Chapter Text
Akira’s boots clanged noisily against metal flooring as he and the others raced towards the engine room as quickly as possible. The sooner they could get to the assembly hall, the sooner they’d find the treasure and make it out of here in one piece, he told himself. This whole entire palace just gave him the worst feeling; even more terrible than Kamoshida’s palace, and that was already pretty bad.
Ryuji had decided to take the lead, naturally, as he’d unconsciously developed the habit of running ahead to protect their group from potential danger. Akira kept his gaze trained on the metallic armor running up Ryuji’s spine as he jogged ahead, focused on the task at hand.
They were gonna find Shido and they were gonna make him pay. Big time.
Yet out of nowhere, Akira realized that something didn’t feel right. The atmosphere felt... different. A bad sort of different, yet somehow oddly familiar. He could feel the air practically swimming with malice, and he didn’t like it at all.
Ryuji made a noise of confusion as their leader grabbed his wrist firmly and slowed them to a halt. The others sensed his apprehension and followed suit. “What’s wrong?” Futaba chirped. “I don’t sense anything on the nav and we’re almost to the treasure. What’s the holdup?”
It was then a breathy chuckle sounded from from above.
Before anyone had the chance to even register where the soft noise came from, a white-clad figure descended gracefully from a utility catwalk positioned almost directly above them.
Goro Akechi stood slowly to his full height before the assembly of thieves. He sauntered over to the group without a single ounce of hesitation, addressing Akira directly.
“Long time no see,” he teased with what seemed to be a sneer barely detectable in his voice. Akira didn’t respond, only held his ground. Ryuji however, didn’t share his reaction.
“You…!” the blond gasped incredulously as he moved to stand closer to Akira. Even now his protectiveness came through before he could think or do otherwise.
“Why’s he here?” Akira could faintly make out Futaba’s anxious whisper as she leaned over to Makoto.
Akechi’s posture straightened as he spoke to the rest of the group. “I’m surprised that you managed to deceive me. it seems I underestimated your abilities.”
Akira could hardly read his face under the mask, but the young detective just continued.
“You truly are interesting… quiet, yet possessing the courage and determination to take action. Under different circumstances, we could have been great rivals… or perhaps even friends.”
Was that… wistfulness that Akira detected in his tone?
“It’s not too late y’know,” Akira interrupted. “I don’t know specifically what you’re planning here, but we’re not doing all this for just our sake. We’re trying to help everyone, and that includes you.”
Akechi just let out a silvery laugh and grinned wryly. “How wonderful! You don’t allow yourself to be enslaved by such things as human relations or past selves… and so, your heart is always free. The exact opposite as mine.” The former Phantom Thief tipped his head in a vaguely sheepish manner.
“To be honest, I’m envious.”
Akechi’s expression then changed to something a bit softer, the low lighting of the ship’s interior almost obscuring his face.
“I wonder why we couldn’t have met a few years earlier…” he muttered almost inaudibly.
Before Akira had the chance to decipher what any of that actually meant, Ann stepped forward.
“Akechi… we had no idea.” Her gloved fists clenched at her sides. “Why didn’t you tell us you felt like this?”
“I had no reason to,” the detective said, masking his emotions once again. “There’s no use talking in hypotheticals... that didn’t happen in reality, and it never will.”
Makoto decided then that she was taking none of this.
“Then why are you cooperating with someone like Shido!?” she demanded. “Don’t you see what this palace looks like? His true nature is-”
“Cooperating?” Akechi scoffed, interrupting her. “What are you talking about? I don’t care for Shido, or this country. All of this is to make Masayoshi Shido, my father, acknowledge me… and then I’ll exact my revenge on him.”
Yusuke blinked owlishly. “Shido is your father...?”
“Family reunions must be rough huh,” Futaba whispered under her breath before Makoto delivered a sharp kick to her knee.
It seemed Akechi either didn’t hear her or chose to ignore her.
“Remember when I said before, how my mother had been in a relationship with some good-for-nothing man? I’m his bastard child. My very existence is nothing but a scandal.” Akechi turned his back to them all, too lost in his reminiscing to see the expressions of disbelief on their faces. “My mother’s life turned for the worst after she had me… and she ended up dying. I was a cursed child for her too.”
“That’s horrible,” Ann spoke in a hushed tone.
