Chapter 2: Chapter 1 – Tired man

"The report says this is the largest market crisis since…" The tap of the remote control switched the channel, cutting off the words of the newscaster, but brought to his view yet another one immediately with almost identical words streaming out of her mouth to the man in the channel before that, as if she was finishing the line for the dude from the channel before. So he tapped the button almost immediately, skipping the channel yet again.

"Since your grandpa sailed here to escape the noose in England, assholes." He muttered irritatedly.

His phone vibrated on the couch near him fir a hundredth time and for a hundredth time he ignored it. 99 missed calls literally changed to 100 after this call.

"The FBI opened a criminal investigation, claiming there is evidence of deliberate attack on the US economy…" He tapped the button with quick succession, muttering with a grumpy voice under his nose again.

"No shit, geniuses? You really figured it out? Fucking morons." He muttered skipping  a few more channels until he reached some wild nature channel where he finally stopped longer than a few seconds and moved his finger slightly away from the button, yet held the remote in his still outstretched hand.

Looking at the yellow dry land of Africa covered by the high grass of savannah and a pride of lions hiding in it slowly crawling toward the buffalo that strayed from the pack while mindlessly grazing grass. Any other time he would have watched what would happen with a happy smirk on his lips. Now however, for the first time in his life he looked at it with disgust and a sickening feeling in his gut. That buffalo very much reminded him of himself. He quickly tapped the off button and threw the remote away just as the lions jumped the massive dumb lonely herbivore.

Sitting in the silence watching the black screen with only his phone's soft vibration breaking disturbing the silence, he sighed heavily and turned to look at the phone screen. 105 missed calls.

"The fuck you all want from me?" He muttered standing up from the couch and walking to the window. Watching down at the one of the busiest cities in the world from the top floor of his skyscraper, he leaned his forehead at the glass and sighed.

 "Can't you all see he is far stronger than I am?" He whispered.

His business empire was crumbling, bringing with it one of the largest crises this country has seen. And it wasn't some mistake or miscalculation. It was a deliberate attack. It was a takeover. Just as North wiped the floor with him in all out fight, North's wife that was in control of all their business started an attack on all his assets. They planned to take him down a notch on all sides, so that even if he had some funny ideas again, he would not be able to realize them through his business empire. 

"What am I, a fucking ancient Greece for you to put so much effort into it?" He muttered smirking at his own thoughts while watching his own reflexion in the glass

They did not need to bother though. He did not intend to do anything anymore. He tried and failed. 

"Just let it crumble. I don't give a shit anymore." He muttered. He was tired of it all anyway.

"What's the fucking point of it all anyway?" He said gazing at the world below with a dejected look in his eyes. 

His phone buzzed yet again behind him.

"How do you want me to fight him? He is North. I couldn't even scratch him. Now his wife pounds me like a fucking baby. What am I supposed to do? Solve it yourself bastards, why did I hire you all?" He said, turning his head back to look at the phone on the couch.

Turning away from the window he walked through his dark apartment and opening the glass door walked out to the pool area. Ambient lights of his outside infinity pool were the only source of light of the top few floors that were his living area. 

Coming close to the pool he stepped on the water and walked on the surface moving to that infinite edge of the pool that opened the view of the magnificent night city. Coming close to the edge he looked down below at a drop of a hundred floors and smirked. 

"Would have been so good if I could just plunge there just like the people in the movies. Yet even that is out of my reach."

He stepped over the edge into the void space and stood in the air as if on solid ground. Even if he just let go and dropped down instead of levitating. He would not die. Even a drop from a mountain hundred times higher would not kill him. This height did not even itch his nerves. Well nothing really itched his nerves lately. This world had nothing in it that he was not tired of.

Three hundred years was a long time. Far longer than he wished to be in this world. This country did not even exist when he was born. He could still remember the field and trees that were all that stood here in the past. Now it is one of the biggest and highest cities in the world. Not a speck of what this land looked like before has been left. It did not really bother him. He was used to it. Every area, every country, every continent he lived on before has changed so much in this time he could not recognize it every time he had to move. People would see that he did not age, so he had to move. From continent to continent. From city to city. Returning to the same places hundred years later just to see how alien it is to his memory of the place.

"Should have finished the job." He muttered. "Could have saved me from this misery. Why did you hold off, old man? Is this your way of torture? Letting me live when all I want is to die? Why didn't you kill me?" 

He looked up at the starry sky, which was partly covered by the clouds.

"Being immortal isn't a gift, it's hell. How can you enjoy it so fucking long old man? How can you bear this?"

