2575 Rhodian Street. The address took me to a part of downtown Melysia I hadn't known existed—a shrouded section of the metropolis where the infrastructure was on the lower-end. When I arrived, I couldn't tell which building belonged to the label '2575.' Everything looked the same. It was all plain, old, and built on un-sturdy bricks. That's when I'd noticed some rusty gold labeling along the top-right side of a building.
[ 2575 - Rhoadian Storage ]
I found the front doors and tugged, but at first they didn't budge.
Is it locked?
I tugged once more, this time with more effort, and finally the doors sprung open. It seemed that they hadn't been opened in so long that rust held the latches in place. I realized how old and unvisited this place was. As I entered, I was immediately met with the sight of numerous halls approaching different directions. Both sides of every hall were lined with large red doors that looked like they belonged to a garage. As I walked through one hall after the other, it finally clicked to me what the label outside was insinuating.
These are all storage units. This is a storage building.
If I'd been led here it also meant that I was being led to one of these storage units. I probably had to find the right one. I began tugging on the handle of every single one I passed, all of which were locked, hoping that one of them would open eventually. My only concern was that there were hundreds of them in total.
This is going to take a while.
After at least half an hour had passed, one I tugged finally reciprocated my effort. The door rolled up towards the ceiling as I pulled it, revealing a small yet spacious inner storage. I tugged on a hanging string to switch-on a singular light bulb, and once the place was lit, I was confused to find the unit complete with a desk and chair, a lamp, and even a mattress with a blanket and pillows.
I thought this was a storage unit. Is someone living here?
Everything looked somewhat brand new. The sheets were clean, the desk was even dusted, and sitting atop it was a small stuffed toy of a sloth. Confused if I had found the wrong storage unit by chance, I took a seat at the desk to recollect my thoughts.
This can't be what I was being led to, could it?
I scratched my head. As I did, I could feel a certain gaze on me. Out of paranoia, I looked around. But I realized I was probably the only one in the entire building.
"Klyson."
A sudden voice spoke, startling me as I fell backwards in my chair. I looked around again to see where it came from, unable to find any individual within my vicinity.
"Klyson." The voice spoke again. I recognized it. When I stood up, I finally realized where it was coming from.
"Once again, you've made it out alive, Klyson."
The stuffed toy sloth was talking to me.
"What the actual fuck."
"An appropriate reaction." I could see the toy sloth twitching ever so slightly as it spoke as if it were alive.
"Ian…?"
"Yes. You shouldn't be surprised by something like this anymore. Anything and everything can be a medium to my Fractal."
"I know that. But why this stuffed toy…?"
"Because it embodies my sin, the Sin of Sloth."
Oh, right. He was one of the Seven Sins.
"Was it you that brought me to the Grand Cordial? To here?"
The toy, Ian, snickered silently before responding. "Who else would it have been? Only Heathen is aware of what you did at that café a week ago. You did the irreversible, so I thought I'd give you a safety net to fall back on since A.X.A. must not be a choice anymore."
"You left me with no choices, Ian." My hand had curled into a fist by now.
"Didn't I tell you over and over again that you had no choice to begin with? Look what that did for you. It came with a consequence, more severe than the last, just like I'd stated."
"What consequence…?"
"The one you're trying to hide with that horrendous-looking eyepatch."
Anger swelled-up inside of me, but I couldn't deny what he said. It was true—I wouldn't have lost the sight in my left eye if I'd just killed the barista before he had his Fractal Activation. I understood that by now, even though I hated to admit it.
"You'd still have your left eyesight if you'd just killed him when I told you to—"
"I know!" I interrupted him. "No use shaming me about it anymore. I get it by now."
"Then I assume you also get the danger behind letting people with HP Fractals roam around Melysia freely."
I was shocked by what he said, but the dots connected at the same time.
"You're telling me that the barista had an HP Fractal? But his original Fractal was so weak. How did he achieve a Fractal Activation?"
"You're mistaken, Klyson. I never said a Fractal had to be strong to be considered High-Potential. It is solely defined by its potential for a Fractal Activation, not by the potential in the Fractal itself."
"So it doesn't matter if the Fractal is weak or strong…?"
"It does not. Whether it is strong or weak, an HP Fractal always has the potential to activate into something too powerful and disordered for our reality. After your recent encounter, I'm hoping you've come to understand that to an extent at the very least."
From the way Ian's talking about what happened at the café, I assume it must have all been a setup.
"The barista having a Fractal Activation wasn't a coincidence, was it? You knew he had an HP Fractal."
"Again with that keen sense of yours!" Ian laughed. "I put you in a position where you'd have no choice but to kill him—"
"—Because he was an HP Fractal target."
Ian paused for a moment, surprised I'd caught on so quickly. "Exactly. You persistently declined taking up your role as the counter to HP Fractals, so I decided I'd give you a taste of it unknowingly."
I sighed with sorrow, repulsed by how badly I'd been manipulated.
This man is beyond wicked. He forced me into a situation where I had no choice but to comply with his wishes.