“I resented him,” Akechi’s fist clenched as he continued to speak, “but he was already a high-ranking official by then. A kid like me could do nothing. Yet… that’s when it happened.” A melodic chuckle filled the stagnant air of the engine room as Akechi turned to face them again. “That’s when I learned about the cognitive world!” He proclaimed, throwing his hands in the air as he spoke. “Someone, be it god or demon, gave me a chance. I couldn’t contain my joy...!”
Ryuji growled. “You son of a-”
“Oh, who cares? My targets were doing the same damn thing in this eat or be eaten world. All I did was remove their evil from society,” Akechi retorted, folding his arms. “How is that any different from the Phantom Thieves?”
“Uh, I dunno maybe because we’re not murderers?” Ann shouted.
Akechi was starting to grow tired of this back-and-forth between them. “So what!? Masayoshi Shido is finally within my grasp. Once he reaches the apex of his power and acknowledges me, I’m going to tell him the truth of who I really am... and that’s how I’ll win.”
Yusuke made a noise of discomfort. “What a warped thought… it’s almost pitiable.”
“In just a few weeks my plan would have come to fruition… but no, you just HAD to interfere,” Akechi growled under his breath. A strangely calm smile slowly replaced his expression of rage. “... I can still take it back though. I just need to kill you all.”
Morgana hopped in front of their group and hissed his disapproval. “You talk big, but you’re really nothing more than a little kid throwing a temper tantrum!”
“Don’t lecture me you piece of shit,” Akechi spat.
For a moment, Akira thought it almost looked as if Akechi was contemplating punting the small, black cat out of the way (which honestly would have been a bit hilarious if not slightly mortifying) but he stayed where he was.
“I am going to personally thrust Masayoshi Shido into a living hell!" He threatened. "So Joker… rest easy, and die.”
“Have fun with that,” Akira responded in turn, unsheathing his dagger from underneath his jacket.
“Hah! Yeah exactly,” Ryuji said, stepping forward again and slinging an arm around Akira’s shoulders confidently. “We already know all your tricks from back when you were workin’ with us anyway.”
Akechi merely cast them both a pitying glance. “Aww Joker…” he said in a mockingly somber voice, “how could you be so successful while having such an idiot as your partner?”
“Hey!” shouted Ryuji.
“Because he’s hot,” Akira admitted.
“Because Akira’s morosexual,” Futaba blurts, which earns her another firm kick in the leg from Makoto.
Akechi just let out another shaky laugh as we watched their usual antics. “It’s no matter,” he said dismissively, lowering his head. “I’ll tell you all about my true power… while you die. You can take that knowledge with you to the grave.”
Without warning, two large shadows spawn behind Akechi’s silhouette.
“Kill them!” he snarls.
Akira made the signal for them all to get into position as the two shadows leapt at them and went for the throat.
“... The mental shutdowns aren’t the only incidents people are talking about,” they faintly hear Akechi’s voice call out as Makoto dodged an attack from a particularly aggressive chimera and delivered a punch of her own.
“There are also the breakdowns which cause people to turn psychotic, creating accidents and scandals…”
Haru cried out as she brought her axe down with perfect timing upon the shoulder of the smaller shadow. It leapt back towards Akechi, almost as if it were looking for solace from the former Phantom Thief. Akechi ignored it and continued with his speech.
“But those cannot be explained unless the true culprit has the power to make people’s hearts psychotic.” A shrill laugh rings out above the battle. “That’s right! It’s my power-- one that you don’t have!”
“He’s gonna try something,” Futaba mutters beside Akira.
Almost as if on cue, a dark, writhing figure suddenly manifests itself behind Akechi and engulfs the two shadows with thick, black clouds of energy; sending dark tendrils up from the ground. The shadows simultaneously let out cries of surprise as Futaba gasps.
“What was that?!”
“What was what?” Ryuji shouts anxiously, watching Futaba type away at the digital keyboard provided by her nav.
“That wasn’t Robin Hood… could it have been a different persona?” she muttered to herself.
Akechi moved to stand on front of the two berserk shadows, his grin never faltering. “Even the feeblest existence can gain tremendous power once the chains on its heart are broken… you’d better not underestimate these two.”
“The enemies are way stronger now…!” Futaba cried as the two shadows leapt at their group once again and the battle resumed.
