Some days, I wonder. [i]he replied, catching the sarcasm, but not responding. Instead, he went straight for the jugular.[/i] What's wrong, Lance? Don't give me any of your bullsh*t, I've been through it all already with Jackson. [i]He said with a tone that clearly conveyed that he meant it.[/i]

"Don't talk to me like a father to an angsty teenager. You only have ten or so years on me old man." [i] Lance says with a smirk. That was another one of those mysteries he'd never blatantly stated, but it was on most minds. He only looked a few years older than Jackson, but that was literally impossible. And give or take a decade had passed since his involvement with Venom, and the man hadn't aged a day. [/i] "My wife.. thinking about drowning myself in a bottle of scotch, but that'd be no good for anyone."

Just because you're older doesn't mean you can't act like one. [i]He shot back.[/i] And trust me, no matter how bloody good that scotch is, it never takes the pain away for good. [i]He said, more solemnly.[/i] Doesn't really ease the pain of loss, mate.

"I'm gonna sound like a hypocrite, for Riley and Jackson's cases..telling them revenge doesn't ease the pain." [i] Lance scoffs.[/i] "Yeah, it does. Vengeance feels great. I killed the man who butchered my parents and some of my best friends. That filled that void, even if it was only a little bit." [i] Lance's eyes cloud over with sadness.[/i] "You can't avenge anyone because they died of hemorrhaging during childbirth. You're stuck with that abysmal darkness and pain because you couldn't do a damn thing about it." [i] He says bitterly.[/i]

[i]Clarkson was silent for a moment, staring out over the horizon line. He sighed, not a disapproving one, but one of sadness.[/i] I don't suppose I ever told you what sent me down the rabbit hole to Schrader, did I?

"No." [i] He says plainly. He'd always assumed he owes Schrader something like Blackjack. [/i]

Long time before all this, I was just a grunt, boots on the ground counter-terror. Went in, did my fair share of all the fancy kicking doors in, and saved my fair share of people. Things started getting nasty in London, really nasty. Group of insurgents took a metro station hostage, held about three hundred people hostage, we got everyone else out of there. They ordered my team to hold on standby, they kept us there on standby for three hours, wouldn't let us in to do our thing. By the time they finally cleared us, and we got down into the station, they'd killed all the hostages. Three hundred bloody people, mate. I remember walking in, and seeing these kids, their faces turned up at us, shirts stained with blood, their parents dead up against the wall in the same positions. [i]He paused for a moment.[/i] I retired after that. Left for a while, then Cody Wolfe found me. He and I had worked in the Middle East for a while together, he told me that he had a job opportunity for me, told me I could make a difference, that I could make sure what had happened before. I bought that. I f*cking bought it. [i]He said again, almost laughing nervously.[/i]