The battle was over. The renegade vampire army had been destroyed, causing the handful of powerful oldbloods who had participated to vanish from the scene of the crime, erasing their names behind them in embarrassment as they went. Magnus Shane was never seen nor heard from again, but it had only been a number of weeks since the battle. The suspicion was that the rebel vampire lord wasn't dead, but rather hiding. He was national enemy number one this year... and probably for the rest of this century. 

The Purge enjoyed a temporary but false victory as they took over the SOLDIER outpost. They didn't hold it long before SOLDIER convinced them to turn themselves in for arrest. Humans always had the favor of the law. Even frank murder didn't necessarily get them capital punishment. The Purge extremists would likely be let out on bail or fined heavily if they managed to escape jail. Unlike vampires, a human was weak. They could be captured and arrested, held in prison, tried, and forced to serve their sentence. Vampires were always treated with a heavier hand, due to obvious necessity. They were difficult to capture alive, difficult even to kill, and imprisoning them was fraught with complications. That is why SOLDIER relied on their Elite agents so. 

The general was nothing less than shocked and appalled when Varomere, one of their oldest and most effective elite agents, unexpectedly walked in and resigned. As a contracted agent, it was his right to quit, and besides, SOLDIER had no way of compelling a 700 year old vampire to stay. When questioned about his reasons, he had said only that the battle at Kilo Point had changed him, that he had nearly died, and that he intended to find the vampire that had saved his life. 

Before leaving however, Mithais had made the most of his clearances as an elite agent and had researched a number of vampires believed to have been involved in Kilo Point. He looked up the legendary vampire of the native American peoples, Mohowauuck, who's white wolf form was unmistakable. Magnus, who had a long record of brutality and insanity interspersed between periods of quiescence or inactivity in world history. The Kinslayer was more difficult to find, probably because she was given "low priority." In recent times she wasn't known to have any vampire accomplices, so Camille must have been young. Searches of British vampires were exhaustive. Much to Mithias' surprise, "Bedi" seemed to be a ridiculously common name. Godforsaken Brits... The connection to the old tomahawk came to mind, and Mithias found it very curious why the white-haired old raven would have had it on him in the middle of a warzone. He could have been a collector of artifacts... but that explanation seemed so much less likely than that he was banging Lady Mo. The simplest answer was usually the best. Mithias sighed and put that search aside for the time being. 

And speaking of wanton sex, the list of individual accounts of humans who claim to have slept with the "old codger" Gabriel was gigabytes long. After realizing that this information was over 50% of his father's SOLDIER file, Mithias sat back and actually laughed. Certainly a lot of them were false testimony... or were they??

It was a hearty laugh. He really needed that. Although Mithias hadn't always been completely mentally stable, he hadn't laughed in a good while. He hadn't been free to... he hadn't been alive. For all his existence, all had ever known was to follow the rules, to obey, and to strive to serve the unclear will of some greater omniscient force that had only ever been imagined by humankind. He had busied himself by taking on unnecessary responsibility and judging himself over it, and he had almost died so blind. He had sought control so badly that it had become his prime power, binding his childhood spirit in chains. It had taken a brush with death to open his eyes. Now, no more would he waste his time with a fruitless eternal search for meaning. He was a vampire, above the dying material world, a creature granted the potential to become a demigod, like the wild and free Mohowauuck. I was time to let go of obligations and patrons and to become what he was always meant to be, himself. There would be no more pointless following of his kin, no more judgement of others, and no more imposed code. Mithias was a prince, meant to be free and willful. It was time to embrace the darkness and accept himself. 

Now that he was free from all obligations, Mithias turned his attention to his first order of business, finding his father. If Gabriel had in fact saved his life, Mithias wanted to know it and why. He owed his maker regardless, but if there was any inkling of affection there, the son wanted to take advantage of it. Gabriel's age was a complete mystery, even to Mithais, but he was very much an elder and there was certainly a lot to learn from him. Mithais would find him and at least express his gratitude if not possibly also rekindle old ties. As he leaned back at his desk, he tempered his hopefulness with the fear of complete rejection, plus there was the bit about actually finding him. No doubt the old showman enjoyed playing with SOLDIER spies. A few locations were known to be frequented by the oldblood. There was even a satellite dedicated to watching one of Gabriel's supposed homes in the Caribbean... as if they expected it to suddenly blow up or something. A newspaper article, online nowadays, referred to a recent episode of "mass hysteria" about a week ago in Oklahoma, where hundreds of random people stepped outside their houses to dance a quick jig. Mithias shook his head with a slight smile. It was probably worth the trip.