---
At last, Makoto dealt the final blow after several gruelling turns that the team spent taking hit after hit. The berserk chimera let out a screech, its form obliterated in the nuclear blast that Anat dished out. Akechi huffed from the sidelines, hopping off of his perch on the railing and walking back towards them.
“Hmph… well done.”
Akira noticed then that Futaba was shaking slightly in her spot beside him. He put a hand on her shoulder. “You good?”
She shook her head, shrugging his gloved hand off of her. Instead she directed her distress at Akechi. “That power to make others turn psychotic… you used it on actual people didn’t you?! You’re out of your mind!”
“Of course I didn’t actually expect you to be defeated by them,” Akechi responded wholly unbothered, ignoring her obvious anger towards him. “You have deceived me and escaped death, after all… hence why I wouldn’t give up my chance to massacre you with my own two hands!”
With that, Akechi unsheathed his laser saber and assumed a fighting stance.
---
After what seemed like an eternity, an utterly spent and exhausted Akechi slumped to the floor clutching his slightly wounded shoulder; breathing labored as he avoided eye contact with everyone in the dimly lit engine room.
‘This isn’t right,’ he thought. ‘This isn’t fair…’
“D-damn it…’ he choked out feebly.
“I can’t believe the ability to drive others mad was born from his heart,” Makoto panted as she stood up straighter. “It’s… sad really, that this is what he’s using his powers for.”
Akira fought the urge to take Akechi’s hand and pull his tattered body up from where he laid on the ground. As the detective continued to utter death threats in their direction, though most of them were sort of hard to make out, he remembered the image of the ideal Kosei student he’d met so many months prior.
How far the mighty have fallen, he supposed.
“Akechi… you’re fighting the wrong people,” Ann urged, snapping Akira out of his reminiscent thoughts. “We both hate Shido! Maybe for different reasons, sure, but our goal is the same!” She stamped her heeled foot angrily. “Why do we have to fight each other? Why can’t we just take him down together?”
Ryuji cleared his throat. “You’re your own person, man… who gives a shit about what Shido thinks or says? You gotta know that.”
Akechi just continued to curse at the ground, his hands scrabbling for purchase against the cold unyielding floor of the ship’s interior.
In the end, it was Morgana who snapped the former Phantom Thief out of his hate-filled stupor.
“... You don’t really hate Akira and the others, do you?”
Akechi went deathly quiet.
Morgana took this as permission to continue. “That smile you had on your face before we fought... that’s how you really feel deep inside, isn’t it?”
A shuddering sob wracked the young detective’s body.
“We know that you know what’s right,” the small black cat spoke on. “Even if you think that people hate you or don’t want you around, that’s not true! You have a right to be here. You have a right to have people who care about you. That’s-”
“Shut up shut UP SHUT UP-” Akechi’s hoarse voice drowned out whatever Morgana was about to say next.
“I know what you’re doing,” he breathed unsteadily, cackling. “You’re trying to get me to change my mind. To spare you from the punishment you deserve… but you’re criminals. Every last one of you.”
Akira opened his mouth to speak again, but Akechi cut him off.
“But me?” he asked. “I’m a celebrity. I was particular about it all; my appearance, my grades, my friends, my job, EVERYTHING.”
His grating tone suddenly disappeared, replaced with something much more tender.
More vulnerable.
“And it’s still not enough,” he breathed. “It’ll never be enough, will it? Not ever. I know that now, I think.” He took an unsteady breath to formulate his words. “But you know what I don’t know?”
Nobody dared answer.
“... Why do they love you?” Akechi inquired again, hardly above a whisper. “No matter how much I try. No matter how little you try, they always come back to you. They care about you. Not about me… why is that?”
Haru let out a heavy sigh. Ryuji’s began to quietly shuffle his feet, a tick he’d developed whenever he began to feel uncomfortable. Akira could practically hear himself sweat.
None of them knew the answer. There was no answer, as far as anyone knew.
“I don’t know,” Akira finally spoke up, admitting what none of them wanted to. “I really don’t know Akechi. I wish I did… I really do. I’m sorry.”
A hoarse laugh rose from deep in Akechi’s chest, replacing the hollow feeling of the room with pure despair. It was the sound of someone who had given up, simply and truly.
“Oh, don’t apologize... the last thing I’d want is pity from attic trash like you,” he growled.
The detective’s haggard figure suddenly flashed with a dark outline of a silhouette which filled them all with a deep sense of dread.
