Gene takes a deep breath. "Please, don't say anything until I'm done speaking. If I stop talking now I may lose my nerve." He takes another breath, and begins.
"Shortly after I first arrived, I met a woman named Bianca Reyes. She was a nurse, and ended up working at the new hospital when it was finally built. She had...taken me in, sort of. Not officially. But she made sure I was looked after. I was very protective of her for the favor." Not just for the favor - because she'd been a mother when he had none, when he had nobody, and been a better mother than his own, in truth, had ever been.
"She was...accosted by Bakura one evening, and brought it up on the network to warn the rest of us. Not too long after, the city was attacked by the cultists for the first time. None of us knew it then, of course. We didn't know what was happening. There was just chaos. Bombs were going off in the streets, in the cafes. At the hospital."
He swallows. "When I got up from being caught in one of the blasts, I wanted to be sure she was all right. So I put on the armor and went to the hospital, and I helped with the recovery efforts. But she wasn't there. I asked the crimson ring, and it gave me a message I didn't quite understand. It meant that she had disappeared, like people do here. I thought it meant she was dead. And I did exactly what you might think I did. I jumped to conclusions, and in my anger, in my grief, in my conviction that he was responsible, I took revenge on Bakura for a crime he didn't commit."
He would have thought that he wouldn't be able to keep meeting Tony's eyes, but here he is, his voice still calm and measured, his story clearly rehearsed over and over to do this right. "I killed him. In my blind rage, I killed him. I was soon found out to be the culprit by Skulduggery, who confronted me with Amelia. I did not deny what I had done. I confessed. They engineered a public apology, a chance for me to atone and for Bakura to demand what he would as payment. I offered my life; he seemed to think that was a little too transactional. It was resolved, and shortly afterwards, I went to see my future."
He takes another deep breath. He usually doesn't talk this much all in one burst, and it's oddly draining. "When I saw the consequences of what I had done back home, I realized better the wrong I had done here. I contacted Bakura, and apologized properly. Privately. We are...I wouldn't say 'even', but we seem to have come to an understanding. And Skul...he and I have a deal as well." A deal Gene had alluded to, back when they'd spoken about the possibility of needing to kill him; a deal where the detective would not hesitate to do what needed to be done if Gene ever misused the rings again.
"That's what I had to tell you. That's my last secret. I understand if you need to take some time to process what I just told you." He takes another breath, this one to steady himself. Then: "If you would prefer that I leave, temporarily or otherwise, I will do so."
no subject
"Shortly after I first arrived, I met a woman named Bianca Reyes. She was a nurse, and ended up working at the new hospital when it was finally built. She had...taken me in, sort of. Not officially. But she made sure I was looked after. I was very protective of her for the favor." Not just for the favor - because she'd been a mother when he had none, when he had nobody, and been a better mother than his own, in truth, had ever been.
"She was...accosted by Bakura one evening, and brought it up on the network to warn the rest of us. Not too long after, the city was attacked by the cultists for the first time. None of us knew it then, of course. We didn't know what was happening. There was just chaos. Bombs were going off in the streets, in the cafes. At the hospital."
He swallows. "When I got up from being caught in one of the blasts, I wanted to be sure she was all right. So I put on the armor and went to the hospital, and I helped with the recovery efforts. But she wasn't there. I asked the crimson ring, and it gave me a message I didn't quite understand. It meant that she had disappeared, like people do here. I thought it meant she was dead. And I did exactly what you might think I did. I jumped to conclusions, and in my anger, in my grief, in my conviction that he was responsible, I took revenge on Bakura for a crime he didn't commit."
He would have thought that he wouldn't be able to keep meeting Tony's eyes, but here he is, his voice still calm and measured, his story clearly rehearsed over and over to do this right. "I killed him. In my blind rage, I killed him. I was soon found out to be the culprit by Skulduggery, who confronted me with Amelia. I did not deny what I had done. I confessed. They engineered a public apology, a chance for me to atone and for Bakura to demand what he would as payment. I offered my life; he seemed to think that was a little too transactional. It was resolved, and shortly afterwards, I went to see my future."
He takes another deep breath. He usually doesn't talk this much all in one burst, and it's oddly draining. "When I saw the consequences of what I had done back home, I realized better the wrong I had done here. I contacted Bakura, and apologized properly. Privately. We are...I wouldn't say 'even', but we seem to have come to an understanding. And Skul...he and I have a deal as well." A deal Gene had alluded to, back when they'd spoken about the possibility of needing to kill him; a deal where the detective would not hesitate to do what needed to be done if Gene ever misused the rings again.
"That's what I had to tell you. That's my last secret. I understand if you need to take some time to process what I just told you." He takes another breath, this one to steady himself. Then: "If you would prefer that I leave, temporarily or otherwise, I will do so."