All Over But The Crying

“Yeah… no.” The barbarian sat his axe right down on the ground and leaned on its sturdy pole.

“Wha- but- but-“ Morgen blinked.

“You think I was actually gonna sell out my friends? I just took your bribe to get inside info on your operation… and I guess the new axe didn’t hurt.”

“You lying snot…” Wolf went to draw his handgun on the triple agent, but was interrupted from behind when his men came and grabbed hold of him.

“Hey! C-Calm down sir, it ain’t worth it!” Travis yelled, the whole crowd gathered by the Verdant Inferno watching the devilish entrepreneur reduced to a sniveling child.

“We’ve- been looking all over for you-“ Edgar stuttered, struggling against his boss’ strength.

“I’m gonna kill him… LET ME KILL HIM!”

“You’re gonna ruin your career over one stupid park?! This is it boss, we lost!” Cried Travis.

“No… no…”

“It’s just one park. Don’t worry.” Ed whispered in his ear.

“IT WAS MY PARK! MINE!”

“Yes, we know, we know… relax! Listen. It’s that time again. We have new business intel stolen from Kidney, would you like to see it? We ourselves have yet to read its contents. Now isn’t that exciting?”

“Oh, yeah!” Travis nodded. “That’ll cheer him up!”

The Inferno party continued watching as Edgar struggled to pull a laptop out of his previously-dropped briefcase as Travis kept Wolf held back.

“…You were a… triple agent?” Serah looked up at Rocco, still piecing together the string of events.

“He came for me just after you called. Figured it’d be a good way to help, but I couldn’t say much about it since he had me wired.” He pulled a mic off his clothes, crushing it is his hand. “Lead you in the right direction though, didn’t I? Even if Namos wasn’t that helpful…”

“That’s so cool!” Serah squeezed his giant arm. “You gotta share a little bit of that dirty money though.”

“I will, I will.”

“Here! Here it is!” Edgar finally held the screen up to his boss’ face. “Now, let’s see what things Kidney has been up to… Oho, to be so far ahead of the curve… very befitting of you, sir. Aren’t you proud?”

“…”

“…What… what is this…?” 

Morgen just stared blankly at the screen. He did not even realize the first stage of greif setting in. The last greif he would ever feel.

“What? More of the same… right?” Travis peeled at the screen. This report…

At last Edgar looked upon the screen’s contents. The party would’ve had no interest in it, but they couldn’t deny the cautious curiosity they felt looking at this tired old man as he read the same text over and over again.

“I-If this is true, then…” the Traumkäufer uttered, the looming darkness setting in.

“So do you guys give up, or…?” Annoyed, Frankie shouted out to the men.

Wolf looked up, but not at her. Staring into the distance with bulging eyes, his men took the hint and put the laptop away.

He collapsed to his knees.

“There is nothing… left to do.”

The man removed the top of his suit and stomped it into the ground.

“Wolfcorp is disbanded.”

“But boss-“ Travis gasped, out of a job.

“P-Please reconsider!” Ed was just frightened for his old friend.

“I’m going to spend the rest of it… doing something better than this.”

With slow, zombie-like strides… Morgen left the park, never to be seen again.

“…Weirdo.” Katie murmured antagonistically at his strange performance.