“What was that…?” Makoto asked, dreading the answer she feared was coming.
“A black mask,” Yusuke breathed.
Akira’s mind suddenly flashed with the handful of moments that they’d heard about that particular black mask before; in both Madarame’s and Kaneshiro’s palaces respectively.
It made all too much sense once he put the pieces together.
“It was you. You were behind the mental shutdowns all along,” Haru’s voice barely disguised her thinly veiled anger. Akira realized that she was probably thinking of her father in that moment.
“Oh this is rich,” Akechi’s weary smile returned. “I’m honestly surprised it took you this long… aww, don’t tell me you were actually attached to him?” Akechi was looking at Haru now. Her hand clenched more firmly around the handle of her axe.
“He wasn’t listening to you, right? Selling you off like you were his property or something?” Akechi taunted, feeling like overstepping his bounds a bit now that he’d spilled practically his guts to the world.
Haru exhaled shakily, not breaking eye contact.
“... Would you like to hear how I did it?” The question was rhetorical of course; Akechi dangling the answer in front of Haru like it was some kind of sadistic game they were playing.
“Well I’ll tell you,” he grinned as if he were telling the funniest joke in the world. “I waited until you said your last goodbyes, then right as I saw him raise his head and the light return to his eyes I sent two bullets straight into him. One through the chest, the other clear through his-”
“STOP IT ALREADY!” Haru was crying now, not with sorrow but with rage.
Makoto had her arms around Haru’s short frame, not only holding her steady but holding her back. Large tears began to spill down Haru’s face as her fists trembled at her sides; her girlfriend running strong yet slender hands down her shoulders and hushing her as the sobs threatened to escape her throat.
“You’re a monster,” Haru managed to choke out. “Plain and simple… only a monster could do such a thing.”
“Haru don’t-” Morgana started but Akechi interrupted him.
“No, she’s right. She’s absolutely right,” Akechi agreed. “And you know, honestly who am I even kidding? There’s no point in seeking Shido’s acknowledgement anymore, not really.” He could hardly keep the laughter out of his voice. “It’s only your deaths that will satisfy me now.”
Before anyone can react or stop him, a red haze seeps up from the ground beneath Akechi’s feet. His cackling laughter reaches a shrill peak as he screams the words “Come, Loki!”
The same figure as before emerges from behind Akechi’s form, this time not shrouded in shadow, but bathed in a heady red light. It was decorated with brilliant, zig-zagging stripes and two long horns, accompanied by a pair of cloven hooves. Its long, red-tinged braids danced around it as it unsheathed a sword seemingly from thin air.
This was Goro Akechi’s true self.
“Shit shit shit shit-” Akira could faintly hear Ryuji chanting behind him, sounding panicked as honestly none of them had even remotely seen this coming.
Slowly, the tendrils dancing from beneath Akechi’s feet began wrapping around his body, enveloping him in pitch black armor.
“I’ll kill you… I’ll destroy you, I’ll eradicate you from this earth--!”
A pillar of darkness shot upwards and surrounded Akechi entirely, waves of pure dark energy coming off of him in spades.
“Shit shIT SHIT SHIT-” Ryuji’s chanting grew in volume.
Akechi ran the clawed hands of his outfit down his face, his laughter refusing to cease. The black, helmet-like mask appeared and covered his face almost entirely, leaving only his eyes and mouth visible in a crude depiction of a toothed grin. He appeared to struggle for breath as waves of hysteria came off of him and spread rapidly throughout the room.
“Brace yourselves…!” Morgana cried in warning as the first flurry of attacks begun.
---
The battle was brutal.
Akira was already so, so tired but he held it together for both the team and himself. As Akechi steadily weakened he lowered himself to a kneeling position and panted frustratedly.
“Why… why are you looking at me like that…”
Akira wasn’t entirely sure what he meant, only wanting to end that battle as quickly as possible. It could be that he was gazing sorrowfully at the young detective without even realizing it, at this point he wasn’t really sure what he felt. The crazed energy in the room was making his head spin, Loki’s influence causing everyone to be a bit on edge. Haru had stopped crying and was now looking on coldly as she delivered assault after assault. Both Morgana and Makoto were on standby as support while Yusuke and Ryuji took turns taking the bigger hits.
