Luck is his middle name. (Demetrios/Parker)

[Morgan Flynn]

It felt like a climb up a mountain by the time they'd gotten there. Parker was usually a lot more lively than this, it was completely opposite of him to be dragging along as he did and only too grateful just to be told to sit on the couch. As he slumped down and Demetrios gave him the rest of his orders the man paused, a bit of a worried look in his eye as he watched as everything began to get set up. As painful as it was he did as he was told, lifting both his hoodie and what used to be a white t-shirt under that up over his head slowly. It didn't matter if they were covered in blood, he balled them up and rested them behind him like a pillow and watched as Demetrios got himself ready and all of his supplies. It was fair to say that Parker was already looking a bit on the pale side already but he seemed to turn even paler at the sight of his wound and noticeably tensed as Demetrios brought himself with the bowl over.

Parker rolled his head back to the ceiling and tried to breathe deeply as he mumbled, "I-I'll just try not to w-watch. I don't like this kind of thing."

[Demetrios]

"Just relax..." Demetrios muttered as he examined the wound. For the most part this 'doctor' seemed to do a fair just cleaning it and there didn't appear to be a bullet in him. The flesh though looked bad and he feared it would be infected if he didn't go about cleaning it. At this point the pain killers would be doing their job, so Demetrios didn't expect much resistance as he began to clean the wound, "The bullet appears to have been taken out, that's good..." The shot was done by a revolver with a fairly strong caliber and the torn flesh showed how bad the wound was. It astounded Demetrios that the kid survived as long as he has...

"Tell me about that night..." Demetrios requested as disregarded the cleaning material and went about to patch him up. He didn't want to tell Parker how close he was to dying, that would only panic him. He'd give Parker a little bit of mana after this, it would make him loopy but it would speed the pace of healing and the wound needed to be closed as quickly as possible. The combination of mana and pain killer wasn't usually advise but it wouldn't do anything terrible to Parker, at least not with the amount Demetrios intended on giving. 

[Morgan Flynn]

Parker bit on his lip hard and whined as his wound was cleaned up but he kept his eyes trained on the ceiling above them and tried not to jump too much as Demetrios worked. That night, that night was what he was asking about so he had to think back to everything that had happened.

"Asteria was already hurt, and they let me go see her," he said with a cringe, also clearly recalling Hale scowling at him and telling him that she wouldn't have even been hurt if it wasn't for Parker, "I just sat with her for a bit. I don't know what happened, suddenly we'd heard shots and some screams. They told us we had to go, it wasn't safe...that the...'Second' was waiting for them? I kept close to Asteria as much as I could." It was hard to re-tell a tale when he wasn't sure entirely of the agency's workings. Not that it bothered him, he didn't think he'd understand it anyway.

"It's a guy she was always with. These guys all in black were with him and they killed everyone helping Asteria, and then he shot me..." Parker rolled his head to the side to look over at Demetrios with a pout, "that guy's a real jackass, Demetrios. He told me it was my fault, even. It's always my fault. It probably was, I guess, but I don't think he should have shot me for it."

[Demetrios]

Demetrios was hardly surprised at what he heard, it certainly wasn't the first time the second ranking member unseated the first using force. It wasn't often that they declared themselves the leader of the entire Agency, though, and that's where the problems came from. The Second of the Third was a man known as 'Hale' to those who worked with him, he was a man bloodied in warfare and had good knowledge of how to conduct a war... not to even mention the fact the Scythe Collectors appeared to be backing him.

The idea that it was entirely Parker's fault was almost laughable, at best the boy had brought Asteria's weaknesses to the forefront but it was really the continued fighting against this gang called the Tyrants that brought the end for her. It should never take this long for the Agency to crush another gang, it showed how unfit Asteria was to command the Agency in warfare. The First Agency would have backed Hale if he had come to them, that man could be trusted to end a war.

"It's not your fault." Demetrios said as he began to finish up patching Parker. "This happens more often than you might think. It's part of the danger of ruling an Agency, she knew the risks I assure you." Asteria commanded a similar action when she took over many years ago, it's just how the Agency worked.

With the wound patched up Demetrios slipped off the gloves and tossed them into the bowl that held all the used towels. "You'll open it up if you overdo yourself..." Demetrios reached into the case and pulled out the small bag of mana and a needle with in, "You're going to go to sleep now, okay? When you wake up there will be a ticket to Ellusia with enough money to live a comfortable life. There is nothing you can do for Asteria, it's best you leave it up for people like me to handle. You should go and find a new life, you're young and sooner than later you'll come to forget about this all."

[Morgan Flynn]

Parker had just shrugged as Demetrios assured him this kind of incident was normal. It didn't seem normal to him, he was used to being blamed for things going wrong and this definitely was a thing that had gone very, very wrong. He wanted to just be done with it all, since the death of his friends, his best friend, and everything that Morgan was part of Parker had only really wanted to just buy awesome sports cars and race them. Cars and women, that's all he wanted. Cars and Asteria, that's what he wanted most.

Maybe that was what scared him the most right then when Demetrios mentioned a ticket to Ellusia and forgetting about everything. He was probably right, there was nothing he could do for Asteria because plain and simple he wasn't a fighter, not a good one. Parker knew better than that, the smarter thing was to be grateful he was still alive much like he always had and move on. It hurt him so thinking of her and knowing that when he had no one else she was there. She listened to him, she opened up to him, she treated him better than anyone he could ever recall in his entire life and just to have someone be at least nice to him genuinely and meaningfully was something that no matter where he went and for how long, he could never actually forget. He wasn't a smart man and he knew that, not at all.

