It was Sav and Celeste's blood that dripped from the catwalk above down onto the ground below, like a slow ripple of rain that snuck up on a perfect sunny day.
But today was gray.
"Sav? Celeste?!" I heard Cynthia shout with concern from below. She must have noticed the rain of blood.
"Static should be disabled now, right?" I asked Soho.
She nodded. "Yeah."
We began to descend to ground floor. The deed was done already. Sav, our target, was dead. But he still had two allies—two witnesses—left. On our way down, Soho began to put her mask back on, but I waved it off.
"Are you sure?" She asked.
"Mine's ripped. I can't even get it back on anymore. Plus, Cynthia and Garren were some of my closer colleagues back at A.X.A. I think it'd be more right for them to see the truth."
She looked at me with concern. "But if they see who you are, then you know there can only be one outcome, right?"
I understood what she meant. A single witness from A.X.A. could destroy Heathen's entire anonymity. If I were to show myself to both Cynthia and Garren, it meant that the both of them had to die too.
"I know."
We landed on ground floor. In the distance, I saw Cynthia seated with an unconscious Garren on her lap. She watched as we approached, her eyes widening as she quickly recognized me now that I was unmasked.
"K-Klyson?!!" Shock spilled from her face. "You're alive?! What happened to your eye!?"
"Hey, Cynthia."
"What the heck is going on?! Are you the one who did this!?" She was bewildered, shivering with Garren in her arms. "How are you alive?"
I sighed. "I never died. That was another lie fed to you by Michael, the same way Sav and Celeste were deceived."
Her breath was short. "Where have you been all this time? Did you kill Sav and Celeste…?"
I nodded.
"Why…? Why?! Why betray A.X.A. like this?!"
"None of this is personal, Cynthia. I just so happened to intersect with you all once again. But that isn't to say that A.X.A. doesn't deserve any repercussion." I gave her a certain look. "You know what I mean?"
"What?" She shook her head.
"Look at the boy in your arms. The same device that nearly killed him all those months ago is back in his neck as if none of that ever happened. What does that tell us about Michael? About A.X.A?"
Cynthia looked at Garren's gaping nape with concern. "You slashed his neck open because you knew?"
"I had a feeling. The last time I saw him, he was still in that coma. It made no sense for him to be back out in the field after experiencing that. Yet, here he was, joining the three of you on a suicide mission to find the Sin of Discrimination, right?"
"How do you know that?"
"I posted those videos," Soho spoke up. "It was a trap to lure you guys in. It worked a treat."
"Who is this person, Klyson?" Cynthia was growing anxious by the minute. "It still doesn't make sense to me why you suddenly disappeared, and now you're setting up an ambush to kill us? What happened while you were gone!? Why are you so different now?! What's happening?!"
"It's business, Cynthia. Pieces need to be moved around behind the scenes so we don't get a second-coming of the Filtering. But you wouldn't understand the depth to that."
"What the fuck happened to you, Klyson?! You're talking like a mad man!" Tears were pouring down her face. "Kyra and Emanuel would not be proud of what you've done today!"
The guilt struck my heart all at once. It was a clenching pain, like a fist had tightened its grip around my muscle. I was brought to sanity for just a moment, a split-second lapse, an instance where my mind may have considered that all the things I'd done up until now were not for the better good—truly defining that I'd become a person for the worse. But it was quickly overshadowed by the morals that had already been set in stone in my mind for the last few months. They were heavy, burdensome, boulders—immovable, still, and forever bound to me. I couldn't be moved by the past anymore. I was a new person, and I knew that wholeheartedly.
"They aren't here with us on this planet anymore, are they?"
Cynthia's eyes grew wide with shock at what I'd said.
"If they're watching over me like you're insinuating, then they'd know that what brought me to this state was out of my control. Life decided to push me in this direction, and I've gone too far to turn back."
"Shit!" She was bawling her eyes out over Garren's half-dead body. "I-I just wanted things to go back to how they used to be! With Kyra and Emanuel! With the others in the Tenfold! Why is this all happening?!"
"The Tenfold?" She'd struck a chord, and I made sure she knew it. "You remember how Sixth and Ninth died in the Invidan War? And how Tenth 'ran away'?"
"What about it…?"
"Those were lies too, Cynthia. Michael killed all three of them with his own hands and made up excuses for every one of their deaths."
"Don't joke about this…"
"It's not a joke," I said very sternly. "I found their bodies in the morgue—all with the same date of death, and all with the same reason for death—a snapped neck each."