Because I found what to live for. Played the word of the silver haired old man that kicked his ass so hard that the mountain high thick ice of Antarctica cracked in two, splitting the continent from the force of his face slamming against the ground, when the old man so effortlessly put him down.

"What to live for?" He muttered. He knew what North was talking about. His eternal love for his wife gave him strength to live. And far longer than the South lived.

"But where the fuck am I supposed to find her? Where can you find a woman that would live with you in this hell for so long?" He muttered, sighing weakly while still staring at the sky. Slowly his body started to rise, flying higher into the night sky and gradually took up the speed. In a few moments he flew like a lightning disappearing from the view, leaving the city behind. His phone kept vibrating until the battery died. He didn't even bother to take it with him. 

****

Wooden door opened with a loud squeak of hinges bringing a gust of freezing wind into the house. Large man with wide shoulders and platinum goatee hurriedly slipped inside, quickly closing the door behind himself. 

He stomped his legs a few times to beat away the snow from his boots in front of the door. He took off his thin jacked, unnaturally light to be worn in the middle of the freezing hell that settled outside, then slipped out of his boots before walking deeper inside the cabin. In the middle of the open space room he saw an olive skinned middle aged lady with a few wrinkles at the corners of her eyes and a few strands of white in her pitch black long hair, sitting on the comfy leather couch in front of the lit fireplace, with legs covered by a blanket and cartoonish furry rabbit slippers on her feet. She looked up at him with a smile and put away her laptop.

"Welcome back." She said when the man came over and bent down to her, placing a soft kiss on her lips.

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"I am back." Said the man smiling at her softly for a moment before his smile faded and he sat down near her on the couch.

"How is the battle on your end going?" He asked, pointing with his eyes toward her laptop.

"Hard to call it a battle when he doesn't fight back." She said, sighing while placing a laptop back on her knees.

"What? At all?" Asked the man, raising an eyebrow.

"Well his companies struggle as they can, but…there is no unity. No force behind them. No one to move them under one banner. No one unites their efforts. He isn't backing them up." She said with a bit of sadness in her voice.

The man looked at her for a few moments.

"Why aren't they down on their asses yet then?" He asked, looking at her strangely.

"I…I thought…maybe we should give him a bit of slack?" She said softly, turning to look at the man sitting near her.

He looked at her questioningly with one eyebrow raised.

"You were the one to spare him in the first place." She said looking back at the man.

He kept staring at her with that same look without saying a word.

She rolled her eyes at him while sighing. "Don't give me that look, you know better than me that half of the South's before him were a bunch of hypocrites that would go all nuclear upon humanity the next day after they got the power, while screaming they are Gods and do whatever the hell they want. The other half are a bunch of dimwitted fat ass lazy trash that decided the power was given just to spend the life in debauchery. This one is a rare occasion of exactly what the South should be. He may have gone a bit astray but he always kept to the will of power that you two wield and knew what are the stakes in his actions."

Man sat staring at her still not uttering a word.

"Okay, fine! Yes I was lenient toward him. And you very well know why. He is not from other Souths…he is…different."

The man finally smiled at her and kissed her cheek while embracing her.

"It's okay. I…was lenient because of that too."

She looked into her man's eyes and a small tear dropped from her eye. She nodded at him and hugged him with force.

"I don't want to hurt him." She whispered.

"Me too." Said the man holding her in his arms. "But I might have to if he repeats it. This is not a joke. Had I not stopped him in time today there would be catastrophic consequences. Had it been some other South he would have been lying dead deep in the ground. I risk too much letting him go after what he'd done. I can't be this lenient next time…it will not allow for that. I used up its good will when I did not obey it's order today.

"I know. I don't blame you. But maybe we could do something about it. I know that because of how your power influences you, you can never be on good terms with any of them, so you never poke your nose into other South's business and could care less for their well being, but maybe… maybe just once you should give advice on how to cope with all that frustration? You know, just give fatherly advice or something? If he takes it, fine. If not…well…what I want to say there is always the option of disposing of him open, but…maybe just once we should lend a helping hand before chopping off the head?"

"I already did." Said the man smiling at her slightly.

She looked at him with surprise for a moment. Then a smile lit up her face. 

"Thank you!" She whispered, kissing him.

"I may be a North, but…I worry about him too." Said the man. 

She put away her laptop and lifted her legs underneath herself, cuddling in his embrace.

"I love you for it." She said looking up at him.

"For what?" He said looking at her surprised.

"That you have a warm heart that no godly power can turn cold. That no planetary will can bend you enough, to make you an uncaring and absolutely emotionless man."

"You are the fire that warms my heart." He said kissing her and hugging her even tighter. They sat watching the fire in the fireplace in silence, while a freezing storm wailed outside their window.

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