'But... it looks like just me being strong isn't enough. I can only save those who are prepared to be saved.'
Who else died before his eyes? That long hair cut to mere strands as those claws disconnected his head from his shoulder; that sight seemed to flash more rapidly before his crimson orbs than his red lightning. Words to live by, that was the binding vow he chained around his heart, but that promise was easier to maintain than the constant heat enveloping his arms.
Knuckles hammering a face sent a criminal to their back, wings of an Evolutionary spread behind him, leaving a hawk's cry to exit their beak. Before they even got a chance to ascend, Ace now stood behind their descending, winged frame with their head in his bloody hand.
Their body unleashed a bloody squelch as they splat against the ground, with flowing hair in the summer breeze, as he revealed his phone from the pouch after feeling that special vibration, there it read: 'July 25th, 2022.' And beyond that date atop, there was that picture, titled that name across the screen.
"What's wrong?"
Ace's question was met with a feminine voice on the other line, one he was accustomed to,
"Kima's awake," June replied.
The ginger shoved his device into a white hoodie, strolling into a jog right down the street, Wilder faintly cursed as he made his way to that familiar location.
Minutes later, the door opened with one hand, regular faces greeted him with disorganized phrases. Ed with a pat on the shoulder, Mei offering him tea, but they were all ignored as he felt his lover's embrace with her lanky arms engrossing his neck.
"Thank god you're alright- agh... I..."
After they shared their kiss, Kim held her neck with her hand, the King aiding his Queen, he guided her with her interlocked arm over to the couch. Their bottoms pulled to the cushions of the sofa, Ace moved one strand away from her eyes, releasing a breath,
"What's wrong?" Kima queried through pained breaths, a half-opened right eye.
"I should be asking you that but... I'm just... glad to have you back, after everything that's happened," Ace whispered, palm on her pale cheek, watching as she batted her eyes.
Amidst their lip-connecting affection, Wilder groaned at the sound of impending footsteps, reluctantly moving his mouth from Myers's.
"What is it, old lady?"
The King received a slap from his woman as he spoke so impudently to his ally, ironically enough being none other than his infamous grant aunt, Madi.
"I see you have your father's charm, huh? Listen, if you guys want some privacy, nighttime's approaching and we need more medical supplies for Hana's recovery. You two should make your way out there together," Madi suggested to the lovebirds, leaving them with a wave, Ace nodded slowly.
"Alright."
Ace unzipped the hoodie at the center, stretching arms as he stood tall from the furniture, the clinking chandelier flickered, leaving Kima to dart her eyes elsewhere. Naturally, her purple eyes locked onto her man. From the way her violet pupils seemed to move, Wilder came to a simple conclusion as he affixed the collar of the button-up he'd located,
"S'wrong?" The redhead asked.
"Uh... where's Katie?"
The toll of guilt panged beneath his chest, bags under his eyes falsely expanding, scarlet edges now shadowing the brightness of his cursed bloody eyes. Past images recollected that event, that night-like storm attracting everything, at the center of the chaos, there hovered the source.
The Source of Death, his cousin, the one he saved, fallen, because of his inaction; his weakness. Ready to throw away everything for the sake of one decision, whether it'd occur or not, she knew from the second they'd stepped onto the Island from the pier- it would happen. To sacrifice her life for greater power, and she didn't even know whether that power-up would grant the revenge she was assured would happen. And it all circled back, not only to herself but to his deficiency, that naivete, believing a girl like her... how ignorant could he be?
Transforming those complex sensations into sentences, into eligible explanations; less difficult than finding food, defeating rioters. But, he was the Reaper's son, and so, the challenge was what he was born for.
"I'll tell you on the walk there. C'mon, let's go."
A stomp crunched fallen leaves to piece was left to wither, with Kima's arms covering her bust, though her stance held tight, her pupils held the slightest hint of sympathy.
"So Katie's..."
"Back at Riverton. When the time comes, we'll have to head back there... a second time," Ace confirmed for Kim as she solemnly whispered her friend's name.
"And Alex..."
There was a collective knowledge for the fate of their mentor, even Ed dared not to come out of his room, and Katie was ravaging a populated nation. If only he'd consciously witnessed it fast enough to react.
