"यदा यदा हि धर्मस्य ग्लानिर्भवति भारत। अभ्युत्थानमधर्मस्य तदात्मानं सृजाम्यहम्॥
परित्राणाय साधूनां विनाशाय च दुष्कृताम्। धर्मसंस्थापनार्थाय सम्भवामि युगे युगे॥"
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"Whenever there is decline of righteousness, and rise of unrighteousness, then I create Myself. For the salvation of the righteous and the destruction of the wicked I am born in every age for the establishment of righteousness."
[Warning : This chapter contain depiction of sexual assaults that may be upsetting for readers. Reader discription is advised]
THIRD PERSON
[Warriors by Imagine Dragons playing]
Icarus wanted to fly, despite knowing the consequences. He yearned to touch the sun, to feel its warmth on his skin. And just like Icarus, Athalia too desired to reach for the unreachable, to chase after the impossible.
So she too fell with her burning wings, but what sets her apart from Icarus is that she always rises again from her ashes. Her wings are not meant to be grounded; they are made to tear down ceilings.
Indeed, it's in her blood and veins. She was grateful for her mother, for even cruel mothers are still mothers. They shape us into war, instilling in us venom. They teach us the harsh realities of the world. Mothers are humans too, who sometimes give birth to mayhem istead of children.
All the nights she stayed awake, throwing knives and shooting bullets, she was made from stardust; she was the universe. The smoke cleared, revealing a battle-scarred Athalia, with a cut near her lips, her helmet broken, and her forehead bleeding. Despite it all, she stood tall and brave, she was the second name of devastation itself.
"I'm still here, fight me if you must!" Blood dripped from her mouth as her lunatic laughter echoed against the metal. It was still unclear who was behind it all, but they had surely planned for a revolution. And here they all were, dressed in black with guns, having hijacked Heli-Bastion.
"They are refusing to negotiate," informed Vivene. "Nobody ever wins in a war; it's just the bringer of havoc." Athalia clicked her knuckles against the metal as she wiped blood from her face. Another blast shook the surroundings. They were really asking for it.
"Let me stand before you and protect, for I must let you know that I love you," Asher's words tore her up from inside. He was getting nothing from her-no affection, no intimacy.
"Let's end this." Her wings spread as she lifted off from the ground. Gunshots filled the air, mixing with screams and cries. They fought until the sky was painted red. They knew that victory was not guaranteed, but they refused to back down.
There was no escape for whoever did this; they had done it deliberately. Corpses littered the Herr-Bastion's deck, its runway blood-soaked. Athalia stood amidst the swirling chaos, fists clenched and eyes focused. Her metallic suit almost fell off her body, blood dripping from her jaw.
Her body succumbed to weakness. What more was she willing to lose now? A million voices in her head asked her to stop. She covered her ears, letting out a scream of agony.
"Rose, watch out!" Another blast shook the ground, and Asher instinctively covered her body, wrapping himself around her. It was another conflagration, and she found herself burning again, panting heavily in his embrace.
"Asher!" she howled, pulling his body out of the fire. Loving him was like carnage for Athalia. It all ended in bloodshed, pain, and destruction, their entire world reduced to ashes.
Their love held poisen like Pandora's box, it was miserable, it was a accursed one but "I love you, I st..ill d- do" she wailed out, it held desires, their love was the beauty of a calamity.
"Rose," Asher coughed out blood, "Do you know why I call you Rose?" She shook her head tearily as he brushed his hand across her cheek, leaving a streak of blood in her hair. "Because it reminds me of you," he groaned in pain, his eyes almost shutting. "And the love we had."
"You are my salvation, Rose, so keep me safe in the memories of our garden," he mumbled, closing his eyes and breaking the chain of human fears, drifting into a lifelong sleep.
"Ash, you can't, you can't leave your Rose again!" she hit his chest, screaming through tears. "Why? Why?! Why does this all have to happen?" Her body lost its strength as she sobbed, lying her head across his chest, not feeling his heartbeat anymore.
Love, in fact, was all about pain. Answers to all the questions here are never possible. The most sacred loves are those which never reach their destinations. He may have died, she may have felt that she'd lost him, but deep down inside her heart, he would always live. For they loved each other's souls, which can never be apart.
"Please wake up," she pleaded, but there was no response. The broken debris of metal suddenly fell over her, causing her left hand to be caught in sharp pain and her knees to start bleeding.
Her long hair got trapped between the broken glass, and she realized that if she tried to move like this, the glass would cut into her head. So she picked up a piece and sheared them to her shoulder level.
"Oh, I love to be tangled in your long waves," she remembered Cade's words. Would he love her now? All broken and damaged? She tried to get out of there, her left hand numb, surely broken, and her right leg with no strength left in it.
She struggled to crawl out of there, but a loud noise rang in her ears before her vision blurred, and the last thing she saw was black smoke and the red explosive sky.
The wind was chilly, snow was covering the trees-it was Christmas, wasn't it?
He was sitting on the bench under the tree, wrapped in a warm muffler and sweater, his nose and cheeks red from the cold, his eyes blue like the frozen lake. The twelve-year-old boy was grinning as he watched his mother coming towards him.
