was changed. In other words, because he was shot in the head, and survived, his personality was changed. He's not, and he will never be, the man he once was."

I was honestly corazón broken. I was terribly dismayed por this. I had really gone and done it.

I'd killed Wilhelm.

"He doesn't even remember his name," she told me. "Considering that you've been closest to him, do tu mind naming him? tu probably know his name after all."

I nodded, and walked over towards Wilhelm. o rather, who used to be Wilhelm.

"Do tu remember your name?" I asked him.

"I... I don't remember."

While I was giving him the backround story, I never told him that his name was Wilhelm. After all, he would never be the same person, so he shouldn't have the same name.

Regardless, I remember one time that Wilhelm and I were talking about our future, and I thought of the perfect name.

"What if we ever had a child?" I asked.

"I know the perfect name." he said.