Pretty bright stars, how they call.
Dust and debris is my only companion,
In high heights they fall.
A blur I recognize, the blur I saw when I was saved.
How much longer can I be saved?
The world still spins.
Mercury looks about the skyscrapers to his side as the fox and the nation watch from below, cackling and immersed.
He looks like a falling white dandelion that detached its roots.
And so it falls, gracefully, as its petals scatter in the beautiful winds of obedience.
He takes a glance at each window.
With droopy eyelids, he sees the faint figures of those he cherished, watching him from above.
A platoon he once knew, but he barely knew them all. However, he recognized their badges, their uniforms; there was no mistaking it.
From the windows closest, he saw clearly. Felix, Kadir, Farhan, and . . .
I know that hair, that frame, that outfit, but the face is a blurred mess.
There were golden lights behind a face he couldn't name.
Did he ever leave me behind?
Why am I so hesitant to say his name?
Am I scared to lose another?
Each colorful window darkened. It felt like the ground fell toward him.
In his realization, a surge of adrenaline spiked his entire body.
A restart to his nervous system sparked his senses, and that shock made him feel alive again.
The shock was a liberation of his human body, and an acceptance of one that replicated him.
He succumbed to it. The core made by one he cannot name.
With a surge of will, he embraced it all.
He glided in the graceful winds, colliding with dull walls—tall walls of hard brick that held his life.
From below, the mesmerized soldiers and the fox with the rose watched.
Mercury hyperventilated, his renewed heart beating in an inhuman rhythm, like an amalgamation of gears in sequence.
In his mind he screamed, but his body made no sound. His body hugged the nearby wall, hoping his hand could grip the ridges of each brick.
His nails spewed blood from pure friction, digging further into the grey walls.
It left behind a sigil of rebellion in its red glory.
Mercury slowly descended the wall with precision. He gazed at the soldiers that watched.
Forgetting the pain, he glanced down with a sharp gaze. There was no hesitation.
Positioning, elbows open, he—
Bang!
Mercury cushioned his heavy fall with an elbow to an unfortunate soldier who stood cluelessly.
The soldier was out of commission. Mercury's legs collided with others but didn't sustain as much damage as the one who absorbed the impact.
A bleeding Mercury stood up once again, his resolve unwavering in the face of the black rose.
Yulou giggled, punching Watcher in the shoulder.
"Oh, what an idiot! How obedient can you be?" Yulou exclaimed, laughing.
Mercury stood, feeling blood seep from the wires that hung out of his skin.
His smile split wide, eyes reflecting something feral.
Everybody backed away, including a distressed Selune.
"The miracle lands . . . what a pitiful fall from grace," Yulou said.
Mercury took a step—a step that deafened the city.
The replicant scanned every one of them, as if seeing through their souls. Unluckily for it, some never had one.
Yulou marched calmly, facing Mercury.
As they stared at each other in an agonizing ambience, the fog settled, and the night began to fall.
An eclipse of desire awoke.
All that was visible were faint debris and the crowd of soldiers. The city lights were gone.
"Even a fox must wear perfume to hide its scent," Yulou said. "Even a fox must bloom to deceive the forest."
He continued, "Do you know what a fox does when it wants to be seen, Mercury? It grows a rose."
"I am the rose that cut off its own petals," Yulou stated. "You are the shears that make me what I am, Mercury."
Mercury's head twitched.
"You're the first thing I've met that could make me bleed beautifully," Yulou added.
Mercury kept his gaze.
Foxes, roses, and shears. We all just choose which mask we bleed behind.
Yulou's pitch-black eyes, more an outline in the darkness that contoured his angular face, watched attentively.
"Are you the rose, or are you the fox that hides to present it as its own?"
He sneered, patted Mercury on the shoulder, and walked away.
"And am I the shears?" Mercury asked.
He ignored him.
"Am I?" He asked louder, insisting.
Again, the head bearer ignored him.
Without facing him, he spoke, "You are, and you are one that will rust. But we all present ourselves with roses, hiding behind something we hate about ourselves, so we cover it up." He smiled.
Mercury pondered.
Foxes hide behind scent. Machines hide behind silence.
As Yulou walked toward the crowd, awaiting to blend in, he turned around as he heard a movement.
The replicant was nowhere to be seen in the mist of night.
He looked around until—
POW!
A strike of a ferocious beast, with the stiffness of a machine, knocked him away, and he barely kept his balance.
He felt it this time. He could feel what Mercury was capable of, and he didn't want any more.
"Alright, playtime's over!" He cackled.
Yulou suddenly snapped his fingers and—
. . .
Yulou stood in the dead of night, watching the crumbling replicant before him.
He intrigues me.
The rose suddenly snapped his fingers and—
ZROOM!
A sound of glass breaking arose from the sheer pressure of release.
An ear-shattering critical blast landed in his solar plexus.
