Mariana's observation spoke on how well she understood the air of uncertainty he naturally cultivated around himself and the moves he made. Death would earn it's final victory eventually, but it wouldn't be acknowledged by his name resting above the epitaph. [color=slategray]"One that no one will ever be sure they've solved, as the answer will be coming with me."[/color] A droll thought emerged in his mind, of a graveyard visitor seeking him out to find the answer to that question in the afterlife. 
 

[color=slategray]"They look well. Healthy, both in very admirable careers."[/color] While he had no hand in raising the two children beyond his sparse, but at times lengthy, interactions with them, he had met the brothers during a very crucial times in their lives. While did not have a vested interest of their mother, their well being was important to him nonetheless. Their mothers war had influenced them for the better. Good. 

The third child, James had grown quite a lot since the last picture Montana had seen. The baby fat had been burned away, and his features had sharpened into those of a budding young man. It caused his eyes to linger for far longer on his face than the other two. The eyes looking up at him were unmistakable, dark oculi that could swallow all secrets but one. The gravity of his realization weighed on him far beyond his mask. 

[color=slategray]"James has grown into a fine boy."[/color]

Montana waited until Ray was finished talking. Some of his discomfort had alleviated from what he could tell, but that something remained. It was that something that gave Ray his remorse, his humanity. Perhaps that is what truly separated the two of them, something Montana had long noticed in most people he met. Montana was sure the life, and lives Ray took weighed on him, it weighed on many of the teachers, in small, and large ways. Some had gone from wide eyed, hopeful young folk into the hard as granite veterans. Others had redefined themselves, coming out of the war who they wanted to be.  

When he dreamed of the peopled he killed, he critiqued how long it had taken him to end their lives. When he saw the faces of his victims, he was only reminded of how he had judged them in their final moments. When he saw the battlefields Alpha-Omega had laid to waste, adrenaline coursed through his veins. 

It had always been about the satisfaction of ending the life of a powerful, or deserving enemy, rather than just taking life for, and in the name of the cause he fought for. No, he had taken those lives for himself as well. 

When he looked into the faces of the Fox siblings, and other children left behind by slain parents, he felt no remorse. He felt nothing but a duty to ensure that their education served to keep them safe in the future. 

That was what set him apart, a lack self-reproach for the breath he stole, and for the humanity that existed in Ray, but not him. 

That is not to say he did not feel the shadow of condolence when he thought of the survivors, and the orphaned children. It simply meant that he viewed lives taken during the war as an unavoidable truth. His penchant for violent confrontation was separate, in his mind.

[color=slategray]"I, much like Mr.Matheos, have been keeping busy with odd jobs. I had been doing some work for the council, when I was asked to be an instructor of Defense and tracking."[/color]

[color=slategray]"I am fortunate to be teaching your son soon. Meeting him has been something long overdue, Mariana.[/color]