The Earth After Rebirth

It was a particularly cold night, snow fell harder as if to say goodbye at last. The lower district knew just how to celebrate holidays, but this part of the country was almost dead.

Two hooded figures could be seen standing in front of a pillar, with both their backs to the pillar and to each other.

It was a suspicious scene, but nobody seemed to be there to witness it but themselves.

"Why do we need to be in cloaks again? Nobody is here." One of the men commented.

"Can never be too safe. Turn on your sound distorter, even though only a few words trigger the system they're always listening."

An atrocious sound wailed across the vicinity. The other figure had an urge to close off his ears to the sound.

"Are you sure this sound it makes can't be heard from anywhere else?"

"Affirmative. Have we ever been caught before?"

"Where did you even get this?"

"Then, where are we, with the investigation?" The man asked instead ignoring the question he deemed unnecessary and stupid.

"Far from discovering anything worthwhile, they're very careful. They don't let anything slip in our regular meetings, however drunk they get."

"You're within their ranks aren't you? How hard could it be?"

The other man sighed, "why does it feel you're putting the blame on me? we had the information, Eldric is the one who went and got caught with the proof."

"Crying over spilt milk isn't going to take us anywhere." He reprimanded. "Why are you becoming childish the older you get? You were never like this during your academy years." He mocked, trying to get a rise from him.

The man chose to ignore the insult, if he were to start an argument over it now, that'd prove the insult right. He didn't know what it was, but he was no longer patient like he was in his youth. He'd lost too many friends to this struggle.

"Have you met the boy? He embodies the spirit of Eldric, though I don't know whether that's a blessing or a curse." He instead changed the subject.

"I've obviously met him, to be honest I don't know either. But he does seem to know things we don't." He said reminiscing to when he had met the boy, it was truly a wonder.

"Yes, he's wise beyond his years. The way he took the company right under Blakeson's nose, I have to say, he gave us a win here. I couldn't have imagined how much more powerful Gilbert would've gotten had he acquired that company."

"Oh right, the company I told you to seize a long time ago? But couldn't because, he'd already called dibs? You rich folk are a strange bunch." He wanted to slap him senseless.

"Why does it seem like you're excluding yourself, you yourself are a part of high society, are you not?"

"Regrettably." The man spat, disgusted that he had helped shape the current society, one way or another.

"Regret has never undone the regretted. Only through out actions can we prove that we're truly against the status quo. But we're stuck, the boy seems to be our only hope."

"Didn't he get kidnapped just a few days ago?" He asked, not exactly wanting to put all their hopes on a single boy.

"Escaped, having murdered the culprits though. He's very capable, who knows what Eldric left him with."

He laughed bitterly, "poor lad, I feel bad that he has to go through so much."

"We had to go through so much, besides he seems capable and knows what he's doing. Should we reveal ourselves to him?"

"Not yet, with everything that's been going on I'm sure he trusts no one, this will only alarm him. Let's continue protecting him from the shadows."

The snow's downpour had seized at this point. The two men continued their conversations, trying to come up with countermeasures.

They didn't want the past to repeat itself. Losing Eldric was the biggest blow to their goal. Although not rich, he was their pillar as higher ups who wanted change.

They realised too late that, they'd dangerously put him on the spot. And the man was too much of a courageous one to ever back down from a fight.

When he was exposed to the evils of their society, they couldn't do much to save him. One of them was even present during his capture, unable to do anything because if he openly opposed, that would raise suspicion.

They wanted to clean their society without causing a war of some kind. It had to be clean, just the people who were rotten should pay, leaving the society intact and without chaos.

But this was more difficult to achieve than any of them anticipated. They started this as young boys and recruited along the way, but they've yet to show the fruits of their labour, that's how difficult and cunning their opponents were.

"Eldric would kill us if we let his grandson die, we better do a better and cleaner job than the one 10 years ago."

The other man sighed, nodding in agreement as if his partner in crime could see him.

"People continue to disappear every day, it's an embarrassment that we can't locate where they disappear to."

It was truly awful, it seemed like instead of coming here for good news, they just came here to count their many failures. They thought that, this was their last chance, if they failed now they didn't deserve anything good.

"Roger. Well, I'm off." The man started walking off, his heavy footsteps digging deeper into the snow.

"If you have nothing the next time we meet, I'll beat you to a pulp, kid." He commented solemnly.

He laughed at this, he had no idea where he'd look next. Every place he looked turned out to be a disappointment, if he was honest with himself, he was tired.

"Yes, yes." He waved his hand and disappeard into the night.