"Give up, Mercury!" He mocked.
"GAH—" Mercury withstood agony in a blink.
Mercury couldn't scream anymore.
The soldiers cheered like cavemen.
Now was life or death.
Mercury stood once more; dozens of blasts collided with his body, mangling his wired flesh. His white shirt quickly turned red, as did his smile.
His nerves screamed in antithesis.
How much longer . . . they're not even hurt, yet I am . . .
I feel like I'm recovering, as if my body is learning to deal with this pain.
What am I anymore?
Selune moved up front, holding her arm up to ceasefire.
They obeyed.
She held the rifle like an automatic, charging it . . .
Selune smiled, looking down upon her inferior.
"How pathetic. You never deserved that salary."
Mercury laughed, coughing blood.
"Hah," clearing his throat. "Pathetic? Who's the pathetic one here, you lying roach? I die with dignity, you die knowing you sold all your values!"
Selune looked at him with disgust. "You never even deserved life, let alone a miracle that lets you barely stand now."
"Look at you, how far you've fallen." Selune coldly stated.
"And look how you've climbed like a rat; at least I soared once," Mercury added, tightly closing his eyes.
The gun vibrated.
She stared, a faint grin veiled by her orders.
Then she spoke, "It was meant to be."
Am I a miracle any longer?
He saw her finger curl on the black trigger.
He smiled, blood dripping from his chin.
"Don't hold back," he whispered. "Show me just how far obedience can take you."
. . .
TZROOM!!
An unearthly sound shook all buildings; the orb traveled at the speed of sound, glistening neon-green.
A green hue sprinkled with dashes of other colors, like an abstract painting deciding one's demise.
How can something so beautiful be so lethal?
The blast landed precisely in his face, sinking him into the dull wall behind him, dust clouds swirling around the impact.
Pushed aside, the fog made room for everyone to see the scene.
Yulou covered his mouth.
What a sight . . .
Mercury's face had a giant crater; only one eye remained, his white hair blown aside.
In his last thoughts, he saw clearly, too clearly. For seconds, he last lived, knowing he wouldn't feel this pain any longer.
He saw his reflection in the eyes of every soldier.
Their eyes are mirrors.
Everyone sees me as the same.
How ugly I am.
Blood leaked, bits of gray matter hung low, and tissue and bone peeked from carved muscles.
He couldn't stand.
Mercury was dead. This time, there was no savior.
Yulou laughed, covering his mouth, unable to contain it.
Laughter tore from him like shrapnel.
Selune stared with wide eyes. "Did I do good, head bearer?"
. . .
Yulou stared with disdain.
"No . . . it's over."
He walked toward her, eerily calm.
"Wha—"
POW!
Yulou struck her in the face with a swift knuckle, unhinging her jaw and mangling her smile.
Before she could react, he continued pummeling her, again and again.
Blood seeped from her face; Yulou showed no remorse.
. . .
Bleeding, she lay, her limbs splayed like a dead cockroach.
Yulou wiped his hands. "Now this . . . is what happens when you let your desires loose."
Suddenly, a grin spread across his face.
She was no longer. Her teeth had fallen out, her face bruised, but she couldn't complain. She had let her desires get past her.
Yulou giggled. "How fragile."
However, something felt wrong.
The soldiers glanced around, unnerved. They sensed it too, yet still they raised their rifles toward an abyss.
Suddenly—
A low hum.
The walls behind Mercury began to tremble.
Oh, how they trembled.
Every light in the buildings flickered alive, piercing through the fog.
A light of resurrection.
Lights brighter than ever, a light of resurrection.
Even the dust whirled in his grace, stirred by the heat of his rebirth.
. . .
A miracle was born again.
From the hollow of his skull, a blue star lit. His fractures sealed in cyan light, flame, and sheer defiance.
Mercury lifted his head. His face stitched itself with bright blue lights and wires, like a surgeon guided by a forgotten god.
The soldiers fell to their knees, trembling at the sight of divine intervention.
Yet Yulou and the Watcher remained standing.
"You kneel before him? How obedient. Here I thought you'd go further for me."
Mercury stood tall, taller than any man should.
He marched forward, and then the bearer felt it.
A ray of blue liberation in the shape of blades huddled around him like loyal ghosts.
The blue energy folded into edges, sharp like celestial shears. Every motion trimmed the lies that held him down and shaped all that was around him.
Radiant scythes formed around him, unfolding in arcs of light, orbiting his slim figure.
Mercury didn't speak.
He felt it.
Solythe.
The forbidden pulse of the heart.
One that replicants were never meant to know.
Mercury did it anyway.
"Oh wow. I can finally use it now," Yulou whispered, then tensed.
Behind him, black and red roses collapsed into one another, an illusion of beauty becoming his shield.
Roses of the dead meshed within each other, transpiring.