"Whoa whoa--wait-wait-wait no!!!" Parker yelped as he slapped his hands around and tried to knock the needle away, "NO, man! I can't go! I need to go back!"

[Demetrios]

Demetrios had just finished filling the needle with mana when Parker took a swing at him, Demetrios pulled back and used his free hand to grab Parker's neck and push him back down. "I told you not to do shit like that, do you want that wound to open back up?"  Demetrios couldn't exactly get the needle in Parker without badly wounding him so long as he was intending to fight him about it.

He had to admit he couldn't understand what Parker was going through. The kid was clearly in love with Asteria and Demetrios could not honestly say he's ever felt that emotion before. But he could at least appreciate his determination. Not like that was going to change his mind, he couldn't have Parker getting in his way.

"You'll only get in the way." He somehow thought his words would make little difference in Parker's decision. "She's only a girl, there are plenty more like her without all the danger she brings along." Really the words he was deciding to say weren't at all comforting. He really needed to work on his people skills.

[Morgan Flynn]

Parker continued to squirm around under Demetrios's grip, by now more concerned about having a sedative put into him than being killed by someone if it meant he was going to end up here alone and having absolutely no way to help Asteria himself.

"She's not 'only a girl'! She's the only reason I want to live and the one that makes me want to try harder!" Parker found himself crying out without really thinking, trying to get a grip on Demetrios's arm to push him off, "I'll easily get in your way because I'm a stupid coward! I run, I cry, I hide, I'm scared of everything but if there's one thing I'm good at it's driving - I chase and evade and you'll find no one else who can do that better than me! I'm not good at most things but I can still make things difficult for the right person!"

Well that was one way of highlighting his flaws. He'd sooner die than abandon the girl at this point.

[Demetrios]

"I've noticed!" Demetrios remarked as he pulled his hand back, deciding it was more likely to stick himself with the needle if he continued to fight him like this. Parker was younger and had enough strength to overpower Demetrios, any real attempt to put Parker down would end up hurting him more than Demetrios intended.

"Okay, okay..." He said with his hands up as if to give up. "You can do what you want, in fact you can come with me, kid. Just hold on a moment and-" He suddenly grabbed Parker by the upper neck and forced his head back while pinning his arm down and forcing the needle into his arm, remarkably hitting his vein and injecting the mana directly into his blood stream - the fastest way for the mana to take effect.

He quickly pulled back and stood away from Parker, watching him carefully to see if he would make one last attempt to fight back. The kid was in for one wicked high, he'd be in a blissful peace for at least a fair few hours. Plenty of time for Demetrios to set him up with what he needed and get out.

[Morgan Flynn]

Parker was only too glad he was finally able to talk some sense into Demetrios. Dust was hard to try to convince sometimes, he felt. They had ways of doing things and that was it even if it didn't make sense to Parker, and they always seemed to have ways of tricking him when necessary. It really was about time someone was finally listening to reason and you know, communicating with him and working things out.

Of course this train of thought was enough for him to entirely drop his guard and just as he was beginning to sigh in relief Demetrios pinned him down. Parker squealed out a pathetic "Nooo!" and jolted in futile attempt to throw the other man off of him, the tensing in his arm making the injection from the needle a far more painful experience than it could have been even with the pain killers coursing through him. The moment he felt Demetrios rise Parker made to as well, currently angry and upset enough to want to at least try to shove a punch into him. The moment he was able to sit up though he felt a numb, dizzying sensation in the front of his head that he hoped would only pass in a moment. He had the will and told himself to get up to his feet and go at the other man but somehow it just wasn't happening.

His right arm felt numb as he tried to raise it and before he could do anything more he fell back into the cushions, muttering a frustrated, "Really?" He fell defeated and succumbed to the drug mixture that quickly overpowered him.

[Demetrios]

Demetrios gave a sigh of relief as Parker fell into the deep drug induced sleep. Honestly the kid needed it and the time spent in this peaceful little apartment might do good for his wounds. So Demetrios went to work, first flipping Parker to his side and propping him against the side of the couch before beginning to prepare Parker's exit.

Truth was, it'd be much easier just to shoot Parker and be done with it. But that's not how Dust worked, they took care of those who helped the Agency, it was that type of honor that separated them from the lowly gangs that operated beneath them. Demetrios lifted some loose floorboards from the apartment and grabbed the dust covered cash beneath, piling it up in a bag where he guessed there was somewhere between 200,000 to 300,000 Thelos, only a mere fraction of what Asteria showered Parker with but enough to start a new, simple life.

It was as he placed Parker's new passport next to the sack of money did he realize something - Parker wasn't going anywhere. If it was shared or not Parker was in love with Asteria and that wasn't something someone simply forgot about, he would try and rescue her the second he got a chance. Which of course meant Parker was likely to die in some horrible situation or at least get Demetrios killed by coming in at the wrong point. There was no getting rid of him, aside from the quick death a bullet could give.

The Agency always prided itself on its ability to adapt, well so did Demetrios. Instead of leaving a bag of money and a new passport Parker would awake to find a new phone (filled with pointless contacts), a gun with a fair amount of bullets in it and a simple note reading:

'Call the eighth number in the phone when you want to save your girl.'