Missed me?

They made it to New York without further incident, ditching their van and hot wiring a rundown Corolla from a junkyard outside of the city. Tyler had been oddly quiet since they left the house, staring blankly at the back of Ryan's seat. He kept running his fingers over the healing cut in his neck where they'd taken out the chip.

As Hayley drove through the backroads, avoiding any public areas in case Templar could still be following them, Josh scooted closer towards Tyler, breaking him out of his trance.

"You okay?" He asked, removing his hand from his neck.

"No," Tyler answered, smiling stiffly. "The chip shocked the everloving fuck out of me."

"I'm sorry. Does it still hurt?"

He shook his head, craning his neck around in a circle. "Just a little stiff. I'll live."

Ryan turned in his seat, tossing them a couple Subway sandwiches. "Get ready, fellas, we're almost there."

"Where's your mom, anyways?" Josh asked, unwrapping his sandwich and taking as big of a a bite as he can.

"She's got an apartment outskirts of Hell's Kitchen, near the cemetery my dad's buried. I haven't been here since I graduated high school."

"I thought your mom was dead," Hayley commented.

"Step mom. She died from diabetic issues. Happens to the best of us, I guess."

Tyler leaned over to bite off of Josh's sandwich despite having a perfectly good one in his lap. "What family do you have, Hayley?"

"Well, unlike the rest of you sad fucks, I don't have daddy issues. Mom, dad, older sister. Just a happy New England family." She sighed, turning down a street. "But I haven't spoken to them in years."

"Why not? You've had the opportunity, right?"

"Yeah, but after I went missing, there's no way they'll want to see me. I'm tainted, hellish. It's better if they think I'm dead."

Josh smacked Tyler's hand away from his sandwich. "That's not true. I'm sure they'd kill to see you again, tainted or not," he said.

She went silent for a few moments before responding quietly. "I hope so."

They pulled up to a rundown apartment building, complete with broken windows and fucked up shingles. The smog of the city hung in a thick layer above them. Josh finished his sandwich and helped Tyler out of the car.

Hayley hopped out of the front, slipping a gun into the waistband of her jeans as Ryan went ahead of them, pressing the buzzer on the outside of the building. Josh walked up to him, watching a guy behind a desk slam a button. The door clicked opened, and the four entered.

"Hey, George," Ryan said.

The bored man who looked older than the dinosaurs lit up when Ryan spoke, a grin spreading across his wrinkles face. "Is that Ryan Ross back from the dead? You've grown a lot. It's been a while, kiddo."

"Yeah, ten years. I didn't think you still worked the desk."

"Ah, there's no other work for me in this city." The man grunted as he waved them towards the elevators. "You go on, say hi to your ma for me."

"I will. Thanks, George."

Ryan ushered them others into the elevator, pressing the fourth floor button and staying silent at the doors closed. Josh looked at him, trying to get a read on the man. He wasn't as good at analyzing people like Tyler, but he'd picked up a few tricks here and there.

"He didn't notice you were blind," Josh said.

"He's not well off in the eye sight department either, Dun," Ryan replied. "I'm surprised he recognized me at all. I've changed a lot."

The doors opened and they followed Ryan as he led them to his mother's apartment. Josh noticed that one of the doors in the hall was cracked open, the bolt chain clamped between the door. He put his hand in front of Tyler and Hayley, stopping them.

"Ryan." The man stopped. "Your mom's apartment isn't 415, is it?"

After a beat, Ryan bolted through the open door, immediately being knocked out of the room and into the wall across from the apartment. Josh ran up to help him up. Hayley and Tyler barged into the room, bullets whizzing all around them.

A man stood a few feet inside of the apartment, tall and buff as all hell, with a machine gun rested on his hip. It was pretty easy to discern that he was from the Templar, but not super powered like they were.

Hayley ran at him and easily knocked the man down to the floor, shooting him in the head. She turned and shot someone else Josh couldn't see from outside of the door, then motioned for Tyler to check the rest of the apartment.

"Is there any sign of her?" Ryan asked as Josh helped him to his feet.

"Not yet," Hayley responded.

Josh and Ryan entered the apartment. Despite the obvious mess of knocked over shelves and two cult guy corpses on the carpet, everything else was neat and clean. The curtains were pulled back, windows open. Even a pot of water boiled on the stove in the kitchen.

"Guys, she's here!" Tyler shouted from another room.

They followed him into the the master bedroom, where they came across an older woman, face down in a pool of drying blood near the door. She held a ladle in one hand, an apron torn off of her body and lying next to her. Her eyes stared at the wall, red splattered across her face.

As soon as Ryan stepped into the room, his face went white, and he slowly fell to his knees. He felt around until he grasped the woman's face, running his fingers across her features. For a moment, he knelt there, holding his mother's head in his hands before he screamed and punched the floor, cracking one of the wood planks with the force.

Hayley approaches him first, resting her hand on his shoulder. "I'm so sorry, hun. We- we were too late."

"She's still warm," he mumbled, voice cracking with rage and pain. "They just killed her. They were one step ahead. One."

"Ryan, I cant imagine how hard this must be, but we gotta go," she said, tugging gently on his shirt.

"I can't leave her like this."

Josh went and grabbed her legs. "I'll help."

Ryan looked up at him with appreciation and nodded. They lifted her body onto the bed, Josh fixing her clothes as Ryan combed her hair until it sat neatly around her head. He kissed her forehead, closing her eyes before straightening and heading out of the apartment.