The street melted beneath the heat of Solythe.
It burned away the petals of the rose, only leaving one behind.
Each bit of debris turned to mercury in its light.
In the heat, the soldiers ran away. In the end, they were the ones who couldn't obey any longer.
"Obedience made us all pretty corpses," Mercury uttered.
Yulou watched the fleeing armada. "Did my scent drive the rats away?" He laughed.
Then—
The blast came from nowhere.
The night itself vanished in blue.
A streak of blinding light carved all in its path.
A rending slice of searing azure penetrated the nearby buildings, forming a torrent of scars on the dull architecture.
It was a scalpel of the divine, dividing the city's breath in half.
Yulou and Watcher swiftly moved out of the way.
Mercury slowly spoke, "I thought I died a man, but I became anew. I am a lie made from flesh."
Yulou sneered, "You are of the construct. A case unseen, but you are just like any other. You've stepped past, but can you go beyond?"
Veiling, Yulou's armor of black and red conformed into a barrage of roses, aligned around him like an armada of projectiles.
In a flash, a black rose shot past Mercury. His eyes followed it, and he knew the danger.
Something seems odd about those roses—they look . . . dead.
"Is this new to you? How rich! I wouldn't get close to those if I were you," the head bearer said.
What does he mean by that?
. . .
Then he saw it.
BOOM!
Glass and asphalt clouded in debris, dust swayed in the harsh night winds.
The brick shot, planting into the roads.
Mercury dodged just in time, not sustaining any damage.
"The withered rose cries louder than any other in the field. The fox deems the alive ones too precious, so it finds purpose for the dead."
Yulou stepped forward, toward a starstruck Mercury.
"If you cannot use all to your advantage, then you aren't doing enough. The greedier one is, the more dangerous they are. How did you think I got to where I am? I am a fox like all else, only hungrier."
Yulou watched the replicant's eyes. His pupils were abnormal—a flickering pattern of different shades of blue within each other.
"Are you calculating how to kill me? By all means, be my guest." Yulou shook his head.
Mercury stood still.
His Solythe whispered, humming while collecting his thoughts, and formed a spear with two piercing prongs.
Mercury took it and grazed Yulou's neck with an effortless motion.
Yulou grasped his neck with a gloved hand, slightly bleeding from the wound.
Applying pressure, he quickly healed it.
He giggled cynically, sanity crumbling before him. The shield of red and black coated his entire body, forming a faint sheet of withering bliss.
"What do you think, Mercury? Adds a new tone to my suit," he smirked.
Silent, Mercury got up and created a splitting longsword that echoed in his palm.
He swung. Yulou dodged. The sword cut a whirlpool of agony into the asphalt.
Yulou grabbed a rose of Solythe from his extra coat. "That pace won't get you anywhere!" He yelled as he dug a sharp rose into Mercury's neck.
Without reacting, Mercury precisely removed it, pitching it to Yulou's eyes.
With a twitch of his neck, Yulou narrowly moved out of its trajectory as it exploded behind him. The wind blew hard, fog scurrying to reveal the blessing of pure night.
In a surge, he gracefully skipped to the fog and returned with a half-smirk.
Mercury charged. The bearer snapped to the Watcher to cover him.
Yulou threw a barrage of withered roses to seemingly random locations in the distant fog.
Mercury pounced like a wolf, and Watcher slammed his spine with a hammering fist.
Mercury sank into the ground but grabbed the Watcher's ankles.
With his palm, Mercury surged a spike through his ankles. Both spikes clinked on contact.
When Mercury looked up, the Watcher's expression remained blank. His eyes revealed nothing.
His ankles weren't bleeding; he felt no pain.
The Watcher grabbed Mercury by the shoulder like a sick animal, ready to strike.
Mercury saw Yulou behind the large Watcher, cackling to himself.
Why can't I do anything? It's like it's crushing my core along with my shoulder blade.
I can't let this stop me.
I will face order dead in the eye.
Suddenly it spoke, "You killed Amira Bakir."
Mercury awoke.
He cackled louder than Yulou.
In a haze, his Solythe built around him—a blue crescendo of unknown constellations forming around his being.
Mercury grabbed the Watcher's hand that grasped his shoulder, nearly crushing it.
He didn't speak. He was more silent than what opposed him.
Fury coursed through him. Mercury let go of his despair and remembered why he felt furious in the first place.
From his palms, he created an icicle. With a swift, almost robotic motion, he drilled it into Watcher's jugular with ferocity.
Watcher stood, letting go of Mercury. His stone face stayed the same as he charged another strike.
But Mercury kept drilling the icicle into his throat. Blood didn't spill—only wires.
He, too, was built from obedience, silent as a nation hiding its underlying issues, masked by a black fedora.
As Mercury dug, Watcher had enough.
He bludgeoned Mercury, denting his nose and embedding his knuckle into Mercury's cheekbone.
