Masquerade’s End : The way of the Renegade

In the icy shadows, Lukas wiped his tears. His battered hands trembled. Old Karl's harsh breathing was the only sound breaking that suffocating silence.

"Holy shit!" Karl's voice exploded against the reinforced walls, shattering the moment. "The Black Eagle turned Renegade? Man, I would've thrown every credit I had just to work with that legend!"

A nervous hiss escaped Lukas's lips as his eyes darted to the massive door. "Keep it down for fuck's sake. The guards—"

"Ha!" Karl's laugh rolled through their cell, warm and loose like he was sitting in some bar instead of this hellhole. "Kid, I've been stuck in this concentration camp for five years. Guards? They care about us about as much as their first genetic screw-up. We're just crazy people screaming in the dark to them."

Lukas shifted, curious now. "Concentration camp?"

"Not just any camp." Karl leaned forward, his voice dropping into a storyteller's rhythm. "This is nightmare city - 5500 buildings lined up like death's dominoes. But this place?" His knuckles rapped the wall behind him. "Special order. Two cells, built like a nuclear bunker. Only the cream of the criminal crop ends up here."

Those empty eye sockets of his seemed fixed on something none of us could see. A twisted grin split his face. "Been the only VIP guest for years. Personal gift from whatshisname Jürgen himself."

"Jürgen Wodan," Lukas corrected, a shiver crawling up his spine just saying the name.

"Right, that psycho..." Karl absently ran his mutilated fingers across his closed eyelids. "Could've killed me, but no. The bastard wanted to make it... personal. Ripping my eyes out was like uncorking a fine wine to him."

His rough laugh filled the cell, bitter this time. "If you're here, kid, they've got plans. The Mindfall, right? That next-gen brainwashing bullshit?"

Lukas's eyes went wide in the dark. The implant at the base of his skull suddenly felt like lead. "My implant... They're going to use it to—"

"Reprogram you, yeah. Can't throw away a human weapon." Karl nodded. "No implant for me, so they went old school. Gave up on me three years ago. Too stubborn, they said. Keep dangling those fancy cyber-eyes if I play nice." A dry chuckle. "Nice carrot, huh? Now I'm living easy, even if these mangled hands don't heal as fast as those Arkaryan freaks!"

Lukas clenched his fists, pain be damned. "I won't let them. When they come for their 'experiment', I'll—"

"Kill 'em all, right?" Karl finished, thoughtful. He tilted his head ceiling-ward, like he could see stars through concrete. "Hmm... That Frank the Fox you mentioned... Guy's more dangerous than he looks."

The silence shattered when Karl turned to the wall between their cells. A mocking smile twisted his scarred lips.

"Say kid..." His voice went all theatrical. "When you got here, heard you counting... pretty weird way to do it." He waved his hands like a drunk conductor, his raspy voice mimicking Lukas: "27... no, 38... no, 42..."

A growl rumbled from Lukas's cell - pure trapped wolf. "Heads," he spat, ice-cold. "The number of heads I need to rip off." His eyes, darker than a moonless night, held an endless void dancing with murderous madness.

The heavy silence that followed broke only when Karl's potato hit the floor with a dull thud.

"Well..." Karl let out a bitter laugh, scooping up his pitiful dinner. "That's a fun story for my daughter. 'You know sweetie, I dropped my dinner 'cause this guy was counting heads he wanted to collect...'" He bit into the dirty spud, trying to hide his disgust.

"You realize an Arkaryan fight in the city..." He chewed thoughtfully. "That'd get innocents killed. You're living weapons, after all."

Lukas's eyes, like shards of black ice, didn't even twitch. "They're all guilty," he snarled. "Anyone who turns a blind eye to what the leaders do is just as guilty as them!"

Karl's voice went soft. Almost gentle. Like a father speaking to a wounded child. "Tell me something, kid. You know how I lost these eyes?"

Lukas turned away, shoulders rigid. "Insurgents punishment," he spat the words like poison.

"Hah. Yeah." Karl's worn cap cast shadows across the ruin of his face. His fingers traced the empty sockets, movements delicate as a lover's touch. "My little girl... wonder if she's out there somewhere. Probably needs her old man right about now."

Something cracked in his voice then - raw and bleeding. "You and me, we ain't so different. Both got our hearts ripped out. Both burning for payback." His face tilted up, unseeing. "Look where that got me though. No friends. No freedom. Can't even take my daughter to the damn park anymore."

The words caught in his throat. "If I could do it all again... I'd grab her tiny hand and run. Far as we could get. Out past the Darklands where nothing grows. Build something real. Something worth waking up for."

One last time, he turned to the wall. When he spoke, each word fell like stones into still water:

"Pick life, kid. Death's got nothing to give back."

"Naivety." The word dripped from his lips. Lukas spat it out like he'd tasted something foul. That same weakness had stayed his hand with Frank - pure poison running through his veins. His voice shook, barely containing the storm beneath.

"Power begs to be used. It's like wine in a glass that's too damn big - who wouldn't fill it to the brim?" A muscle twitched in his jaw. "My strength... it screams for blood. To rip them apart piece by piece. Make it last."

He went quiet for a moment, words sharp enough to cut. "Only the weak do nothing."

"Like Emma?"

Karl's voice cracked through the darkness. No going back now. "So that's your answer? Become another Nazi beast preaching blood and iron... honoring the way your sister lived?"