"How? They died from what happened in the war! And Tenth ran away!"
I scoffed. "Michael made up some bullshit excuse for all of their disappearances. Even now, I'm starting to think it's not even possible for a commander to die in the hive mind. The only reason they all died was because Michael went into each of their rooms and personally executed them. And if you don't believe any of this, just know that the entirety of the Upper Four was there to witness everything. Enzo, Sav, Celeste, and even Kyra, all knew that it happened. They were spectating the war alongside the other Overseers."
"Then why did they stay quiet about this…?"
"Corruption, Cynthia. A.X.A. higher-ups consist of nothing but corrupt individuals, and that included staining those close to us in the Upper Four. Did you know that you and Emanuel could have died at any moment too? If you made a crucial mistake in the war the same way that Tenth, Ninth, Sixth, and even I did, Michael would have crossed you off all the same. The only reason I wasn't killed off was because Enzo intervened."
"No..." Cynthia was speechless. "Are you being serious about all of this?"
I nodded. "Since the very beginning we've been nothing but disposable pawns in the Overseers' hands. That fact occurred to me after what happened with Garren. Then, after the events at that apartment, it became my last straw. I knew someone like me didn't belong there if even Second of the Upper Four, Kyra, was brushed off as a useless death. You would understand that, wouldn't you?"
"Where are you even getting at with all of this, Klyson? You abandoned your friends in their most vulnerable moments, only to come back and kill them! Killing Sav and Celeste doesn't make you any better than these 'corrupt' higher-ups at A.X.A! You know that, right!?"
"I'm a necessary evil this country needs."
"Shut up, Klyson! You just killed your friends! Do you not understand what you've done?!"
"It was for the better good of Melysia."
Cynthia was sent into a fit. "Are you kidding me!? What 'better good' is there to fight for if you've just killed two of Melysia's strongest commanders?! There's only Enzo left in the Upper Four now!"
It felt like a hole had been punctured through me in that moment, and Cynthia was struggling to keep it open.
Why are her words suddenly getting through to me?
Unfathomable amounts of guilt I'd stored away for some time were beginning to reveal itself and push up towards the surface.
Where did I go wrong? Where along the way did I change so drastically into this?
It hadn't even occurred to me that I'd just murdered the two people who looked out for me the moment I needed it the most—right after Kyra's death, right back at that apartment. I quickly understood that I'd done something very wrong. To further my realization, I watched as blood continued to spill from Garren's decapitated legs and serrated neck. Months ago, I dedicated my duty and efforts to him, out of sympathy for the way he'd been manipulated and used by A.X.A. Yet here I was, having put him out of commission myself this time.
And so it finally hit me, head-on, in that moment.
I've been manipulated up to this point.
The worst part about that realization was that I'd been knowing it every step along the way. I was aware that I was victim to a very wicked way of manipulation. Events had been twisted directly by Ian into pushing me onto this path of life, and I had no choice but to abide.
I was a victim.
This strong moral grasp that'd taken hold of me for the last few months had released its grip for just a moment. For just a moment, my old lenses had returned to me, and the smog subsided.
I saw clarity.
"Freeze."
The clear sky abruptly clouded.
A sudden, cold, raspy voice spoke words that shut everyone's bodies down in an instant. Me, Soho, and Cynthia, were all stuck in place, unable to move an inch of a limb from the single command that echoed across the factory.
I couldn't even shiver with terror.
I've felt this kind of fear before. It can't be…
Footsteps were approaching our direction. I couldn't even glance to look because of the lockdown my body had underwent.
"W-What's happening!?" Cynthia said. I saw her eyes dart at Soho. "This isn't your doing?!"
She tried to shake her head. "N-No… It's—"
"Quiet."
All of our vocal chords muted. There was no more moving, nor speaking. Finally, the footsteps had come to a halt, right next to us.
"You are an exception after all, Klyson."
I knew that aged, controlling, voice anywhere.
"Loosen your necks."
I could finally turn my head. When I saw who'd walked-in on us, I shuddered at the implication. It was an older man with graying hair, slightly wrinkled skin, yet a vexing look in his eyes. The aura from his presence alone shunned my body's entirety.
Are you really…?
"Kneel."
We all fell to a knee, locking eyes with the ground out of fear.
"You are standing before the bane of Fractals, the Sin of Sloth, the leader of Heathen, Ian Sedia."