Ethan solemnly stared up at the full moon as he savoured the cancer sticks he was hooked on.

*What’s the deal with you, the big guy, and his family?* Elara questioned.

Ethan exhaled smoke slowly.

"Mark’s my friend..."

He paused.

"My brother."

Another pause.

"His family raised me from around eight."

*Why? Where was your family?* she questioned curiously.

Ethan took another drag before answering casually, "My mother died."

*What about your father?*

He shrugged.

"Fuck knows."

There was a small, humourless smile.

"After all, my mother was an escort."

There was a heavy silence, with Elara freezing mid-sign, unsure what to figuratively say.

"She did what she had to do," he continued, his tone calmer now. "She’s just an unfortunate product of her environment, just like Mark."

*What do you mean? Is he an escort, too?*

For a brief second, Ethan imagined his giant friend dancing on a pole or selling his body.

He snorted.

"No."

A laughed faintly.

"What I meant is that he’s a good guy who got dealt a bad hand, just like many others who grew up around here years ago."

Now with Titled, who could soar the skies, and gates that could suddenly appear and destroy your homes, weirdly, the world felt more peaceful. As if a common enemy had brought humanity together.

But even just a decade back, it was entirely different.

Elara, seeing that Ethan didn’t mind answering her questions, continued.

*What about you? Are you not a good guy who was just unlucky?*

He smiled slightly, amused by the sentiment.

That expression was enough of an answer, as he began opening up to the red-eyed A Rank sat beside him.

’It’s not like she can tell anyone,’ he joked internally.

Elara’s eyes remained glued to Ethan, who stared off into the distance. She bobbed her head back and forth, dodging the cigarette smoke, but wanting to remain close to him.

"Now that I think about it..." he said slowly, "all the trouble we got into was because of me."

He had never admitted that aloud.

"Mark was good at school and sports. He’s tall, good-looking, and could’ve done anything. Even pro basketball was possible if he put his mind to it."

Another drag.

"But instead, he fucked around with me."

He exhaled.

"It was me who wanted the adrenaline, the easy money, the empty respect."

His voice hardened slightly.

"The violence, the risk, it made me feel something. It made me feel alive. And I lived like I had nothing to lose."

He let out a bitter chuckle.

"But I did, and boy, did it cost me. Spending all that time with the scum of the Earth, I realised I fit right in."

Elara raised a brow, unsure what he was talking about, but he continued his monologue.

"I always told myself I was hustling for my family, doing it for them. That’s a lie. I did it simply because I liked it."

Ethan looked down briefly.

"We could’ve gotten normal jobs and probably made just as much or even more, but we didn’t because of me. That’s why I took the fall that night..."

Elara shifted slightly, feeling the tension.

*What happened?* she questioned anxiously.

The blue-eyed man remained quiet for a moment as he reminisced about that night, which changed his life. But now was finally the time to talk about it to someone for the first time and put it behind him for good.

"We planned a robbery and someone got shot," he said indifferently.

That’s what everyone knew, but nobody truly knew the ins and outs except him, Mark, and apparently his mother, Clarissa.

"Everything went perfectly. We took down those transporting the money as planned, but there was one more person we hadn’t expected," he continued.

"It was the target, who was some big-time crook. Brothels, gambling dens, drugs - he did it all. And as you’d expect, he had a gun."

Ethan’s voice lowered.

"As we were leaving with the haul, he blocked my path and was about to shoot me. Mark, who was ahead, didn’t hesitate and jumped on the guy."

Elara’s heart was racing as she heard his recollection of that night, as if she were living it alongside him.

"We were just kids, but we had a rule: we didn’t use guns. Guns killed, left GSR, and put you on the NYPD’s radar. Even without them, we still managed to handle things with our fists."

"But in this case, as Mark was struggling to get control of the pistol, it went off."

Elara gasped.

"Everyone froze. That’s when I rushed over to make sure my friend hadn’t been shot, but he was fine. Well, not quite. He was shaking and literally had someone’s blood on his hands."

Ethan exhaled slowly.

"I told him to run and slapped him to snap him out of it."

*What about you?*

"I knew we weren’t getting away with it, especially not with a body. They would need to hold someone accountable for this. We might have been able to get away with a robbery, definitely not a murder."

That made sense, but Elara could feel that Ethan was leaving something out.

*Did the guy die straight away? Where was he shot?*

He sighed.

"Mark wanted us to call an ambulance and help with his bleeding. Maybe the guy might have survived if we did, but that would mean both of us would be fucked."

"If Aunty and the others lost us both, it would break them. But they could bear to lose one, especially the one they took in and wasn’t their flesh and blood."

"And even if he didn’t snitch, he would definitely come after us, and that would put everyone at risk."

It was almost like he was justifying himself before telling her what he did.

"The guy was begging for his life, for us to help him, but ironically, I couldn’t take the risk. I looked him in the eyes and..."

"Bang!"

Elara jumped slightly, startled by him.

"I ended it, firing at his face"

Ethan laughed dryly as she stared at him open-eyed.

’As bad as it sounds, after my second kill, the first doesn’t feel that significant. And who knows if that will be my last...’

He lit another cigarette as the A Rank waited for him to continue.

"Mark was even more shaken after that, but I managed to get him to calm down when I mentioned his family. I killed that man, not Mark, so he didn’t have to carry that weight, and he could live his life like normal with that cash."

"Of course, he didn’t want to, but as sirens closed in on us and seeing that I had already made up my mind, he picked up a duffel and made a break for it."

Ethan smirked.

"I was arrested minutes later, and the rest is history."

He took another drag, and after laying things out openly, they felt trivial.

"In the grand scheme of things, with these gates and Titles, it doesn’t matter. But I guess it shaped who we are."

Then, without looking back, he called out, "You gonna join us or just stay there?"

Mark had been there and had heard enough of Elara and Ethan’s conversation. He had left to join them moments after they left, knowing his friend enough to know where he went.

He always went to the roof when he needed some space.

But after what his friend had said, the large man couldn’t help but feel conflicted.

’You are a good person, Ethan, and they are your family as well. Only God knows what might have happened if you didn’t do what you did.’

He was scared to think about it.

’Maybe we both would have gotten away with it, and nobody would have died. But maybe we both would have been arrested. Or maybe something even worse.’

’I guess all we can do now is live in the moment and move on.’

Mark climbed up slowly, settling beside them.

"I forgot you’ve got a nose like a dog now," was all he said.

Ethan smirked slightly.

He had wanted his friend to hear everything he had to say, since neither had spoken about that night since it happened. And now that it was out in the air, they felt like a weight had been lifted off their chests.

They sat silently, staring at the starry night sky.

Then, after burning through an entire pack of cigarettes, Ethan finally exhaled one last stream toward the sky and pushed himself to his feet.

The moon still hung high above them, bright and watchful, casting a pale glow across the rooftops. It felt like time had slowed up there, like the world below had been paused just long enough for him to breathe.

But he knew that feeling wouldn’t last much longer.

"We should get moving," Ethan said, his voice calm.

Mark glanced at him, already knowing that tone. "Yeah... figured you’d say that."

He stood as well, dusting off his hands before looking between Ethan and Elara, the odd duo who now inhabited his bar.

"Just don’t destroy the place."

Ethan smiled, "I’ll try."

With that, they parted ways with the blue-eyed man having only one thing on his mind.

’Time to go back into that fucking tower.’