As their legs ventured from the confines of the Tower, aiming to their homes, a ball appeared overhead.
Time seemed to slow around the rubber sphere, like everything revolved around that circle. Surely enough, a time would arrive when the ball would fall, and everything that surrounded it, as preordained by an invisible force dictating the threads of destiny, would soon follow.
But before it could bounce against the concrete, the redheaded Wilder caught it. Bouncing it against the sidewalk, continually strutting, he quietly listened to his allies discuss the matter at hand.
"The hell does 'judgment nears' mean anyway? While Dad sits on his ass and does nothing, more people will die," commented Ace, throwing and catching the ball repeatedly.
"Can we question him, though? August, Hana, even Alex, they're Requiems. From our perspective, it might be unjust, but… maybe they're not telling us something for a reason," suggested Kima, walking beside June.
"If the New Allfather, before he gained godlike power, had the power to see the future, then surely August and Alex would gain that somehow gain that capability, too, right?" asked Katie.
"The power to see the future? Where'd you get that from?" June interjected with an inquiry.
"Dad's memories. He saw it firsthand, how the future was opened up when he touched Alex all those years ago…"
After that clarification, silence snuck into their beings, like a crushing weight that slammed on their shoulders. To think someone could see the extent of their future, without any power to change it, to reach the freedom they were granted when they were born. None of them noticed, but all of them grit their teeth at the same time.
A world without freedom—how loathsome did that sound? Everyone split apart as they entered differing corridors in the same building. Ace entered an interior after unlocking the door, Kima in tow behind.
"I'm pooped…" whispered Kim.
The corridor's light-forming shadows soon diminished as the door closed. All that remained in the darkness of their home were his glistening red eyes scanning over this familiar interior. The bulb enlightened, his finger simply flicking the switch to brighten their home.
"Same," groaned the ginger, watching as she slipped out from behind to stand before him.
She was so elegant with the way she hovered across the wooden floorboards, flying into their room. The second she threw herself onto the bed, everything turned to static—nothing else mattered besides the literal marshmallow she was resting within.
As Ace detached his backpack's strap from his shoulder, not only did it thud to the ground with a considerable volume accompanying its descent. Silently moaning as he unhinged his jaw, he rubbed at his shoulder, sinking his fingers into his collar, accidentally yawning in the process of stretching.
Noticing her laid-out anatomy spread across the mattress from the hallway still, he chuckled, the redhead resting his arm against the doorframe so he could lean.
"Tired, huh?" he teasingly questioned.
How unusual. She was quiet. Not even a middle finger aimed at him, just pure and utter silence. But he didn't falter. Instead, he stepped closer, sliding onto the bed himself, now seated beside her. There was no doubt she felt the pressure from his bottom sinking into the bed— yet she continued to perpetuate a chimera sense of uninterested silence.
'Tired, my ass,' he thought.
"What's up with you?"
Just those words struck a chord within her, seething through every nerve scattered about her genetics. Without even consulting her conscience, her body jolted. Head turned toward his own, he upturned an eyebrow, noticing the red in her eyes, the tears at the retinas' corners.
"Why're you... crying...?" phonetically questioned the Wilder brother after temporarily pausing.
"Why? WHY! Are you fucking serious?!"
Right across the apartment, inside the opposite apartment. Katie's eyes widened, momentarily halting while toasting a sandwich. June wandered into the kitchen, bumping her cousin with her elbow.
"You hear that?"
"Yeah. Did Ace do somethin' wrong they got home or something?" Kate asked.
Indistinct screams spat out from behind the door. Instantly, Kate and June pressed their ears against it, extinguishing the blurriness from the yells so they could focus on the words.
"WHAT DID I EVEN DO?!" He yelled back at her, walking out of their bedroom.
"What the fuck do you mean? You say that aloud so easily, embarrass me in front of my best friends! And then you have the DECENCY TO ASK WHAT. YOU. DID?!" Kima cried back at her with a red face, flared nostrils--revealing veins from her skull's verges.
"Oh, that's what you're bothered about," Ace scratched his nape, now hanging his head.
'His...' Kima calmed her ragged breaths, 'his body language is changing,' she observed.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to embarrass you or anything. While I still agree with Katie, I apologize for the way I went about things. I shouldn't have... said it aloud," Wilder admitted.
That was when Kim's pupils shrunk. Her skin now devoid of any colored sense, plagued with shock as she stared ahead, awaiting his continuation.