Everything was working out almost perfectly on their end, and yet…
As Akira looked back to Akechi’s slowly withering form, he couldn’t help but feel an emotion he couldn't quite name yet. Maybe it was sorrow, empathy. Hell, maybe it was even grief for something that he’d never really lost. A friendship that had never really blossomed.
He couldn’t lock gazes with Akechi much longer. It made him hurt in a way he didn’t understand.
Luckily he didn’t have to for much longer, as Haru quickly and efficiently commanded her persona to deal the final blow. Akechi let out one final scream as he collapsed to the floor, his limp hand finally releasing the sword within his grasp.
They waited a moment for Akechi to pull himself up to a sitting position. He looked ragged as hell, not to mention completely beat to shit. He was hardly recognizable as the prim and proper high school student they’d known only weeks before
“... You ready to call it quits?” Ryuji sounded almost dead on his feet, having protected Akira and the others from a few of Akechi’s stronger attacks during that battle.
“I know. I’ve had enough…” Akechi wheezed. “... God, You’re so lucky, you know that?”
Akira blinked, not expecting that turn in the conversation.
“You’re… lucky to have teammates that acknowledge you. Friends who love you,” he continued, pausing to cough. “And once Shido confesses his crimes you’ll all be heroes. Just like you wanted.”
Akechi hid his face, voice trembling as he spoke. “As for me? Well, I guess I don’t really have to answer that one for you, now do I?” He forced out a chuckle. “Hah… both an accomplice and a murderer, there’s not an ounce of mercy waiting for me outside these walls.”
Nobody dared sugarcoat the truth, they all knew it after all. As loathe as they were to admit it, Akechi would never get out of this situation home free.
“In the end, I wasn’t special. All those cases I solved were just a farce that I used to build my reputation after teaming up with Shido. Underneath all the fame I’m just nothing, a nobody.”
“... You know that’s not actually the truth, right?” Makoto finally raised her voice. “To be honest… for a long time, I actually envied your talent and natural ability. Your strength and intelligence are traits you should be proud of, and a force to be reckoned with from a “criminal’s” perspective, so to speak.” She allowed herself a slight grin, shifting her feet. “I really looked up to you when you first joined the force, you know. My sister trusted you so much, you have no idea.”
Akechi said nothing, appearing to be at a complete loss for words.
Ryuji broke away from the group and walked up to Akechi’s hunched form. He kneeled down to look him in the eye in a somewhat consoling manner.
“After we send this calling card, we’re gonna kick Shido’s ass. What are you gonna do?”
“It’s not too late to help us by the way,” Ann piped up. “It’d be a pain in the ass of we kept running into each other anyways, so why not settle the score as a team?”
“... What are you, stupid?” Akechi asked incredulously. “You should get rid of me… if you don’t want me, um, getting in your way.” He let out another laugh of disbelief. “I really don’t get you. ANY of you.”
Their brief heart-to-heart was interrupted by the soft sound of footsteps approaching them. An all too familiar figure emerged from the shadows surrounding the engine room, strolling up to them as if he owned the place.
“A-akechi?!” Ryuji choked out. “But... you’re-”
Akira immediately noticed the small black tendrils licking at the figure’s ankles, but Morgana spoke up before he could. “That must be Shido’s cognitive version of Akechi,” he said, his hackles raising.
The room tensed as cognitive Akechi chuckled and drew his gun, pointing it at the crumpled form of his true self.
“I’ll deal with the rest of you later,” he said hollowly and without malice. He spoke without any emotion at all and it honestly creeped Akira out a bit.
The false Akechi turned his gaze back to the real one. “Captain Shido’s orders; I am to dispose of you at once, since we have no need for failures.”
True Akechi’s eyes widened the slightest bit in shock, obviously surprised that the politician knew of his whereabouts and had so quickly dispatched someone to take care of him
“Well, I suppose this just moves the plan up a little,” cognitive Akechi mused, ignoring his doppelganger’s stunned silence. “He was going to get rid of you after the election anyway.”
“...What?”
The double snorted. “Did you truly believe that you’d be spared after all the murders that you undertook?” He paused, seemingly mulling something over. “Oh, don’t tell me… were you actually feeling good about having someone rely on you for once?”
The true Akechi’s frame shook as he laughed wryly, pulling himself up off of the floor. “I was wondering how he’d protect himself if I’d suddenly decided to go rogue.” He fell silent for a moment before speaking again, a somewhat sorrowful expression overcoming him. “So he’s making a puppet kill me… seems like something he’d do.”
