Shreds of building and debris, tossed by the army's ruthless destruction, blew across the area.
Pipes, bricks, and chrome-metal darted into the dull skyscrapers near it.
The army kept laughing, laughing—they snorted with such disdain for humanity.
Piles of debris fell on the roads, filling the entire area with clouds of dust. The sky was barely visible. The army had moved aside to leave space for the destruction to keep unfolding.
Their army was one of heartless monsters, like the ones they deem worse than they deem, so they get an excuse to execute them. They disregard the very well-being of their society, just to obliterate one that opposes them.
Their pale skin turned red in the matter. The attack was another joke to them, this being their entertainment.
Deafening, the explosion spiked dozens of laser-like volvern shots in different areas, all narrowly missing the army as they continued their laughter.
To Mercury, every impact stabbed through his skin. The army laughed as they mocked the ones who had fallen alongside him.
He felt every bitter piece of hatred at that moment, every sound of piercing echoes from it shattering his eardrums.
A crescendo of light glistening within his beating eardrums, downpouring like a cascading waterfall.
An overwhelming shock deluded him into his own mind.
In that moment, all Mercury saw was his own mistakes, every word he'd said, every step he'd taken to lead up to now.
Was I meant to fall this low? I'm still falling, when will I finally hit the ground? Please . . . just tell me. My mask has already broken, so what more do you want?
In a spur-of-the-moment decision, he jolted out into the middle of the road, smoke clearly visible hazing from his ears.
His fists clenched, digging into his palms, blood seeping through as he ground his teeth and stressed his jaw with an uncomfortable force.
He marched forward, closer and closer to the army, without a look of any emotion on his face.
Reaching near Selune, who stood in front of them, he charged a hook that could've remodeled her dimorphic face.
As he unhinged his shoulder to throw it...
A volvern shot straight at his chest!
. . .
He bounced back, still on his feet.
His veiny hand caressed the wound. It made a deep indentation; blood seeped through his white shirt, like a patch of blood in pure white snow.
The soldiers murmured amongst one another, "A replicant with red blood?"
Dripping profusely, his entire shirt was drenched in it, an endless pool of cleansing.
It was unheard of—a machine regulating the body of a human.
He could barely feel it. It went numb, like static replayed in his heart on repeat. It felt more like a restart to his system rather than an end to it.
Nonetheless, he had an urge—an urge to let loose.
"AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" he yelped in an agony he forced himself to endure.
They're gone! Ha! Oh, what am I doing! How I've lost all sorts of rationality in the face of death! Why am I in despair? I'm so done!
Mirrored realms with different values that hide their wickedness beneath a veil of their funding, they are all scummy! Yet, I let them shoot me like a rabid animal!
No wonder I made no friends in that class. For I am a rabid animal, one unworthy of love.
I see that light again, that window, the struggling students. What had that time staring accounted for? I've spent more time of my life enclosed in my own bubble.
And when I take my stance in my own belief, is when I get knocked down.
In that second, Mercury knelt back. He almost fell, his back inching to the ground, but his feet refused and held his weight, like something, or someone, refused to let him fall.
All around him disappeared. In his eyes, the world had vanished—the road, the buildings, even the smoke, that clouded his mind.
All that remained was the white room in his head and those who had fallen for him.
They saw him fall, but they were sure he wouldn't land, so he could soar once more. For he is the miracle! A miracle worth generations!
. . . Felix? . . . Kadir? . . . Farhan? . . . and a priest?
He saw them—their hands made sure he wouldn't fall. He saw the happy-go-lucky Felix, the sharp Kadir, the elder Farhan, and the savior...
While he was in his own world, everyone saw him as a walking corpse.
Sara interjected, "Aw, just take him out already! What are you waiting for? . . . He's my love."
Mercury stared at her.
She . . . loves me?
The replicant woman broke her chain of generated thought.
Who am I listening to? Does helping these creatures make me feel real? Or just like another pawn?
Stupid, stupid, stupid! You let him get hurt, and you stand there?
"Silence, Replicant. You've done enough," Selune said.
"Replicant? You're just like all those other soldiers lined up there! When it all goes down, who will you cling onto, you sly woman?"
Selune scoffed and decided the artificial wasn't worth her words.
Mercury still leaned back, nearing his fall, as his muscles twitched, sweat poured, dripping off every pore. He kept pondering; every thought felt like a millennia to his consciousness.
He peered at the cackling soldiers as he barely stood up.
His fallen friend kept holding him up, but they decided not to speak a word. It was only Mercury, and his broken mask, alone.
All the lights died out in the hotel. Contrasted by the colorful windows nearby, they still clung to their light, much like those who hold tight to their own desires.
For one who tosses aside their own desires at will is either a beast, or that of godhood.