"I really love you, and I don't wanna fight anymore," He confessed; she noticed his knees beginning to wobble.
In no time at all, without reacting as he immediately descended, his knees thudded against the ground. He kneeled to his lover with a tired expression infecting his sharp features.
"Everything's been so tiring. Ever since Katie's outburst, returning to the Capital. losing Alex. God, it doesn't feel like I'm the same person anymore. I wish for the same freedom and peace as everyone else does, but it's so stupid. I want to move. I want to attack. I haven't earned the right to linger around, sitting on my ass and waiting for some unknown plan we don't know Ah it shout! I want to move on Retly, I want to get stronger. I want to…"
Suddenly, the agony returned to his mind. Endlessly screaming while chained to a chair, helpless from fingers plunging into his skin, forcefully inhaling everything within him to seethe him of that force that perpetuated his bearing heart. What held him onto sanity? What kept him grounded? Was it the pact he swore and then immediately broke? Was it Katie, the hope that he could think for himself, or even his father?
No. It wasn't anything of the sort.
"I want to kill everyone who's stood by on their asses while there are people like Katie suffering every day! I want to extinguish their weakness and get stronger… I WANT TO OBLITERATE THEM ALL!!!"
The volume of his declaration seemed to shake the apartment's very foundation. The way his voice cracked, that merciless smirk—surely, this would drive her further into her anger. How could he think of such selfish desires at a time like this? Wanting there to be chaos so he could do something instead of waiting for a peace that will never come, how useless was that: wasn't that an unjust desire?
But, with everything they've done, and all the people they'd killed, did they have the right to continue wishing for justice? Maybe what was 'just' and what was 'wanted' were the same—with the former just a baseless excuse to satiate human's selfish nature. In retrospect, that look on his face spelled it all out. There was no denying that he knew this from the start.
'Where does it even begin? Back then? No… what does it matter anymore? Everything that's led to this point, no one could've reversed it. Ace's who he is because he was born this way, predestined to be himself. After all, he was always a 'Requiem descendant.' Does that mean Katie's the same, then? Does that mean… I'm the same then?'
Kim fell to her knees too. Ace, looked to her now, allowing the sinister grimace to fade.
'Even if nobody could've changed the future, it doesn't matter. Whether we were born this way or otherwise, there's no mistaking it. I wanted this. No matter the cost…'
That flash of Alex burdening her with those weights. She wished to burn it all away, she wished to be herself. Relishing in the glory of battle, being the strongest she can be—isn't that what she loved more than anything in the world, even if it meant destroying others' lives?
"Ace, babe, we're all the same. We're all selfish, horrible people, there's no mistaking it," finally replied Kima through her hair's shortness, "I want to be the freest version of myself I can be. But, sometimes, I feel horrible."
Ace looked away from her at the mention of his feelings. A feeling he shared while they walked through the City's abandoned streets just last year. Guilt. Weakness. He knew that all too well by now.
"When I feel bad, can you be by my side? And when you're feeling bad… I'll be at your side? Can we… do that?" She asked
'This isn't right. This isn't what a normal relationship is, I know that. But… when has this ever been a normal relationship?' He thought.
They embraced. Whether or not they truly loved each other, they wanted each other not for the individual they were, but themselves. Another selfish action formed upon their carnal desire. But, through the torturing machinations of this cruel world, they inhabited- they had each other by their sides. That's all that mattered, and undeniably, that's all that would matter for eternity.
However, their momentary peace never lasted long, did it? The first one to retract their face out the others' neck was Kima, looking to their windows.
"What's wrong, baby?" He asked, leaning forward to kiss at her neck, arms around her back.
"W-wait. There's… something coming from outside," Kima halted him from preventing further—he obeyed.
Outside their apartment door, instead of continuing to eavesdrop, the cousins looked to the window attached to the bordering wall between their homes.
The residents of the orderly Evolutionary Capital were all but marching. Most Hybrids, others Evolutionaries. Branding protest signs and screaming indistinct chants at the top of their lungs, June chuckled.
"Hah! It's a protest! Now that I'm not in the middle of one, they look pretty inspiring with the hundred bunches of people marching. Don't you think so, Katie—"
But turning to her black-haired relative's face, there remained nothing that she assumed. As always, Katie surprised her, and once more was June left to question what exactly she truly knew about the girl she called her cousin. To have a face—no, a smile, like that, she'd have to be crazy… right?
She spat the following words with a seething breath breaking from her lips, "They're all gonna die…"
To Be Continued.