290This idea has existed in my head for a long time, long before I even started to consider writing fanfiction. I decided to finally turn it into words but I've been going back and forth about actually posting it. I almost backed down again but I might have sorta promised myself on New Year's Eve that I would post it today, so here I am. I already have at least half of the story completed and as long as there's interest, I will keep updating regularly. *Spoiler alert: Everything up to the last aired episode is fair game and may pop up at some point. Disclaimer: Anything you recognize is not mine.*
Chapter 1: How Monsters are Born
The man had been waiting for this moment for the past years and finally all the pieces to the puzzle had come together. It had been a really long road, full of suffering, regret and hate; but over anything, it had been years in the making for his ultimate revenge plan.
The only thing he had desired since the day he had been sent to jail was at his hands at last and he was ready to enjoy every moment of it. His heart beat faster and he smiled to himself just thinking of what would happen in the upcoming days.
Some people had to pay, but not all people had to pay in the same way. He had researched and studied his target, understanding his weaknesses, and strengths, in order to develop the best possible strategy. One destined to succeed, because he hadn't waited so long just to fall so close to the end line.
-x-x-x-
The man reviewed the pictures he, along with his accomplices, had been collecting over the last few years. The majority of them showed the same team of 3 men and 1 woman during various aspects of their lives: In the field, at their houses, at restaurants, at random places … Everywhere.
He had noticed how the team had changed over the years just by looking at the pictures. And through those changes he had studied his target, noticing every aspect of his relationship with his team, determined not to allow any of them to mess up with his perfect plan.
People often tried to hide themselves, to wear a mask, and only show the world what they wanted them to see. But that mask disappeared when you didn't even know you were being watched. These agents all wore the perfect masks, but only when they knew something was at stake, or when they were surrounded by enemies. However, on the company of their teammates, on their homes and on the times they thought they were alone, they had revealed their true selves… the deepest desires of their souls, and the greatest fears of their hearts. And he was determined to use all that knowledge to his advantage, after all this was the perfect plan and it wasn't going to fail.
-x-x-x-
Today the man watched his target from a diner across the street. He was sitting at a picnic table eating tacos with his team; he felt save, and just the thought made his heart jump in excitement. When you knew danger was coming you had time to prepare, and the opportunity to plan a counterattack, but the man he had his sights on had no way of knowing what was coming, and that would only make his ultimate victory that much sweeter.
The following day he sent some of his disciples to follow the team during a chase. After all he had to make sure they knew their tactics. How they breached a building, the way the partnerships worked, their possible blind spots, and any other small detail that would continue to give them an advantage over this team of overqualified agents, and who were supposed to be better than the small team he had managed to build over the years. He had been lucky that today's chase had occurred in the middle of a busy street, giving his men ample coverage and the perfect setting to spy on the team, while remaining undetected. It was a small victory, but he gladly took it, because all those seemingly insignificant successes, would ultimately come together to win him the war…
A war that the unsuspecting law enforcement team wasn't even aware had already begun…
-x-x-x-
It had been a week since he had moved the plan to a more active setting. For years he silently waited on the background, accumulating information, gathering his forces and each day re-fulling his anger and hate for the man he now looked to destroy.
Now he was in the final days of the planning stage and his people were making the final preparations and getting ready to make their first move.
At first he thought he would need to fulfill his revenge alone, but during his research he had been ecstatic to learn that the man he so badly despised was also hated by a big group of equally violent men and whom gladly agreed to help. Ultimately they were just minions and his victim would be his alone, but for the time being, he still needed them. Later when the target was acquired he could dispose of them easily.
-x-x-x-
Over the years a lot of people had told him that he was taking this too far, and that the other man had been right in his actions. But, he knew all the truths and only he knew what that other man had cost him. He took everything from him, and now he would take everything back.
Ever since he was a young child he had enjoyed authority and the sensation of feeling supreme. He had grown up in a crime-filled area where only the strong survived, and he had learned at an early age that only through power and control one was destined for greatness. But, still even in the dark world that he had lived in, following the example of his family, he had managed to put a lid to his dark desires and carve his way to the top without ever compromising his morals or forfeiting his innocence. He took to books instead of guns, friends instead of enemies, a sport team instead of a gang and ultimately lightness instead of darkness. Through hard work he had been able to leave his past behind and start a new life in a better part of the city, he got a college education, a good job and eventually formed a family of his own. By that time, his parents had already died, but he took their example and treated his family with the upmost respect, working hard every day to give them every small thing his young self hadn't been able to enjoy.
But life had an amusing way of working and after years of hard work, and less years of enjoying the rewards of said hard work, everything started going downhill. The economy was bad, and he was laid off from his job, a while later his wife also lost hers. Costs of life kept getting higher and he was left feeling powerless again, something he hadn't felt since growing up in the slums. He first tried to stay positive, follow his family's example and keep looking for a job. But after many fails attempts the shadows of his past started to invade his thoughts, and at that time, he turned into the dark road he had avoided his whole life, but which maybe wasn't in his destiny to escape. He first started taking small odd jobs for people he knew in the old neighborhood, and then he started gambling, hoping for an easy way to make some money. Eventually one thing led to the other and he soon started spending most of his nights at the local bar, drinking his heartbreak away and blaming other people for his misfortunes. By that time his life had been completely turned upside down, and he sometimes didn't recognize the man staring back at him in the mirror.
Ever since he was a child the positive attitude of his family and the love they provided to him was able to keep his darkness at bay, and as an adult his wife and son did the same thing. But now he was losing all that, the shadows were stronger and he was failing in his battle to remain true to his previous self.
That road of destruction eventually led him to the situation that landed him in jail. He never regretted what he did because for that one moment in his life, he really felt like his true self. Not the man who followed his family example, the one that took walks in the park with his father or the one who accompanied his mother to the grocery store, not the one who was given a train set on Christmas or the one that used to go to bed in the middle of his parents' embrace. But, the one who was beat up by older kids, the one who got his only money stolen, the one who was attacked for not joining the local gang, the one that lost his job and that eventually also lost his family.
From that day on, he relinquished all the good instilled in him by his loving family and allowed himself to be fully taken by his darkness. Not one that was with him since birth, because from his family he only inherited love, hard work and respect; but one that got into him just by the mere act of living, one that was beat into him by the misfortunes of life and by the fists of those who were stronger than him.
Thanks for reading and giving this a chance :)