Nobody wants to work anymore. Everybody shrouds themself in delusion because they are too scared to confront what they know is wrong.
So they argue between each other. A false freedom that causes those above to cackle at their indifference to the prison they think they broke out of.
However, they're all the same. In an order like that, the people are too far in their comfort to take action.
Is this the cost of what life is?
In a heavy effort, Mercury clenched all his muscles and pulled his body up to stand again. He panted as smoke flew out his mouth.
With a daring yellow gaze, he stared down Selune as she started looking annoyed.
He had only enough endurance to stand and stare, but he made himself look as if he was ready to strike.
One by one, lights shined again on the buildings nearby.
Unsurprisingly, soldiers standing next to Selune appeared shocked, near terrified, but they held their rifles tight.
From behind, Sara held Mercury to make sure he wouldn't run off. "Come on! He's weak, shoot him!" she complained like a little girl, unlike her previous self.
Then her voice warped, like she had just learned to breathe as a human again.
She gripped her head. "Shoot him and I'll kill all of you!" she screamed.
Mercury heard the intrusion and her undying conflict.
I knew you never meant it . . . but why . . . why have you done all this?
All soldiers lined up their rifles, facing Mercury, and Sara smiled devilishly. She wanted to make sure he felt it.
Selune made the signal with her arm to shoot and...
She pushed Mercury out of the range!
He was barely standing up; his wound intensified in pain with the force of the push, despite it being a careful shove.
Sara smiled at Mercury and spoke to him.
"Live, Mercury. So you can suffer another day." She gleamed, her lips pink with warmth once more.
Mercury turned his head to her.
She's been watching me, and did that make her . . . obsessed?
But I understand now . . . there's two of her. Her actions are a coin-toss, and one cost my friend.
I want to be angry, but I know it wasn't her.
I'm not worth saving, but her humanity says I am.
If only I could do something.
But it was too late . . . Sara stood confused at her decision as she faced a barrage of volvern-like shots.
Her head shook violently, then she remembered what she was doing this for: a chance at living a life she knew she would never know—but he would.
So she let go . . .
Maybe one day, she would be given another chance to know a man like Mercury.
It was a love that she couldn't present until the very worst moment.
But she knew that he was worth every blast that tore her apart.
A smile lit her face. She knew what she was doing, and she screamed loud, staring at Mercury.
But Selune hadn't put her arm down. They kept firing as Sara kept screaming.
"AAHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
She yelped with all her might as she was blown back.
Selune tensed her arm further as she finally dropped it.
Sara panted, her body a charcoaled, bloody mess.
Her face was the only thing intact. Her limbs fell like gum, blood seeped like syrup, and tendons hung loose like decorations. Her blood had a bluish hue, and she screamed in agonizing pain.
However, the scream was human, too human . . .
"What is your problem? I thought we were allies! The bearers!" Sara said weakly, falling to her knees, her arms barely raised enough to emphasize her words.
She had succumbed to her orders, conflicted by humanity and her processing, and in that toss-up she couldn't make her decision.
Barrages made several indentations in her metal body with soft skin. Wires, metal, and plates were uncovered under her once-elegant appearance.
Selune kept a straight face. "You are of no use anymore, you sly woman."
Sara's eyes widened as she saw Selune slowly raise the arm with her rifle. She couldn't move anything below the neck, as she laughed and cheered.
"Zi Jin Cheng! What a nation I served! Mercury will kill you all! You'll see who's laughing when you meet your fate!"
Only one thing was on her mind now.
If this means that Mercury gets the chance to figure something out, then I'm glad it was me.
I knew I couldn't live in a world without him.
He pushed me away for my own good.
You may never hear these words, but I wholeheartedly wish I could express my feelings.
If only I was a real girl, and not a puppet on a string . . .
I love you, Mercury.
. . .
Sara glanced at her end, and she finally accepted it.
An end befitting of a replicant. In her mind, she knew it had to be this way.
With what little strength she had left, she cracked a smile with dry lips as blood poured from every wound in her body. Her limbs were contorted, and her face was the only message left for the bearers.
"You are the bearer of my burden . . ." Selune uttered slowly.
Instantly, her finger held the trigger with such force, and a searing torrent crackled, its intensity increasing with her hatred.
It formed an orb outside the barrel of the inhumane rifle, building kinetic energy until—
ZOOM!
A conglomeration of pure surging force shot like a rocket through her noggin, forming a huge hole where her beautiful face would've been. Now she had nothing. Not even a face to accommodate the girl she always wanted to be.
A crater not even another mask could fix.
All other lights went out again in darkness.
Smoke hazed throughout the other side of the road, behind Sara.
Through the hopeless smoke, one bright light of blue from a window seeped through.
