"Klyson…?" Celeste rubbed his eyes. "Is that really you…?"
My eye widened with realization at what must've happened. In the narrow evasion of the knife that was aimed at my head, it must have torn along the side of my mask, slicing it loose from my face.
I no longer had anything to conceal my true identity to these people. My foes, my previous allies.
"You aren't dead…?"
It was Sav who looked at me with the most shock. His expression truly spelt disbelief in what stood in front of him.
"The General… When you disappeared those months ago, he said that you died…"
"He said you committed suicide," Celeste added on. "Because of the events that happened at the apartment. Did you fake your death, Klyson?"
What the fuck…?
Hearing these words, rumors, spoken about me, slowly brought me to a shivering rage.
"What happened to your eye?" Sav asked.
I immediately interrupted him. "The General told you I committed suicide…?"
They both nodded.
"He told you that I was dead…?"
"Klyson," Celeste said sternly. "What the hell is going on here? You've been missing for months, and now you're suddenly here, trying to kill us?"
"Klyson. We really thought you was dead… We were seriously mournin'."
"Where have you been all of this time? Why would you fake your death? Why would you leave everything behind at A.X.A.?"
"We know that what happened at that apartment was hard to deal with, but you ain't gotta leave us all just like that—"
"Shut the fuck up, both of you."
My voice, endowed with stress and coarsened with rage, echoed roughly across the factory. My words brought both Sav and Celeste to silence.
"Michael told you I died, so you just went and believed it?" My heart was racing aggressively. My anger was overflowing. "Even though you both know firsthand that he's a pathological liar?!"
"What…?"
"Don't fucking play dumb with me!!" I stepped forward, my foot stomping down heavy and shaking the entire catwalk. "You're both fully aware that he knows how to lie about people's deaths. You were both there when he murdered Tenth, Ninth, and Sixth, then played it off afterwards as deaths from the Invidan War!"
My blood was heavy and viscous, struggling to coarse through my tightened veins.
"I never died. I never committed suicide! I never faked my death! These are all lies being fed to you by the higher-ups, and you're eating it like you've been starved! How fucking pathetic!"
Celeste quickly shot back. "Then tell us why you disappeared from A.X.A.! Tell us why you vanished as if you'd died!"
"Disappearing was never my intention! My hope was wavering after what happened at that apartment. Up until that point, I already knew about the deceit going on behind the scenes. I'd discovered the bodies of Tenth, Ninth, and Sixth, myself. Do you know how it felt to uncover that they'd been murdered after believing they'd passed away in honor during the battle with Invidan? Then, there was Garren. Ever wondered why he was bed-ridden in a coma to begin with? That microchip you pulled out of his neck earlier, Sav. That's the Controllant, a mind-controlling biological weapon we retrieved from New Zina that Michael placed in him without any of our knowledge! Without his consent! He was being controlled on when to attack, and when to use his Fractal! It got him nearly killed, yet they're still using it on him now! Then, to top it all off—what happened at that apartment. To this day, I still wonder if Kyra and Emanuel would still be alive had A.X.A. sent in backup when we requested it. Instead, they left us hanging facing off against hundreds of enemies all because they didn't deem the situation 'fit for backup.' And after all of that, you'd think they'd at least honor Kyra's death, right? Maybe because she was Second of the Upper Four? No. Nothing. Not even a glimmer of gratitude, or a tribute of any kind. If someone as strong, courageous, and important as her couldn't even get the proper appreciation she deserved, then how do you think I, a Fractless nobody, felt being in A.X.A.!?"
I took a deep, deep breath.
"I never, ever, felt like I belonged. Especially alongside Fractal powerhouses like you guys. Did you know that Michael planned on killing me alongside Tenth, Ninth, and Sixth too? If it weren't for Enzo's intervention, I wouldn't be here right now. How do you think it makes someone like me feel knowing that I'm a dead man talking?!"
Sav and Celeste were speechless. Words could not even begin to manifest in their throats.
"I didn't die in the way that Michael told you both I did. But maybe I did die, afterall. Klyson, 'Fifth,' Rainer died all those months ago. What you see now, what you see in front of you, is not even the shell of who I once was back then."
I stood before them, missing an eye, covered in scars, fortified with traumatized strength, and standing with guilty glory. I was the Fractless Executioner of Heathen, and nothing could ever turn me back into the person I once was. I leaned over and pulled my knife out of the ground, sheathing it aside.
"I'm here to kill you, Sav."
He steadied himself on the floor. "Why are you doin' this, Klyson? I'm really sorry to hear about all that you said, but what's leadin' you to do this to us? Is it revenge? Did we ever do anythin' to you directly to deserve this?"
"It isn't personal." I stepped forwards, and in a blink, I was already before them. "You're just in the way of my future aspirations right now."
I swung my knife down, but it wasn't his flesh that I'd sliced through. Rather, it was the chest of Celeste who'd moved between us just in time.
Shlrrk—!
He fell aside, with a deep fatal wound spilling blood onto the floor as he landed.
"Celeste!!" Sav caught him by the shoulders. In an instant, they warped a distance away, still on the same catwalk.
"Why do this, Klyson? Why?!"
"You don't need to know," I said, as I stepped once and appeared face-to-face with Sav once more.
"How did you get so fast…?"
I ignored his question, ready to bring my knife up to strike. In quick response, he raised his hand and pointed his palm at my knife. He tried to get a wormhole off, but I quickly knocked his arm aside, interrupting the manifestation. Quickly, he retracted his arm, pushing forth a punch into my stomach.
Thud!
It was weak. I took it on without blocking. Sav was thin and scrawny. His strength came from his Fractal alone.
"You're nothing without your Fractal."
"Shut it, you!" He threw another, ineffective, punch. "You used to be so passionate! So kind-hearted! What the hell happened, Klyson?! You've slashed up Garren and Celeste! And now you're slashin' me up! We're your teammates! We were all tryin' to find Heathen together!"
He tried to hit me again, but I caught his punch by the wrist this time. "Then you can stop looking, Sav. I already found Heathen a long time ago."
Soho joined me at my side, unmasking herself. She was ready to witness my final execution.
"You found Heathen…? W-Where…?" He asked.
"It's right in front of you, Sav. I'm with Heathen now."
"You're kiddin', right? Don't be bluffin' with me right now."
"Heathen. Order in chaos," I said. "What you saw at Cyber City was our doing. All those missing people on the news in the last few months are our doing. Your death today is Heathen's doing."
"You joined Heathen? Why…?" Sav felt his hope waver off into the void. "They were the ones responsible for Kyra and Emanuel's deaths…"
"I had no choice, Sav."
"Do you still have no choice, Klyson?!"
I hesitated for a moment. "With everything I've done, it's too late to turn back now."
He shook his head in disbelief. "You're okay with all this…?"
I nodded, raising my knife for the final time today. Light from a wavering sun that broke through the factory windows glimmered through a tear that fell from his eye, reflecting off the shine of my blade that sliced thinly through the air and across his neck. Like rain drops flowing down the river of a forest in early spring, blood streamed from the line drawn from the ends of Sav's neck, painting the lower half of his throat with a deep cardinal red.
"You must have gone through a lot to get this strong, haven't you…?"
I watched the life fade from Sav's eyes as he spoke his final words. Then, his body fell limp alongside Celeste's, with the both of them marking the end of my most difficult battle by far.
"Goodbye, Third, Fourth, of the Upper Four."