Ryder and Alice finished the dinner as they kept hearing the news of blasts happening one after another.

Ryder did occasionally keep watching the news, just to make sure that nothing terrible happened in the neighborhood of his loved ones.

After finishing the dinner, Ryder took Alice to the room that was assigned to them. 

The room had a single bed, but the bed was big enough for two people. As it was a Seven-Star Hotel, there were many facilities in this room, including chairs, couches and a big TV.

"You can go, get fresh first," Ryder told Alice as he sat on the bed and turned on the tv. He started watching the news.

Alice went into the washroom.

"So much destruction. Almost half the city is destroyed," Ryder muttered as he sighed at the sight of the visuals in the news. He was feeling very uncomfortable as he simply watched it, unaware of the fact that this destruction was caused for him.

The female FBI agent Riya that Ryder had killed outside Jameson's Mansion was the spy of the Dark Uprising organization that was behind all the missing bodies and the conflict with the Agents in Washington.

Ryder had already known that Riya was an Uprising member after she had come back to life despite being shot in the head, but what he didn't notice was that Riya was a part of the Raid by the FBI inside DC in which Ryder had his first open conflict with the Dark Uprising.

Ryder had killed all their members in that place that he saw, but he didn't kill one. That was Riya, who was an Agent of the Dark Uprising, working as an FBI agent.

Riya had given the information about that attack to her heads already, and that was why the Dark Uprising members were so prepared at that place. That's how they knew they were going to be raised by the Feds. The Dark Uprising wanted to make a show of force in DC through this.

That's how they were aware enough to prepare a trap for the agents. They brought their Undying Soldiers, and they placed Snipers on the buildings.

Riya knew that it was a trap, and she intentionally led the FBI agents to their death; unfortunately, she didn't expect that Ryder would come there.

Ryder destroyed the trap from inside out. He openly killed all the Dark Uprising members, including the snipers.

Fortunately, Ryder had kept his face hidden during that confrontation, and no one knew about it.

There was only one person in the FBI that suspected Ryder as the masked man who destroyed the Uprising in Washington, and that was Ray. Ray sat beside Ryder on the trip back from Washington, and he started suspecting Ryder, but he didn't tell his fellow members.

The only time he told anyone about Ryder was after Riya's death, and that was to his partner and best friend, Jacob.

That's how Riya never knew what Ryder looked like. Riya had informed her higher-ups about the masked man, killing all their Members. She gave as many details as she could about that battle.

That made the Dark Uprising higher-ups attracted to Ryder as they wondered where Ryder got all his powers from. How could Ryder not die after being shot so many times like their shoulders, and why did he have such battle prowess? They had decided to catch Ryder after all this.

They also wondered why Ryder stopped their men. They thought that Ryder either had a hero complex or he knew about the Dark Uprising and hated it.

Whatever being the case, they knew that Ryder would appear again if they made another boom.

That's why they sent their men to the last city Ryder was seen. As Riya's death happened in this city and it was claimed that a masked man who couldn't die after being shot killed her, they thought that Ryder was here.

Their plan was simple. Make a big noise and attract everyone. This would be their revenge, and this would also make Ryder come out of hiding.

They had many high ranking Members inside the city, merely waiting for Ryder to appear so that they could capture him. The formation inside the city was undoubtedly overkill to capture one single guy, but the Uprising didn't take Ryder lightly.

They had sent one of the Thirteen Kings to the city personally.

****

Ryder sat on the bed, unaware of the giant trap that was placed for him as he watched the news channels and saw the Visuals of the Terrifying Attack.

All the cities were sealed. The whole country was under some sort of curfew. Not only the city that was under the attack but all the other cities, far away from that place, were shut down. Cop cars had begun patrolling extensively to make sure that nothing bad happened in the city. All the civilians were inside their house, watching the terrifying scenes on various news channels.

Various international media outlets had started to cover this, as well. 

****

"The President is holding the Press Conference at the moment. We will take you straight to the Press Conference," the News Anchor said as the scene switched to the White House.

The Current President was sitting behind his Table, looking solemn.

The Current President of the United States was a woman who was only the second woman to ever become the President of this country since its formation.

The Woman was called Clara Davis. She was the President of the United States.

She was only in her late Thirties, which made her the youngest woman ever to become president of this country. Even though she was in her late thirties, she still looked like a young lady in her twenties.

She had beautiful light-green eyes and thin lips. Her brown hair came just a little lower than her shoulder. The Tip of her hair was colored red.

She was wearing a white shirt and a black coat as she appeared on the television.

Ryder had already seen the lady on TV many times, so he wasn't surprised after seeing her.

" My Fellow Citizens of this Brave and Great Country. Tonight, we are under attack! We are under attack by terrorists that believe they can intimidate our prosperous and great nation through these acts of Terror, but I promise to you all that we will not be intimated. I'll make sure that the people who took the lives of our innocent citizens pay for it."

"These times are challenging, and I urge the citizens to remain calm and inside their homes..."

The President continued her speed as she talked about the events tonight. She also gave people courage. As for the city that was facing the attacks, she gave them the assurance that the help was on the way.

The whole speech lasted for only ten minutes before the broadcast from the Whitehouse was over, and the focus returned to the news anchor.

Alice came out of the washroom, and Ryder went inside.

He took his clothes off and turned on the shower, letting the water droplets fall on his body as he placed his hand on the wall.

His head was aching. He couldn't get the thought out of his mind. The thought to go and help the city, but the problem was the mission of Janus. Janus had given him the mission to leave the city. He had finished the mission in this timeline, but if he went back in time, Janus would again give the same mission. He was not worried about the rewards but about the failure.

Janus had said that if he failed in completing the mission, then there was going to be a death. The problem was that he didn't know whose death. It couldn't be about him, and Janus wouldn't talk about strangers' death since he wouldn't care. The only possible answer was that someone close to him could die if he didn't leave the city.

He placed his hand on the wall as he frowned.

"If I go back in time, someone close to me might die, and the chances of me being successful are almost negligible. Should I take the risk? Most probably, I'll keep going back in time again and again and watch people die right before my eyes. The city would be destroyed in front of me. To top it off, someone close to me would die, and I don't know who," Ryder muttered.

"If I don't go back in time by dying in the next twelve hours, the previous timeline would be fixed, and nothing would change. The city will stay destroyed."

"On the other hand, if I did go back, the timeline would become unstable. The more I tried this; the more unstable this timeline will become, which Janus warned me about again. Should I do it or not? Can I watch thousands of people die again and again? Can I watch people close to me die?" Ryder muttered as he sighed.

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