However, she was tossed aside like a ragdoll and fell hard onto the floor, but her words hadn't.
The still brightly-lit lights in the colorful windows started dimming, like night had come early.
Other lights had shut off completely, pretending it was another nightmare.
"Did you forget replicants only serve one purpose?" Selune said monotonal.
. . .
Mercury hadn't a clue whether to scream or laugh in despair. He could feel those people watching him again. He had fallen once; he could not fall again. This time it was on him.
She's gone . . .
I had found out too late about her battle.
If only I got a chance. Maybe, I would've known what she really felt.
Was it an illusion for sympathy?
Is the man who gave her name also gone?
All she wanted was a name, a purpose, yet I shunned her.
She was born a replicant and tossed between the lines of her order and her humanity.
But in the end, she went out a human.
Maybe in another life, she would know love.
She cared for me, right?
. . .
Such a shame that she let her orders get past her desires, because Sara was such a beautiful woman.
Bloody, he tensed his muscles and panted. He couldn't take much more. They wanted him dead, and Sara was a presentation of his demise.
Faceless, limbless, and stripped of identity, to where they all laughed at your corpse.
I can't allow it . . . not anymore . . .
Instantly, a rumbling occurred—a scraping against the road, like a beast being dragged across hard asphalt.
It masked the sound of the crumbling debris from the hotel still rolling on the broken roads. A reinforced vehicle charged forward with the aggressiveness of a rhino and the appearance of a behemoth with extra plating.
A reinforced truck charged forward, sharp front, rounded back, chrome bars glinting brightly.In the cargo, a pale man with jet-black hair smiled—his blue incisor catching the light.
Black pupils like dead space, without regard for anything that didn't help the rose get its sunlight.
The driver, a large man with a stone-cold demeanor, his fedora tipped downward, eyes nearly covered by messy black hair, spoke little.
Both men wore black roses in their breast pockets.
Halting, it gracefully skidded beside Mercury. The man in the cargo jumped out, his face all too familiar. He leaped with a cackle, his black gloves readjusting his pin-straight hair.
"Oh, thy convicted! Where have you been?" he uttered.
With an esteemed suit, he made a mockery of the distant tragedy, gesturing at the explosion colliding with the hotel with his hands. "Boom!" he laughed.
Standing beside Mercury despite being shorter, he looked down upon him like a lone withering flower in a field, his foot hovering above it.
"Shear oh shear, when will you cut my roots? I am right here—a withered flower standing proud amongst others, stealing their light! Take action before you rust!"
Mercury stayed silent.
Blood dripped from his wound as he stared intensely into the man's pitch-black eyes. His uncanny grin was terrifying, but he couldn't show that he felt it.
"Forgive my immaturity. I am the head bearer, and my name is Yulou Xiao. A common name, as I am a common man—only hungrier." He laughed.
Placing his gloved hand out, he stared hard into Mercury's yellow gaze. Mercury smiled as he shook his hand tightly, refusing to let go.
With his other hand on the black rose, Yulou cleared his throat and moved his hair to the side once more with a flick of his head.
"Splendid to meet you, Mercury . . ."
. . .
Both men stared intensely at each other.
Yulou broke the silence. "What a lovely name. I wonder who gave you it?"
Lights brightened again, blazing across the city. Their luminance displayed an undying flame within the heart of the city.
Mercury remained awfully silent; not even a breath was audible.
Yulou's intensifying smile stressed every muscle in his face. His eyes had dark shadows around them, like a void consuming all hope.
Mercury grasped his hand harder. Yulou kept smiling.
Then he squeezed, and squeezed, yet the man kept smiling.
Mercury had his entire hand in his palm, the tendons of his fingers stretching to wrap around it like something out of folklore.
His hand was a hydraulic press to the man's tinier hand. Mercury's fingers stretched and tightened, tendons straining like living steel.
He applied more and more pressure until—
CRUNCH!
. . .
Mercury crushed his hand under such pressure.
In unison, they let go. Mercury contained a grin that mirrored the faceless replicant.
Despite the mangled bones and muscles in his hand, Yulou felt more dissatisfaction than agony.
"Oh, well, how mature." Yulou held up his limp, broken hand.
He then presented it in Mercury's face like dangling keys. "See this? You did that!"
In an instant, he took his hand back, shook it multiple times, grabbed it with his other hand, and—
SNAP!
Yulou's hand had snapped back to normal and appeared reinforced.
One by one, nearly a dozen lights went out, and only a handful remained.
Mercury felt surreal. At this point, he couldn't tell what was real or what wasn't. Shock emitted throughout his entire body.
"How the hell?" he blurted.
"Magic! Now would ya' look at that . . . good as new!" Yulou chuckled, swaying his reformed hand in the air.