“That’s right, I’ll do anything,” the cognition’s listless voice agreed, nodding. “But just look at you, on the other hand. Aren’t you the true puppet in this scenario?”
The young detective grit his teeth and looked at the floor, saying nothing.
“You wanted to be acknowledged by someone, didn’t you?” He pressed. “To experience even the semblance of love? You’ve been nothing but a puppet from the very beginning.”
Akira could feel Ryuji tense and let out a soft growl as Akechi’s cognitive self kept pushing his real self's buttons; revealing how little Shido actually cared for his illegitimate son. It was painful in a way that was hard to comprehend entirely, but it hurt nonetheless.
Without warning, the cognition’s attention was turned onto their group. “And what’s all this about? Is there a problem?” Without moving a single finger, the fake summoned a whole cluster of shadows out of thin air. They loomed menacingly behind the two versions of Akechi.
“Since I’m feeling particularly generous, I’ll even let someone volunteer to take his place. Who knows? You might even delay his inevitable death.” The double's face slowly morphed into a sadistic grin. “I mean, the Phantom Thieves are all about doing things for others, right? That’s just the same as me. After all, I’m going to take all the blame for our captain... I’ll die for him too.”
Makoto let out a pained noise. “I still can’t believe this is how Shido really thinks of his own son…” she seemed sickened by the very idea.
“Here. I’ll give you one last chance,” the double said, gesturing to the identical pistol that was holstered in his true self’s belt. “Shoot them.”
They all waited helplessly with baited breath as Akechi slowly took his gun and raised it to point right in between Akira’s eyes.
“Yes…” the double hissed. “That’s the you our captain wishes to see.”
True Akechi laughed under his breath as he turned and pointed the gun at his identical self. “Don’t misunderstand,” he said, mouth curved slightly, showing his teeth.
Taking the shot without hesitation, a wickedly sharp BANG echoed throughout the metal room, temporarily disorienting the others. In almost a single instant, cognitive Akechi was kneeling on the ground in pain, as true Akechi was clutching his side desperately. Both guns had fired at the same time.
Akechi then took aim at a spot behind the thieves and fired once more, causing alarms to begin blaring and a voice to ring out:
“The watertight bulkhead door has closed. All personnel within the partition wall, evacuate at once.”
A large, sheet metal wall suddenly separated Akechi from the rest of the group and obscured their view of the other side.
“Whoa, whoa, what’s happening?” Futaba sounded thoroughly panicked now.
“AKECHI!” Ryuji yelled, desperately hoping his voice would carry through the metal door.
“Hurry up and GO,” a broken voice shouted from the other side.
“Are you trying to get yourself killed?!” Yusuke called, sounding much less composed than usual. It was out of character for him to show such levels of distress, but in that moment they all felt the same.
“I told you you should have just left me here,” The detective’s shaky voice carried through the sheet metal. He hacked up a cough that really honestly didn’t sound too great and Akira’s mind was racing a mile a minute trying to figure out how he could get them all out of there safely.
“Akechi!” Makoto had resorted to frustratedly banging on the barrier between them.
After an extremely uncomfortable length of silence in which Akira was starting to think he’d lost Akechi already, the detective’s voice spoke weakly.
“Let’s make a deal… okay?”
Akira put his hand against the metal barrier where he knew Akechi’s voice was carrying through.
“... You won’t say no, will you?” Akechi's voice croaked.
“Of course not,” Akira answered without hesitation. He was starting to tear up. He honestly hated this he hated it he hated it so much-
“Change Shido’s heart... in my stead, end his crimes. Please.” Akechi sounded like he was choking up now as well, the reality of the situation sinking in faster than either of them wanted it to.
“Okay, okay I promise,” Akira whispered against the unforgiving wall between them. He was pressed up so tightly against it, it was almost as if he were trying to pull Akechi through it.
“You bastard…!” The warbled voice of Akechi’s cognitive double was audible as they all simultaneously heard the click of a gun cocking. Yet somehow, in that moment, Goro Akechi felt more at peace than he ever had before. He smiled to himself, taking a moment to appreciate the irony of the whole situation.
“So, my final enemy is a puppet of myself huh?”
He cocked his own pistol.
“... Not bad.”
The last sounds to grace the room were two gunshots and Ann’s resounding scream of the former detective’s name.