STEEL PARIAH

The Soldier's Return

The rain was very unforgiving, especially on his naked body, riddled with scars...wait, scars. He sat up straight to check his body drenched in blood, his blood. Standing up from the cold, hard asphalt, he reached for his scars, two diagonal lines across his chest that formed an "X", a line across his forehead and his beard which had grown ragged on his chiseled jaw but, he had a different problem altogether, which was, he didn't know anything. His name, how he got to where he was, how he got the scars, all...lost.

A dark figure approached from a nearby alley, instincts told him to be on guard. "You're lost" the figure spoke "You want to remember, no?" it continued with a mild italian accent. He seemed unsure of what the mystery man said. "Yes, you can help me with that?" he asked in a formal british accent "Yes, Damian Chase...if you're willing, come with me". Damian hesitated, then step by step, he walked towards the dark alley. Suddenly, his attention was taken by a thief who ran around the curb, intelligently wielding a knife. As soon as he saw Damian, he thrust forward and in a flash Damian jabbed the man in the hollow of his elbow and he nicked himself in the shoulder.

"H-How did I do that?" he asked the dark alley wide-eyed. "You are still capable of so much more...you ready to unlock the possibilities?". Damian backed away into the alley. With every step, his scars healed, until he disappeared from sight...naked and all.

FIVE YEARS LATER

CHAPTER 1

Inside The Big Ben, London.

Damian didn't know what he enjoyed more, the fact that he had the best view of the city...or that his assignments were going according to plan. His phone rang

"Hello?"

"Hellor Damien. How're you my boy?!" It was the italian, Alexander Caeser, Damian would've been able to find him in a market full of italians just by his voice, "Yes, Caeser, what now?" he answered, his british accent had dulled down a notch due to his constant stay with Caeser

"I'll send you a picture of your next target" the message entered, it was the picture of a woman, straight long black hair with a few strands of brown, she was slender and good looking, beautiful actually, she was 5'1 in height, from what he could see and she had a beautiful caramel skin with crimson lips.

"She's American, moved here six years ago.Her name is..." Caeser started but was cut short by Damian "...Elisabeth Wales, I know"

"You remember her, no?" "Of course I remember. She is...was my fiancée" he replied with the same indifference he'd been trained with by the italian, apparently he thought it wise not to remind Damian about what emotions were...they always made the job harder than it needed to be.

"Do you need her asleep?" Damian asked "No! She is very vital to our operations, I need her alive. Her bodyguards..meh, not so much" Caeser instructed "She passes by the big ben everyday...she likes to walk, so it makes our job easier"

"Yeah, I see her now...talk later" Then he jumped out of the Big Ben unto the roof of the adjacent house of parliament.

Elisabeth Wales always loved to walk the streets of London at noon time, it was a soothing experience for her, considering the fact that her work would not give her the time out for a vacation but still it was a different scene from the streets of Washington D.C. She enjoyed her walks but hated the fact that her mother insisted on the bodyguards, she was already a twenty-eight year old woman for God sakes. She looked behind her, still the same damned bodyguards, mindless, speechless, emotionless, in other words, Robots. She sighed, how fast things had changed in the last five years since she saw HIM, he made everything brighter with his sense of humour; she also loved the way they used to ditch her bodyguards and return home late at night...until he disappeared, that is.

Her only wish at that current moment, was to see him again "Damian, where are you?"

Damian saw Liz as she walked along the big over the river Thames approaching the Big Ben. He stayed camoflagued on the roof of the adjacent house of parliament sitting leisurely. From his view he saw her 6'2 bodyguards beside her...she looked so small "Liz, you still like black, I see" he mumbled to himself while pulling out his Baretta and screwed on the silencer tube. She still looked very beautiful, she even got prettier but, he didn't feel anything for her, not love, not hate, not contempt, not disgust, not like, just...nothing.

"Well, better get on with it" he told himself. He stood up with his gun in his left hand, closed his right ear with his index finger, aimed for the first bodyguard's head, PEW! The giant fell instantly and pandemonium broke out. Everyone ran here and there, Liz and her bodyguard ran PEW! A second bullet sent her second guard down. Damian looked down at the ruckus he'd made and he saw Elizabeth looking his way, she knew him too well. He waved, moved backwards, ran and jumped onto the side of the Big Ben.

Elizabeth was shocked as she saw Ricky's body plop on the floor, her bodyguard was dead with a bullet hole in his head! She was filled with dread and her adrenaline kicked in, she started running just then, her second bodyguard Blaine fell behind her with a bullet hole in his temple. "Okay Elizabeth, stay calm!" she told herself because she was panicking heavily. Her intelligence went to work; there was no sound so it was a silencer tube, she walked over to Ricky and checked the hole, a sniper would have gone clean through and besides the lighting at this time of day makes the use of a sniper impossible, so handgun, she thought to herself, not fearing that the shooter might strike at her. "Okay, first bullet: forehead, few paces forward, second bullet: temple, so the shot came from north-east of my location" she mumbled to herself.

She stoped there in her tracks and a smiled cracked open on her face that showed her dimples. She traced the angle of the shot on Blaine's temple to a point on the house on the house of parliament because she knew there was only one person in the world she knew who could use a handgun as a sniper and he stood right there at the top of that building, a silhouette stood at the top of the building and waved at her; her bodyguards just died but, she felt happier than she ever has in five years...she just found him...she found Damian at last.