Noting the attack, Selune raised her hand to signal an attack on Mercury.
As all the soldiers got ready to aim, Yulou swayed his hand to ceasefire.
"Quit that," he said. "You guys suck! At least try to enjoy for once."
Mercury backed away and held his fists up, ready to fight if he had to.
The replicant felt tired. The wound felt deeper this time, and his energy was depleting.
Yulou defied the mutilation of his mangled hand and healed it like some sort of party trick.
"Tsk tsk," Yulou clicked, holding his arms up in a mocking manner, swaying them with a wide stance as if to make fun of Mercury's form.
But the replicant hadn't smiled. In fact, he looked like a statue, frozen in place.
"Oh, you're boring," the head-bearer scolded.
Leaping from the vehicle, the watcher stood near Yulou. His tall frame, eyes nearly covered by a fedora, loomed like a brick wall. He only moved for those on top, made no noise, spoke no words.
"Aye! My man!" Yulou playfully punched him in the shoulder, but the watcher didn't budge. A stone-faced acolyte.
He was the silence between Yulou's playfulness and the shadow stretched across the rubble, debris, and destruction. It played a part in all tragedies here.
Yulou rolled his eyes and walked toward Mercury.
"Why are you so tense, Mercury? Ya scared?" He circled around Mercury, who remained motionless.
In a spur of the moment, Mercury swung—a hook that left an afterimage, charged for over a minute.
Yulou narrowly dodged the blow, exhilarated.
Suddenly, an onlooking soldier raised his rifle and—
ZOOM!
A shot passed, disintegrating strands of Mercury's flowing white hair, inches from his face. It made another crater in the ruined buildings behind him. Another wound in the recklessness they deemed righteous.
The shot landed in the blue light that once shone behind Sara, now shattered glass.
Yulou's smile faded. "Who did that?" he asked, his grin dimming.
He walked slowly among the armada, eyes on each soldier, sweat dripping from their faces despite no movement.
Under sheer pressure, a small group of soldiers pointed at the culprit—rifle still smoking.
Yulou wasn't laughing.
He stood in front of the pale soldier, consuming any hope of returning home safely.
Yulou's overwhelming presence made the soldier tremble. He wished for nothing more than to end his life right there.
. . .
"Shoot yourself," the black rose whispered with a faint smile.
Sighing, the trembling soldier turned his rifle around and burst into tears as Yulou stared, bobbing his head.
Yulou gestured, pulling the trigger with his fingers, signaling what the soldier had to do—and—
CRACK!
The sound didn't flow like the others. It had contacted human skin and passed through bone. Unnatural, nauseating.
Dropping the rifle immediately, the soldier fell with a giant hole in his head—from hyoid to skull crater. His helmet glazed in a pool of red blood that dripped onto the road.
Yulou stepped aside, more concerned about his shoes than the dead man.
"I didn't tell you to end it . . ." he scoffed, looking at Mercury.
"Can you believe this? These people can't even think for themselves."
Mercury remained in position, wanting to stay hidden.
"Seems my message was unclear to him. What a sly fox I am!" Yulou giggled.
"You attack your own people . . ." Mercury whispered weakly.
Before Yulou could react, Mercury charged with a flying knee to his jaw—and it landed!
Yulou bounced back, but no blood or tooth fell. Mercury had lightly tapped him.
Another colorful light faded.
How?
Mercury saw the lack of damage—and—
BOOM!
The watcher came from afar, lightly kicking Mercury into the nearby brick wall of a dull skyscraper. Effortless, precise.
His face hidden by the fedora, like smoke.
To Mercury, it felt like crushing pressure on his body. Fragile, like a bug, barely holding himself up.
He got up, and the soldiers now watched in utter fear.
They dared not intervene. Selune looked away, feigning disinterest.
Yulou patted the watcher's back. "Easy, man. Mercury's tough."
The head-bearer opened his mouth to reveal an unhinged jaw. In an instant, he held both sides of it, readjusting like an action figure.
What is he made of?
"Magic!" Yulou cheered.
Staring at Mercury, "Come on, Mercury . . . get up. We were just playing. Don't time out now!"
The watcher stood still like a statue, moving only according to orders, speaking only according to orders.
Mercury charged the watcher again, fist cocked for a hook.
In an instant, the large black rose caught him mid-swing, lifting him into the air.
With a slight flick of his wrists, he launched Mercury into the sky.
The city would never answer.
Each light dimmed one by one, like the dying stars he once saw in the sky.
Staring at the windows of the upper floors, Mercury saw their lights fade once more. He too would wish he could just turn off the lights.
If they could see me now.
How I've failed!
I see the priest, the platoon, and the end.
Do I accept this?
Can I just let this be?
Please . . .
. . .