Blood begets Blood

She grabbed my hand tight.  I felt the warmth of her blood drip down my palm, slowly trickling towards my wrist.  I squeezed back tight to comfort her but there is only so much comforting that can be given to a person on a violent death bad.  The fallen debris from the explosion had crushed her legs, and severed her spine.

"I-I'm so sorry Alexandra...I'm so sorry", I whispered to her in the darkness.

"Why?  Why would you be sorry Bastion?  What blame do you have in this?  This is the life we chose, remember?  You can only shed so much blood before it's time for your own to soak the earth.", she said, her soft tone let me know she was gently smiling up at me.

"I should have checked the damn closet.  I should have checked it.  I would have heard the click and known there was an IED in there.  I would have kn-", I started to become enraged.

"Shut up you weak fool!"

I sat their quietly in the basement of that tiny country home, not a shred of light coming from outside the rubble.

"Just shut up, d****t.  I want to die a glorious death.  Not some excused filled, sorrow-fest that this is turning out to be.  I don't feel anything, it is pitch black and I am here with you and you alone.  What else could a women want for her final moments?"

Tears started to stream down my face and I did everything I could to stay composed.  I sat there rubbing her head, her blood soaked hair gently sliding through my fingers.

"Good... you understand now.  Hold off that rage Bastion.  Hold off that regret until after I have passed.  Then, when I have moved on, I want you to release all of it on those b******s.  I want you to eliminate every single one of them.", she said, her voice starting to waver as she was coming in and out of consciousness.  "I want you to eliminate every single one of them.  All of them Bastion... All of them.  But for now, just lay her with me.  Just lay he-"

Her breathing sped up and I could feel her body convulse.  She gripped my hand with the last bit of strength her body would ever feel again, took one large last inhale, then exhaled her final breath.  I knew she was gone, so I did what I had not done in nearly 20 years of being an Assassin.  I sobbed and I sobbed hard.  I held onto her body for what seemed like days, contemplating whether or not I even cared to get out of here.  But I had to go, because it was her last wish.

I walked over to the collapsed staircase.  I pulled out a sticky grenade and strategically placed it where I thought it would blow a perfect hole, without compromising the structure.

After the explosion, a brilliant ray of light shined down, illuminating the once blackened basement.  Alexandra was behind me and I knew her face was now visible but I did not turn around.  I could not bare seeing that beautiful, beautiful human, all dead and mangled.  My lover, and my only true friend.  I was not going to remember her that way.

So instead, I focused on the task at hand and singed her words into my memory forever.

She wanted all of them dead.

She wanted the targets eliminated and for that reason, and that reason alone, I will hunt them all down.