"I wasn't fast enough. Now Al and Katie're both lost... and it's all my fault. But this doesn't even begin with me being unable to save Katie recently. It goes back to when I tried last year when I recruited her for ANZEN."
These words led him to stop, not of his volition, but Myers' infiltrating hand grabbing his arm. Amidst a deserted street with their eyes locked into gazing, Kima held the upper hand, for gifted with only that stare- it was clear what he needed to do. To this glare, he sighed.
"I... I sensed that darkness from the first second I met her, under that overpass. I touched the essence of it when we were assaulted in R'lyeh. I knew what I was getting into, I knew the type of person she was!"
A gradual agony surfacing in his chest hadn't only sent a sob out his lips, but tears out his eyes and streams down his cheeks. For the sake of peace of mind, not for themself, but for an individual they care for, human beings act oblivious to seeds already planted that will grow into the downfall of that person. The pain of realizing is harder to deal with than that of confronting them and wanting them to better themself.
"The way she was... if I'd been earlier, if there was some memory, if there were something that could have prepared her for me- none of this would've happened! She wouldn't have had to deal with those damned parents, she wouldn't have to be ABUSED! OVER AND OVER… AND OVER AGAIN!!! I can't save anyone. My strength is meaningless. I've robbed more lives than I've saved them. And the one person I have saved is going to rob more lives- because of me. She wasn't... I... I can only save those who are prepared to be saved."
Sobs escaping lips, tears staining cheeks, skin painted a beet coloration, at the sounds of his despair she was so accustomed, her body was shifted to another motion. The fuzziness of her hand like fur on a rabbit's back erased the harshness of his strained cheek. All-seeing eyes like his turned blind to the world as it shifted to a snowy background, the color of her face the sole light in this new world of pure white.
"Listen to me, alright? Look me into the eyes don't avert your gaze, focus on me. Do you think that, after everything Katie went through, she wouldn't long to be saved by anyone? That she would want to suffer any more than she already did? I know she went to bed every day, dreaming and desiring to be free of that pain. What happened wasn't a result of your weakness, it was unavoidable: death. Alex… the way you described it, there was no slow feeling, there was nothing you could've done. Stood atop the stairway, staring down at that sight, there was nothing you could've done. It is unceremonious. Tell me, when you were chained to that summit, what did you feel? When you saw that body hit the floor and the storm rage the nation, what did you feel?"
Had it been how he'd expect it- how she did? There was no gradual skidding for time to halt before his head splattered against the concrete. Oppression ran rampant, corruption normalized, abuse as ordinary as breakfast. With all his blessings, he still died. And the world didn't change in the slightest.
"To see someone as important to her as him be killed so quickly and without a heavenly choir accompanying it, if the same were to happen with her or me… that's when she decided to throw everything away anymore. To unleash her chains upon the world and threaten them to a hellish fate they couldn't return from: that's her freedom."
The utter destruction of all living things, the revelation that a being as powerful as Alex could be reduced to such a rubbish perishing, maybe that's what sent her berserk. Maybe it was the fact she could've gone at any time but they arrived when the Founder was most prepared for their infiltration.
"She blames herself, y'know," Kima reminded her beloved.
After pecking his temples, the world returned to its original shades, creating blemish bland colorations. Subconsciously, the couple moved down the street, irrelevant storefronts passing their peripherals.
"Yeah, well, what's new? I blame myself, too," Ace answered with a shrug, broad shoulders kept straight, "Let's just hope second time's the charm."
That whisper of hope seemed to be a virus. For even halfway across the ocean where chaos reigned, it sang like a gong being slammed by a hammer, resounding its ancient sound to send organs vibrating. His words were like guilt; an inescapable sensation that prolonged her life even in this fantasy, echoing through her world. The urge to turn while seated was irresistible. She did… and she was met with nothing, just the tiled floor leading up to the entrance of the office.
"Is everything alright?" The Headmaster tilted his head after asking this.
"Uh, y-yes!" Katie cleared her throat with a fist covering her mouth, "C-can you ask that question again?"
"Sure. I asked... what do you mean
...By 'freedom'?"
To Be Continued.