"Now that you've already gone as far as you have, there's no more turning back."
He really is leaving me with absolutely no choices.
"You've done it once. You can do it again."
All my previous paths have crumbled apart.
"As a Fractless, you were born for this role, Klyson."
I'd been dealt a dozen cards, but now only one remained to choose from.
"You belong in Heathen."
The Joker card.
"I see," was all I could say, as the culmination of memories that made up my life drifted away from a part of my mind that disgracefully complied with this notion. I was betraying my old self.
But I've also become stronger. Somewhat on par with HP Fractal users.
There was a merit, but there were many more costs. It was something of no use to ponder on, not when I couldn't even make my own choices anymore.
"This is your new home. I can assure you that no one will find you here. This storage building has been unused for nearly a decade, and no one comes to perform supervision or check-ups here, ever."
"No grand base for all the members of Heathen?"
"Heathen would be found out by now if that were the case. We are based anonymously all across Melysia. Consider yourself lucky I even found you a place to inhabit. Otherwise, you'd remain on the move like you have been for the past week."
I looked down at my hands, slightly reddened by the blood I couldn't wash off from the incident. "And my role?"
"You already know what it is. You are the executioner to individuals with HP Fractals."
My heart clenched with pain, revolted by the idea of complying with such an objective. But the logical devil, my brain, reminded me I'd already taken that 'one step too far.'
"But how?" I asked. "How do you expect me to find these people?"
"Every now and then, I'll have a proxy drop off a sheet with the target's name, photo, and Fractal description here in your storage unit whenever you're out. But I will inform you, a photo is not always guaranteed."
"You expect me to find them with just a name and Fractal description? How the hell am I supposed to do that?"
"The same way you found the book with the address that led you here."
The fictional book hidden within the rows of Talitems. The burgundy blended in a sea of maroon.
The imposter among the crowd of the ordinary.
"The same way you distinguished a book with a difference barely noticeable among the rest, is the same way you'll find unknown HP Fractal users within a crowd of regular Fractal users. You must notice even the tiniest details that can discern them from the rest."
What a malevolent mastermind. He'd even conditioned me for my role without me realizing.
"That is how you made your way here and became a part of Heathen. This is the result, the culmination, of your choices in life leading up to now. You were once a child, with no insight on the world. As you grew older, you pursued your wishes, and your fantasies. Then came the time to confront the cold harsh truths of reality. And now you're at the top, the final floor, where you've been left with nothing but knowledge to apply to the problems you must solve by yourself."
I realized that the four stages of life that Ian was describing to me were just like those particular four floors from the library.
The Grand Cordial.
"I assume you don't expect me to eliminate them out in the open. You wouldn't want me exposing my role at Heathen, or Heathen in general, would you?" I tried to pry at an advantage against Ian, even if little.
"Suit yourself. If you wanna get caught by A.X.A., then go ahead and do it out in the open."
He gave me the response I least expected.
"You don't care if I expose Heathen? With everything you've told me, I could easily return to A.X.A. and spill all this information to the Overseers. With Melysia's military, your organization would easily be found and brought to collapse. You don't care about that?"
"First of all, Melysia's military is of no problem to Heathen."
I waged against him. "They have Enzo, the rest of the Upper Four, and hundreds of Angel Units."
He shot back. "My Fractal alone can control more proxies at once than A.X.A.'s entire Angel Unit Infantry and task force combined."
I retorted. "The four Overseers alone are powerful enough to take down your army of proxies."
He countered. "And I have an ace up my sleeve powerful enough to rival even those Overseers."
I hesitated, unknowing of what to respond.
An ace-in-the-sleeve that can rival the Overseers…?
"It's pointless, Klyson. Exposing Heathen to your former comrades wouldn't be doing anyone a favor. Not Heathen, not A.X.A., and definitely not yourself. You already have no place in A.X.A. So after you betray Heathen, what place in this world would be left for you to belong?"
He got me.
I'd already lived my whole life feeling like an imposter, taking any chance I got at belonging to a specific group or gathering of people and interests even if it wasn't me. I'd already ripped my place away from A.X.A., so without Heathen, I'd have nowhere to go.
Again and again, you continue to leave me with no choice but to go along with your demands. You truly are a wretched human being, Ian Sedia.
"Any more questions, Klyson?"
I stared the toy sloth in the eyes, hoping Ian could see just how much I abhorred him.
"No."
"Good. Then I've done my part in giving you purpose, so I'm cutting off communications with you from here until you really need me. But you already know what to do."
"Wait, what?"
The toy sloth was slowly losing its energy. "My Fractal will not last in this medium. Soon it will be a plain-old doll. This is goodbye, Klyson. I expect notable results from you."
The last spark of Ian's Fractal left the toy there and then. I was finally left alone in the solitary confinement of this new home.
Not much different from my dorm back at A.X.A.
I switched-off the lights and fell into bed, immediately falling asleep from the exhaustion of being on the run for a week straight.
I've become something I never chose to be.
I was officially a part of Heathen now.