'Are you sure he lives here?' asked Tom. 

'That's what the compass says,' Anna replied. 'Why?'

The boy shrugged.

'Dunno, it's just… I always imagined a big, deserted warehouse with broken windows and strange blue-ish lights…'

'So you thought he was a villain from a cheap ‘80s action movie?' Anna grinned.

Tom shrugged again. The Medic - Teodore - didn't say anything. He had his surgical mask on, probably just out of habit: secret identities didn't really matter anymore. 

They were sitting in his car. The street seemed vacated, even for the late hour and a few houses were wide open and apparently robbed. There were no signs of any dark creatures at the moment, but they could have appeared any time. Anna saw a few flesh golems just a couple of streets back. 

The area was one of those nearly identical ones that could be found at any Zone, anywhere in London: long streets with the same exact house again and again, for miles. 

'Are we sure he is home?' asked Tom.

‘There is light in the window,’ pointed out Anna. 

'He supposed to see the future, right?' asked Teodore. 'That means he knows that we are coming.'

'Not necessarily,' said Anna. 'I think he has like… Visions. He doesn't always know what's gonna happen.'

'So you believe that?' Tom-Cannon asked. He had his superhero-gear on, too, the body armour and everything.

'He tells us about things that will happen in the future,' pointed out Anna. 'There are not many other ways to explain it.'

She remembered what Matt, the Gentleman told her the night he left London. He said the Seer can't be trusted and he uses them, the vigilantes, for his own purposes. Whatever those purposes were, Anna didn't get to ask. There was no time. 

'Listen,' she said. 'I don't think the guy is a sorcerer, but he can be dangerous nevertheless. So just be careful, okay?'

'But he is on our side, isn't he?' asked Tom in a surprised voice. 

'Supposedly,' nodded Anna. 'Still, keep your eyes open.'

They got out of the car. The house across the road was two storeys tall, the kind that had a lot of room, so was mostly used as a shared house, where every room belonged to a different person or family. Some of the houses around must have served that purpose, but Anna couldn't imagine the Seer living with others. He always struck her as a lonely man. On the other hand, she thought, there is not much one can tell from a couple of texts and phone calls.

Teodore took out a flask and took a sip.

'Nervous?' Anna asked.

'It's a potion that makes me stronger and faster,' the man explained. 'I always use it before a fight.'

'There won't be any fight here,' Anna replied. 'He is a friend. Sort of. Hopefully.'

Teodore just shrugged.

'So… Are we just gonna knock on the door?' asked Tom when they reached the house.

'That's usually how you let the people inside know that you are in front of the door, yes,' said Anna.

'I prefer windows,' the boy said. 'But that's just me.'

Teodore knocked on the door. Nothing happened, so he did it again. Now a very quiet voice came from inside, saying it's open. Teodore opened the door. It led to a dark, small hallway. The scent of old air escaped, the kind you can smell when you first open your weekend house after a long time. The hallway ended in a staircase, but the voice that said "In here" came from the room on their right. 

Anna didn't like this. She switched her helmet to night vision, but there was nobody around, but one figure in the room next to them.

Teodore didn't hesitate, he went ahead. The place turned out to be a living room with huge windows. It was almost as dark as the hallway, the only source of light was the fire in the mantelpiece. 

'There is no electricity,' the old man said. He was sitting in a cosy armchair. He seemed tall but very skinny, almost fragile. What hair he still had was perfectly white. The word "ancient" would have been a better fit than old, Anna thought, looking at his face. He must have been over 90. The only thing that looked strong and alive on him was his dark eyes. 'It went out a week ago or so. Good thing I had firewood. Sit, please.'

Teodore stepped forward and took his mask off. There was something on his face Anna didn’t quite like, but it went away a moment later. The old man's eyes widened for a second, but then the surprise was gone, too. He just gestured towards the couch.

'I'm afraid I can't offer you any beverages,' he said.  

'You know why are we here?' asked Anna. She sat on the armrest of the couch, ready to jump if anything would happen. 

'I knew you'd come, I saw it,' the old man answered. 'One can only assume that you want some kind of help.'

He had a very slight accent, but Anna wasn't good at accents, she couldn't place it. 

'We need names,' jumped in Tom. He wasn't sitting, he paced up and down, looking out of the big windows occasionally, making sure that nobody was coming. 'You know all the vigilantes, right?'

'Not all,' the old man answered. 'Most, perhaps. Not many left. Some skipped town, which was a wise decision, if you ask me, because those who didn't, mostly are dead by now. It will never make it to the news, but McLoad kills them. Must not be a surprise for you.'

Nobody knew for sure what happened to the masked heroes who were captured by the commissioner's new SRU, but Anna was sure the answer wasn't pleasant. But that was a problem for later, first they had to deal with Kovach.

'So who can help us?' asked Tom.

'Help you with what?' asked back the old man.

'Well, taking down…' the kid started, but Anna cut him off.

'Buh, buh, buh, buh! Shut up, Cannon. We don't wanna tell everything to this gentleman, remember?'

The old man chuckled. 

'Do you really think that I don't know about your vampire friend, the poison of the extinct flower and all of those things? Sweetheart, I was already playing this game long before you were born.'

‘I thought you just had random visions,’ said Teodore. ‘Those cannot tell you all of this specific information.’