Shadows played across Karl's ruined face, deeper than their prison's gloom.

"Then you're still one of them...not a Renegade. Still Reich to the bone!"

CRACK!
Lukas's skull hit the wall hard. Fresh blood trickled down where Jurgen's old wound split open again.

"IT'S ALL MY FAULT, DON'T YOU GET IT?!" His scream tore through the prison's dead air.

"Because you couldn't kill Frank, right?" Karl's voice went soft - almost fatherly. "Don't curse your kindness... It's all you have left of Emma. Curse those Nazi dogs instead."

The words hit him hard, bringing Emma's last moments rushing back, clear as day:

"Luki... None of this is your fault..."

"I... I love you because you're kind."

His breath caught. "I'M ALONE IN THIS WORLD..."

"No one's doomed to be alone," Karl said quietly. "Search the world. Go to the edges of the Darklands if you have to. Don't stop until you find people who'll love you."

"I HAVE NO ONE LEFT TO LOVE!" Lukas's voice cracked like glass.

"When you find them, cherish them with all that kindness inside you!"

His eyes burned. "I... I HAVE NO ONE WHO LOVES ME ANYMORE..."

"Your mother loved you. Emma loved you." Karl smiled in the dark. "Hell, I admire your strength! You are loved, Lukas Adler... And people will love you again - that's a promise!"

Lukas finally broke. Hours of pain poured out in wracking sobs. Karl rested his head against the wall between them, a silent witness to grief too long held back.

"Tears aren't weakness," he whispered. "They just show your heart won't shut up."

Karl straightened slowly, adjusting his old cap. What he said next would burn into Lukas's soul forever:

"Listen up, Black Eagle. Choose life, not death!" His voice swelled. "CHOOSE EMMA, NOT THE REICH!"

"When I tell you not to seek revenge, I mean the kind that destroys everything and builds nothing. BUT GET YOUR REVENGE, LUKAS! Revenge like Emma would've wanted - not like some bloodthirsty Nazi! Don't waste your life - or anyone else's - on a path of destruction. Build a future that'll shame those who looked down on you!"

His words crashed through the darkness like thunder:

"A TRUE RENEGADE REJECTS EVERYTHING HIS ENEMY STANDS FOR!"

Lukas kept crying, but something warm stirred in his broken heart. A warmth he hadn't felt since Emma died.

"You talk like we're getting out of here Karl" he choked out softly.

"Oh? The Black Eagle's calling by my name now?" Karl's laugh echoed off the walls. "Finally, I'm a legend!" His hands clapped gleefully in the dark.

Rising shakily on weak legs, Karl took off his gravoch cap and placed it carefully on his crumb-covered meal tray. His fingers found the bars, searching for the slot where guards pushed their meager meals through.

"Emma will never die..." The tray slid toward Lukas's cell. "This cap's yours. If you keep Emma alive through your life, I'd be honored if you'd do the same for mine."

Lukas took it with shaking hands. "A chimney sweep's cap?"

Boot steps echoed outside their cells. Karl knew what was coming.

"I lied about three things," he said. "First, we're not really the same. You still have your eyes - I don't. 'Eye for eye leaves the whole world blind,' they say... Hope you never walk that path." He paused.

"Second, I'm not 'Karl the Potato'..."

The cell door's screech cut through silence. "Karl Granger, the Chimney Sweep - it's time." The guard's voice rang like a death knell down the damp corridor.

"Third... seems we can't stay buddies... thanks to you, they've found a better toy. Don't need me anymore."

Karl rose slowly, a strange smile playing on his lips. "Time flies when there's so much to learn..." His gaze burned with fierce determination.

The handcuffs clicked around his wrists. As they dragged him away, Karl suddenly lifted his head, voice booming off the walls: "LISTEN WELL, BLACK EAGLE! FOR FIVE YEARS I'VE WAITED FOR SOMEONE LIKE YOU! A TRUE RENEGADE TO CARRY FREEDOM'S BANNER!"

The guards lashed out furiously. But even under their blows, Karl kept going, each word backed by iron will: "That gravoch cap... ARGH... IT'LL SHOW YOU THE WAY! GUH... When darkness surrounds you... KOFF... LOOK AT IT! And please... PROTECT MY DAUGHTER SHE'S IN DANGER!"

"Karl…!?" Lukas's worried voice echoed from far away.

Under the rain of blows, Karl sank into memory. How ironic... I came to Berlin burning for revenge, ready to reduce everything to ashes. Led my brothers to battle, to death. Hate blinded me so much I abandoned my own daughter... Sacrificed everything on destruction's altar.

A peaceful smile crossed his bloodied face. "Heh... They call me the Chimney Sweep 'cause I always find a way out... Even in the darkest times."

His fingers closed quietly around the fork hidden in his pocket.

The thing in my chest was meant to bring death... But today, it'll open a path to the future.

"This'll sting a bit, but you're a super soldier after all."

SLASH!
The fork plunged into his chest, blood spilling across the filthy floor. A mechanical voice echoed in his head:

[Talion System ACTIVATED...]

[Select blood injection quantity]

[City Level? Building Level?]

His daughter's smiling face lit up his thoughts: "Be proud of your nickname, papa! People who clear paths for others... they're heroes!"

"Building..." Karl whispered, his smile widening. A deep laugh bubbled up from his throat, growing into a roar: "AHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

An explosion ripped through the night's silence, shattering the building into countless pieces.