The blizzard raged in the snowfield outside the crumbling manor, but the cold was entirely forgotten as Terminator and Dr. Philip stood locked face-to-face, their blades pressed together in a grinding shower of sparks.
"Your entire organization... is nothing without my research!" Philip snarled.
Terminator's gaze remained steely and cold. "I won't deny your research built the foundation of our strength, Philip... but we would have managed without you."
Terminator drove a devastating elbow straight into Philip's jaw. The doctor stumbled back, wiping a stream of dark blood from his mouth, and immediately repaid the favor with a thunderous right hook that rattled the Old Man's head .
"...no way, your organization survives without me!" Philip roared.
Terminator didn't yield an inch. He reset his footing and stepped right back into the line of fire.
"Tell me, Philip... when did your humanity leave you?" Terminator asked, his voice low and raspy. "Conducting monstrous experiments on innocent people... and then butchering your own body?"
Philip kicked hard, forcing Terminator to cross both forearms to block the strike. Utilizing the momentum, Philip swung his primary sword in a lethal arc toward Terminator's neck. Terminator caught the high-frequency blade on his own steel with a deafening CLANG.
"You're lecturing me?" Philip hissed, his eyes wide and unhinged.
Before Terminator could counter, Philip pulled back slightly and delivered a brutal headbutt square to the old man's face.
Terminator stumbled backward. Seeing his opening, Philip tossed his swords aside into the snow, closing the distance with pure, unadulterated rage.
"After slaughtering millions, you dare preach to me about losing humanity?!" Philip screamed, unleashing a blinding, frantic combo of bare-knuckle strikes into Terminator's guard.
Terminator threw a counter-punch, but Philip ducked under it, driving a heavy fist straight into the commander's ribs.
"Your cursed organization... used my son!" Philip yelled, his voice cracking with unbearable anguish. "They kept me chained like a slave, and I stayed through every nightmare... solely because of my boy!"
Terminator abruptly lowered his hands. He let go of his swords, letting them fall uselessly into the snow. He simply stood there, absorbing the full weight of Philip's desperate, furious punches without striking back.
"I still don't even know what the hell they did to him..." Philip said, a single hot tear cutting a clean trail through the grime on his face. "His eyes... they were crimson..."
With a final roar, Philip channeled every remaining ounce of strength into a straight right punch directly to Terminator's face. The force hurled the DWO leader into the frozen earth, shattering the bedrock beneath him and creating a massive crater in the snow.
Philip stood over the crater, his chest heaving, his hands trembling.
"The moment my daughter was born... that was the line for me," Philip whispered, staring down at Terminator. "I stole my research and ran because I knew my past sins would come hunting my children. If I could go back... if I had a choice... I would choose to have never been born at all."
A heavy silence fell over the crater. Then, stone by stone, the rubble shifted.
Terminator slowly stood up. A massive, darkening bruise covered his left cheek, and blood trickled down his chin, but his eyes were steady. He walked directly up to Philip until they were standing face-to-face.
For several silent seconds, the two men just stared into each other's eyes.
Then, simultaneously, both men reared back their fists and swung with everything they had left.
BANG!
"You son of a bitch!" Terminator roared as his fist crashed squarely into Philip's face. "Kid... you aren't the only one who has a family!"
Terminator followed up with a vicious combination, driving Philip back step by step as blood sprayed onto the white snow.
"What about the people you used in your sick experiments?!" Terminator barked between strikes. "What about their families?! Your trauma doesn't give you the right to turn human beings into monsters! You experimented on our fallen DWO brothers... did you ever stop to think about their families?!"
Terminator drove a devastating knee into Philip's midsection, lifting the scientist off his feet and slamming him violently against the rock face of the mountain. Before Philip could fall, Terminator pinned him, raining down a brutal flurry of punches.
"What about our families?!" Terminator shouted over the howl of the storm. "The men and women in DWO... they have people they love! People they would die to protect! People you turned into mindless weapons!"
Philip spat a mouthful of blood and threw a wild, desperate counter-punch, hitting Terminator squarely in the jaw. Terminator absorbed the strike, grabbed Philip by the collar, and pulled him in close as both men exchanged heavy, agonizing blows.
"Kid..." Terminator grunted, blood dripping from his knuckles. "We were both wrong. And we're both going to hell for what we've done."
Philip lunged forward one last time, charging with everything he had left. Terminator braced his weight and met him head-on.
My children... Philip thought, his vision darkening as his body reached its absolute limit.
I hope... you never remember a father like me...
High above on the snowy ridge overlooking the manor, a scout clad in specialized tactical camouflage adjusted his high-powered ocular lens.
"Sir, we have visual on Damian," the scout whispered into his comm. "He just stepped out of the villa."
Through the earpiece, a synthesized, distorted voice replied: "Do not engage Damian, maintain observation only."
"Understood," the scout murmured. "Who would've thought he was embedded here with Philip?"
A second voice joined the channel—dark, deep, and dripping with supreme authority. "Damian with Philip? Both are enemies of our cause. Damian is the sole threat who stopped our forces across the American continents..."
"Sir, Damian appears to be searching the perimeter for something," the scout reported.
"What is Philip's status?" the deep voice questioned.
"Philip is currently locked in close-quarters combat with the Leader of DWO," the scout replied, watching the bone-crunching fistfight down in the snowfield. "It's a brutal war of attrition. Neither side is backing down."
"Unbelievable..." the deep voice murmured. "He is holding his ground against Terminator."
The distorted voice returned: "Report every detail the moment it concludes."
"Yes, Sir."
The scout adjusted his lens, tracking a movement near the breached outer wall. DWO operatives were slowly trickling out of the smoke. Liam and Stinger were supporting a critically wounded Ms. Zero, while Scorpian helped carry out Cheetah.
So... only the battles involving the Leader and Vice-Leader remain, the scout calculated internally. He redirected his sight back to the clash between Terminator and Philip.
No... this fight is already over.
Philip's stamina gave out completely.
Terminator stepped inside his guard, moved his right arm back, and delivered a thunderous straight punch directly to Philip's face. The force slammed the scientist into the frozen ground, carving out a crater even larger than the first.
"You can't win, Philip," Terminator panted, standing over him, his chest heaving as he looked down at the broken scientist.
Boss won... Liam thought from the perimeter, swiftly wrapping tight medical bandages around Zero's wounds.
Driven by sheer, subconscious willpower, Philip painfully forced his hands under his chest, trying to push himself off the snow.
I can't lose here... if I lose... they will...
Philip lurched forward in a final, frantic strike, but Terminator dodged the attempt effortlessly. With a single, heavy chop to the side of the neck, Philip was on the ground.
Philip collapsed face-first into the snow, completely unconscious.
At that moment, heavy footsteps crunched through the drifts behind them. T-Rex stepped out from the ruined archway, carrying the unconscious form of the reanimated Mr. Bald slung over his massive left shoulder.
T-Rex paused, watching Terminator stare quietly down at Philip's motionless body, the old commander clearly weighed down by the agonizing truths Philip had thrown in his face.
"Let's package him up and get out of here, Boss," T-Rex said softly, bringing Terminator out of his dark thoughts.
Terminator wiped the cold blood from his lip, took a deep breath of the freezing air, and gave a single, firm nod.
"Yeah. Let me know when everyone's ready."