‘The ability of a halfling works the same way every other skill does: with time and practice you can improve it greatly,' the old man explained. 'But you aren't here to talk about that, are you?

'We just want names,' said Teodore. The old man looked at him and smiled.

'You are so much like your father was, you know that?'

Anna looked at Teodore with a surprised face. 

'You what now?' asked Tom. He was standing at the window again, looking out to the street. 

'So I've been told,' nodded Teodore with his usual, blank face. 'You ruined him, you know that, right?'

'Oh, I wouldn't say that. I wasn't nice to him, but a man should be able to overcome that.'

'He never did,' Teodore said. 'The anger you gave him led him to his grave.'

'I had nothing to do with that!' the old man raised his voice. 'He was a fool!'

'Teo, what's going on?' Anna asked, looking at the young man, then at the old one, then back again. 

'He is Teodore Carano, the first,' the man answered, capturing the elder's dark brown eyes with his. 'The father of Silvio and Sebastiano Carano, Jenna's grandfather,' he paused, took a deep breath. 'My grandfather. You were hiding here all along, didn't you? We thought you were long dead, but you just ran away, playing a puppet master, ordering naive young people to do your deeds…'

'He helped us save lives,' objected Anna.

'When it suited him, maybe,' answered Teodore. 'What was the plan, huh? Getting a vigilante-army and going against Montgomery?'

'He is a dangerous man,' said the old one as if that would explain everything.

'Guys…' said Tom, but nobody listened to him.

'He is dead,' shook his head Teodore.

'No, he isn't… But you knew that already, didn't you… Teodore?' the old man stood up. He was tall indeed, even with his back bent under his age. 'It's time for you to leave my home.'

'Guys!,' said Tom with his voice raised. 'Somebody's coming.'

Anna jumped on her feet and was at the window with two long steps. On the dark pavement, a familiar silhouette was walking, tall and slim in a long coat. Anna felt like her blood was replaced with ice-cold water all of the sudden. The streetlamps were all off so she couldn't see his face, but she was sure that it was hidden behind the white wooden mask with the faint bloodstains on it anyway. 

'It's The Priest!' Anna said, turning away from the window. 'We have to get out of here, now! Is there a back door?'

'How did he find us?' asked the younger Teodore, looking at the older one suspiciously.

'Don't look at me, kid,' he said. 'He must have followed you. He can probably see everything through the eyes of his creatures and you fools led him right here.'

'Back door!' shouted Anna. 'Lead the way! Teo, try to call Robert!'

The old man finally started to walk, but he didn't even reach the doorway of the living room when the main door flung open. They all stopped where they were, terrified. Steps knocked in the hallway. 

'Hey everyone,' Kovach said cheerfully, stepping into the room. He did wear his mask. 'How are you all doing? Listen, this doesn't have to be awkward, I'm just gonna grab my compass real quick, borrow the young lady's helmet, steal the old man's secrets and be on my way. We are all busy, right? Let's not waste each other's time.'

The fight was quick and one-sided. By the time the fire-iron Anna made fly reached the masked man, Tom was already down, got struck by his own instant spell. The poker didn't do much harm either, it simply just disappeared before it could have touched the white wooden mask. 

The only actual hit they managed to give came from Teodore. He dodged a spell quickly and fluidly like a cat, snapped The Priest's hand out of the way and hit him in the chest. Kovach didn't fly backwards, but had to grab the door frame so he wouldn't fall.

'Enough!' he cried out. Teodore froze mid-movement, obviously not willingly. 'My compass and the helmet, my dear, or the good doctor dies.'

Anna looked at Teodore. Even if he could have moved his face, he didn't, it remained blank as always. The girl didn't see any other option. Her little tricks might have been good against regular sorcerers, but The Priest was on another level. 

Something gave a noise, a noise Anna or anyone who had ever been shot at, couldn't forget. Someone just cocked a gun. Anna looked around and saw the older Teodore holding a huge and old revolver, something that looked like it came directly from a Dirty Harry-movie. Expect for the Runes that were glowing on the barrel. 

'Let the boy go and leave in peace, necromancer,' the old man said. 'You know what a gun like this can do. You don't wanna risk it.'

'Yeah, you are right,' Kovach said, and Anna could have sworn she saw him rolling his eyes behind the mask. 'Because in the last few hundred years nobody ever thought of shooting at me. You found my weak point. I give up.'

He just waved lazily and the revolver exploded in the old man's hand. Metal pieces and bullets flew in every direction. The old man fell back, with a big hole in his chest. Anna got shrapnel in her side. She didn't feel pain at first, only the warmth of her own blood flooding freely. Her knees became weirdly weak and she hit the floor. She saw Teodore and The Priest looking at each other. She was sure that in the next second the young man would be dead. 

'You can try to stop me, or you can save the girl. Your call,' said Kovach. Teodore turned around, showing his back to the masked man 'But first you're gonna give me the compass and the helmet. Chop-chop, she is bleeding out.'   

Anna felt that her head was lifted a little then fresh air touched her face. A hand searched her pockets. Something was wrong with her eyes, she could barely see, darkness waited on the peripherals to swallow her.

'Much obliged. I'm just gonna grab grandpa's head here, and be out of your hair.' that was Kovach again. A terrible, cracking, wet noise, then steps went away. Anna's vision cleared enough so she could see Teodore for a moment. He was kneeling beside her and this was the moment the darkness finally reached and enveloped the girl.