The End of an Era

"So, it's come to this, Gin," the bulkier man, Garrett Karmin muses. The lean man, Gin Sloane, keeps his sub-machine gun trained on Garrett as he removes his mask.

"Why don't ya take that thing off as well?!" Gin growls.

Garrett stares for a moment before removing his own mask. He stares for a moment at the kevlar vests they tossed aside in their brief brawl moments ago. The rain has soaked into them; they would've weighed the men down had they not removed them.

"Look at me!" Gin roars. "Look at me when you're trying to stab me in the back!"

Garrett looks ahead of him once more, his gentle, sincere eyes meeting the cold, hardened glare Gin returns. Garrett flashes a soft smile.

"No. Look at us," Garrett sighs. "Eight years ago we were petty criminals who were bunking in adjoining cells. I still remember that day. You were the new guy; 'Fish', you were called, because you didn't stand a chance in that ocean when all you were used to was your bowl. I was already in there for embezzlement, and you were in for... what was it again?"

Gin's eye twitches in annoyance, shaking free a raindrop from his eyebrow.

"Trespass with intent to harm," Gin answers, "but the weasel would've deserved it!"

"And the anti-government and law propaganda didn't help your sentence one bit."

"And my gut told me that you couldn't be trusted. Not everything is as it seems on the surface, is it?!"

Gin takes two steps towards Garrett, forcing his colleague to grip his pistol with both hands, keeping it steady.

"And then he came along. Told us we could enter a rehabilitation course, go to boot camp and serve in the army. From the very start he just used us. But it wasn't bad. First we had to find the traitor in the camp and take care of him, any means necessary."

Gin laughs a laugh that rivals the thunder-strike in the background.

"And lo and behold, it's all come full circle!" he bellows.

"You think I want to do this?!" Garrett snaps, taking a step forward himself. "We are partners! Brothers! T.W.I.N. members!"

Gin remains unmoved. He just scoffs.

"... Were. We had fun before this, I'll admit; but I wonder if you'd been planning this for a long time. True World Initiative Network. Correcting the corruption of the world. Yeah right."

"Gin! We are private military contractors! We've always worked for the highest bidder with the highest morals! Remember the time we went to Africa to prevent the slaver Quin'lan Keeter from causing an uprising?!"

"Yeah. He may have had a big gun, but just one bullet between his eyes did the trick."

"You saved my life that day. And then there was Al-Anfaal, the arms dealer in the Middle East!"

"Y'know, I bought that compound. It had some impressive fortifications back then. The two of us definitely needed to have each other's backs."

"China. Han Ford, CEO of Gen-Tek."

"He was the supplier for Al-Anfaal. Coward placed a WMD in Beijing, so Jeff, you and I had to disarm it, but Han wasn't giving up the location and we only had forty days."

"But we did it," Garrett smiles.

"Then we went after the banker, then the ringleader of the Panzers, Link Caulfield. He had that mech suit with the Gatling guns on his shoulders, but once we closed the distance he got panicked. Finally we got him backed into a corner."

"Then MK took him out to clear our names. He didn't want the cameras catching us executing an unarmed prisoner," Garrett reminisces.

Gin begins to relax his body slightly, but the heavy rain hides his slight movements from Garrett.

"MK was a great handler. The best we could've hoped for," Gin sighs.

"All that happened in the span of two and a half years."

"And we enjoyed a peaceful break for the next three years... I even started a family."

"I know, Gin."

A furious look flashes in Gin's eyes as he tenses his body, raising the barrel of his gun to Garrett's head.

"You broke bread with us! I invited you into my home! I let you be Lena's godfather! You've seen why I have to do this!"

Garrett raises his pistol to match Gin's target; his head.

"I have a fiancé I have to get back to as well! It doesn't have to be this way! You can still take the deal, same as me! Nobody has to die today!"

"You think I'm gonna go back and rot in a damn cell?!"

"You have to! Then they'll let my fiancé go, your wife and daughter too! They'll also release Macy and Lauren-Nicole! Our protégés!"

"MY protégés! I found them, I recruited them and I trained them!"

"They're the second generation of our organisation!"

"You don't have that right anymore! You're the one who took a deal to live a nice life so long as you send me back to jail! Where's my happy ending?! What the hell is my daughter going to think when she hears her daddy can't come back home because his former partner sold him out?!"

"I'll work to get you a reduced sentence! I'll leave T.W.I.N. to Macy Grace and Lauren-Nicole Horner!"

Garrett notices Gin's hand shake and his trigger finger twitch. On impulse he charges at his partner, smacking his gun aside. A shot rings out through the air as Garrett tackles Gin. Gin's gun slides across the rooftop, out of reach, as Gin crashes his right elbow into the back of Garrett's right shoulder, disarming him.

"This dance again?!" Gin roars as he pushes Garrett off him.

He crawls along the ground towards Garrett's gun when the bigger man hurries over to Gin and pins him to the ground. Gin continues to reach forward as Garrett grabs his radio from his hip.

"This is agent Karmin, T.W.I.N. operative, requesting backup on the rooftop of the Waterlock complex factory."

He chuckles as he replaces the radio back onto his hip.

"You remember this place, Gin? This was where we finally outsmarted MK and completed our first contract after four failures when he arranged another contractor to take on the same missions. That was also Macy and Lauren-Nicole's first mission."

"Everything. Has. Been. A. Set-up!" Gin gasps as he struggles for breath under Garrett's weight.

"Yeah," Garrett agrees, "but this one now wasn't set up by MK. No way he would hold our families hostage and risk us ending up in this state; at each other's throats in a situation where only one of us could make it out alive. Especially when you're so stubborn."

"That's why... I was his favourite!"

Gin finally reaches his hand around the grip, squeezing the trigger with his thumb. Garrett rolls off and yelps in pain, holding his thigh as blood trickles through his fingers. Gin now stands over him, holding his own pistol to his head.

"Yeah. What would he say if he were here now?"

The sudden sound of thunder startles Gin, allowing Garrett to once again disarm him and hoist him over his shoulder in order to grab his gun in time. By the time he grabs his gun again and aims it at Gin, the lean man has also rearmed himself with his sub-machine gun.

A fatal shot echoes through the air, the sound of rain becoming nonexistent to the two soldiers. With a nod of acknowledgement and respect they both drop their guns and hobble towards each other. The injured man collapses into the arms of his shooter, who eases him to the ground. They both smile to each other, then shed a tear together as they hold each others hands.

"You did... what you had to... brother," the dying man breathes as the last of his life drains from his body. He passes away with a smile etched onto his face.

"I'm so sorry, G," the survivor apologies, clenching his free fist. "Why didn't you shoot?! Why did you leave this burden on me?!"

A bright light shocks him, blinding him for a moment before he looks at the pilot of the helicopter.

"Freeze!" a voice calls out from the intercom. "This is the police! You are under arrest!"

The survivor freezes for a moment before looking down at his partner's body.

"Don't worry, G," he smiles. "I'll save that cell next door for you."