No Turning Back

Chapter One: No Turning Back

The three men sat around the fire in silence - no one had spoken much since that day. They all bowed their heads as they watched the embers crackle and spark before fading to ashes. As the flames raged and warred, Dempsey felt a deep rooted anger welling within him.

He refused to believe that Kiana could have met such a fate - or Primis. Richtofen was indestructible, which Dempsey conceded; and to think that he, or any other version of himself, could meet such a fate was downright impossible. It seemed so obvious to Dempsey yet he could not get his comrades to see this. And it frustrated him greatly.

Any time he tried to bring it up with Takeo or Nikolai they would always shut him down. As hard as it was for them they had come to terms with it. And to them, Dempsey's denial was simply part of his grief. He just needed to give himself time to accept it. But Dempsey knew deep down, deep in the pit of his stomach, that she was still alive. There was no doubt Primis was still alive and Dempsey knew that he would always be there to protect Kiana.

And the anger he currently felt boiling up was due to how Richtofen was dealing with things. Ever since that day, he had reverted back to the sadistic monster they first met. The one that existed before Kiana came into their lives. And, of course, he made sure to carry on like nothing happened. Not even a mention of her name had escaped his lips since it happened.

One thing the three men did agree on however was that Richtofen's  behaviour had changed dramatically since Kiana was not around. His manic episodes had increased in frequency as his sanity was slowly beginning to elude him. The grounded, calculating genuis he showed to the world was beginning to crumble as he immersed himself in his 'work'. And there was no doubt that whatever he was doing was linked to his Grand Scheme.

This was their second night in the Ragnarök facility yet Richtofen had already seen fit to set up some kind of autopsy room. The first day they arrived, Richtofen immediately got to work repairing the teleporter - which made sense - however the autopsy room did not. Richtofen would lock himself away from the others and stay up to the wee hours of the morning as he conducted his 'research'.

This was the kind if thing Richtofen would do for fun and Dempsey did think that perhaps there was no rhyme or reason behind it. But sadly this was to the detriment of their sleep; the three men would lie awake cringing and and squirming as they were forced to listen to his manical cackling and outbursts of violence.

But Dempsey knew Richtofen was masking something; he knew exactly what happened that day. Yet, he saw it fit to conceal what really happened from Dempsey, Takeo and Nikolai. It was clearly for a reason as Richtofen always used everything to his own advantage.

"Dempsey... Dempsey!" a voice called out which tore him from his thoughts.

"Dempsey!" The voice shouted again. Dempsey snapped back to reality and turned to the source of the noise.

"Dempsey, it is your turn for night watch", Takeo reminded him. Dempsey looked at Takeo in a daze before he finally came around.

"Takeo...", Dempsey whispered - earning a look of intrigue from the man in question.

"She's still alive -- I-- I can feel it!" Dempsey proclaimed.

"Richtofen is lying, he's covering something up what really happened that day. I know it!" Dempsey cried as he stood up in protest. This time, he was going to make sure Takeo and Nikolai listened to him.

"Dempsey--", Nikolai began before his sentence was interrupted with a belch.

"We have gone over this before. You saw how bad thing were in there. The whole place was crawling with hellpigs!" Nikolai continued as he raised his arms dramatically to convey the state of the theatre.