"Oh God, you'll catch a cold! Wear it properly," she scolded, fixing his muffler. "But I'm not feeling cold," he pouted, watching her concern.
"Oh, my baby is so warm," she trapped him between her arms and burst out in laughter as she watched him struggle to free himself. "I'm not a baby anymore," he protested. "Oh, you surely are," she replied, ruffling his hair.
"Look who's here!" his mother exclaimed as a little red bird sat on her finger. "Titi is back after a long day," she said, petting the bird.
"How are you so sure it's Titi? All the birds seem friendlier with you," he asked, trying to touch the bird, but it attempted to bite him. "That's because she is special," his mother explained as the bird finally flew to Cade's muffler and snuggled inside.
They both held hands and started walking their way home. "These little red birds are special," his mother retorted. "They represent loved ones who have passed away. This bird is a charm, reminding you to love yourself exactly as God made you," she explained as the street lights lit up.
"Ouch, she's biting my neck," he complained, walking with her, and his mother started giggling.
"Cade? Cade?" His mother peeked through the door to see him sitting on the grass in the garden, his back visible. She walked silently towards him, intending to surprise him, but as she moved closer, she noticed her boy glaring at something with red eyes and a scary face.
"What happened?" she asked, but received no reply. Then she noticed at a distance a black cat holding a red bird in its mouth. She covered her mouth in shock at the sight, and a tear escaped Cade's left eye. "Is that-?" Before she could say anything else, he got up and walked like a zombie toward the cat.
The cat dropped the little bird on the ground and ran off, but Cade grabbed its neck as if it were a stuffed toy. "Cade, leave it!" she yelled, but his expression remained cold, as if he were frozen.
"Cade, leave that poor cat!" she shouted again, but he didn't change. She even tried to shake him and loosen his grip, but he didn't budge. The cat even bit his hand, but he showed no sign of pain.
He was ruthless, emotionless, a zombie - he was Cade. That day, he killed a cat because he had lost the little bird he loved. Even his mother was scared after seeing that side of him.
Her son had become a monster in grief, a ruthless beast consumed by sorrow.
If he could kill so ruthlessly for a little red bird, what about the girl he was in love with like a maniac?
The god sent him as a messenger to drag down souls and help Hades burn them.
There he stood, drenched in blood, holding his almost-dead love in his arms. He had killed them all, using the power he held to destroy the world.
The grudges he held against the world manifested as their deaths, blood dripping from his hair as he walked inside the compartment over the dead bodies, carrying Athalia's lifeless body.
It all ended as it always did; he was cursed by fate to wreak havoc, and he would be the one to end it.
Athalia had wanted to die in his arms, to die as a legend. And here she was, taking her last breaths in his arms as they laid her down on the ventilator.
She destroyed their dreams, if only she would have stayed at home, doing nothing but staying healthy was all he asked from her. She killed their unborn baby beacuse she didn't listen to him.
She snatched away the trinket of happiness she had gifted him. He realized that she held more pieces of him than there were grains of sand. Yet, in his hands, he found he could hold fewer pieces of her than he had ever imagined.
The time slipped from his hands, one day blending into another, then a week, and she was still unconscious on the hospital bed. "What have they done to my love?" He whispered, kissing her temple, his knuckles bandaged.
He was angry at her, but at the same time, he wanted her, whether to comfort him or to grieve over what they had lost together.
They had lost everything.
"And what did you want me to do, sit back and cry in a corner? I was second in command, Cade!" When her eyes opened after a few hours, they got into a heated argument. She never thought his calmness could turn into this.
"We lost our child, and you're talking about saving others?!" He yelled back at her face. Why was he behaving like this? It was not only his pain, but also Athalia's.
"So, you wanted me to hide behind ceilings while others were looking up with hope at me!" Her adrenaline surged and the pain increased as she raised her voice.
"And what has the world given you, Athalia? Does it make you happy? Can it bring back our child?!" His anger peaked. He was not the same Cade who was in love with her.
"You know what, Cade? Our pain might be the same, but the way we look at the world?-" Before she could complete her sentence, he threw the vase on the floor, unleashing his wrath.
Her body shuddered, because he was no one else but her Cade. She had lost Asher, she had lost her baby, and now she was losing him too. The monitor started beeping faster, examining her heartbeat.
He looked at her, and he knew she was scared. He knew all he would do is hurt her if she stayed closer. That he would destroy her the way he did to other things. That he would injure her both mentally and physically. The least thing he wanted was to see her scared of him.
Maybe fate hadn't planned any love in his life. He knew it was better to let go when love would kill them both.
"It's better if we don't see each other, Athalia. It's the end, our end. I never wanted to fall in love because I'm the worst at this. You found the wrong boy for yourself," he said, trailing off.
She found herself lost again, standing on the lonely asphalt road. Her every purpose of living in this world got crushed by his words. Athalia failed to make her escape from the cage of fate. She screamed, shouted, and begged for him to come back, but everything they had mixed down in the sand.
The world played its gamble with her, and she lost everything in it—her heart, her joker, her... her Ace.