Mercury slammed into the floor. He felt it once more.
. . .
Suddenly, he was in a room of all white.
No . . . no! Let me finish what I started!
From the corner of his eye, he saw a long desk and an empty seat.
Behind the desk sat . . . Vos.
Vos?
"You forget about me, boy?"
Mercury sat, accepting the reality he lived in.
"No. No, I haven't, sir."
"Well, it looks like you forgot yourself. So get up. I know you've got more than that. Remember, you said you'd live for them."
"That's right, sir."
Vos furrowed his brows. "Then get up and stop being so obedient!"
The old captain rose and hit a hook on Mercury's jaw, knocking him back to awareness.
SNAP!
The snap deafened him. He saw a blur, but quickly recovered.
As his eyes opened, he saw Watcher ready to stomp his head.
In a blink, Mercury dodged the foot that dug into the road.
Watcher attempted an axe kick to his cranium. Then—
A vulnerability!
Mercury grabbed Watcher's large leg, landing a hard knuckle to the back of his knee, a critical pressure point.
Watcher ground his teeth. With large hands, he tried to grab Mercury again, but learned from his mistakes.
Mercury slipped under his injured leg and kicked Watcher straight in his locked knee.
The giant fell hard, landing like a machine planted into the floor.
"Whether man or machine, our anatomy is built by humans. You wear a mask of order; my mask is the mask of revelations. I am a paradox, a paradox to end your futile creation."
Mercury wasted no time, pummeling Watcher's face again and again.
He tried resisting; Mercury kept going, sleek like a machine, but with the force of a blood-lusted beast.
Suddenly, a rose landed in Mercury's back like an arrow. Then another, then a barrage of over a dozen withered roses pierced his wired flesh in an instant.
Where did they come from?
"When driven by an endless lust to cut all flowers in the field, one only learns to see the dead ones," Yulou whispered from a shadowed alley.
Mercury could feel it in him.
He was human and machine, yet one step away from dying again.
The blue light, Solythe, glimmered faintly, though it nearly vanished under the crimson roses.
His last thought before darkness was:
I am the paradox. I am the miracle that chooses to live beyond order.
Then, all went dark.
. . .
But the world would never remain silent.
It always cries, louder each time.
Yulou planted several projectile systems on the walls in an attempt to mislead him as Watcher was merely a distraction.
Watcher is a citizen like all others, one that follows too close, close enough that it hurts, but he wears it like a badge of honor.
Suddenly, a dozen more roses struck Mercury in the back, all hitting nerves that awakened him further.
Accordingly, Watcher stood up with a mangled face, then launched a near-unconscious Mercury into the air.
No more . . . not until the fabled stars themselves burn out and resurge once more.
Mercury succumbed to the empty night, but he saw them again, he felt death.
Stars that encompassed his death shone bright once more.
Then he heard voices, an angelic voice that sounded like a choir.
Let it take over, you can't do everything yourself, maybe it's time . . . time to let it flow.
Before Mercury could process, the roses beeped, blinking red lights.
The bombardment of black and red roses awaited their last bloom.
. . .
BOOM!
Detonating, the blooming roses made their last spark of life, forming the shape of a rose in their final cataclysm, a requiem for total destruction.
The world stopped.
Even the fog refused to move.
For a single heartbeat, Mercury's body was weightless . . . neither alive nor dead, only waiting.
Mercury was surrounded by a haze of smoke.
He let go.
As he fell, Yulou laughed and pointed, while Watcher adjusted his fedora.
Then-
A rumble arose.
Mercury started levitating, looking as if in a state of limbo.
His body was riddled with scratches, bruises, and smoke, but he was ascending slowly.
Yulou watched from below. "Who would've guessed." He smiled with a frown.
Watcher looked down; he wasn't ordered to see what was above.
Mercury felt the soft winds, the dead of night, and the glistening radiance of every window piercing past the fog.
How many masks have I worn to seem alive?
Mercury sputtered, his body contorted, a spectacle in the air like a kite merged with a kaleidoscope.
He felt his body fracture into a multitude of shapes; sears of blue light poked through his cracking flesh.
The azure glow burned through every mask they made him wear.
For Mercury had accepted a new flesh, constantly evolving as if rejecting his own biology.
He could feel beyond human senses and counted all the eyes that cried.
In his epiphany, he fell like a leaf from paradise.
Before kissing the ground, his solythe collected around him.
This time, he understood why it had finally chosen him.
He always had it; all he needed was a little push.
. . .
CRACKLE!
Arrays of azure lightning sparked throughout the city.
Mercury was the eye of the storm, the eye that would make no other cry any longer.
His lightning flickered with sparks of green and yellow, a message from his humanity.
Thunder pierced through, lighting the day again, firebolts heating the city.
Darting past Yulou, he hadn't smiled.
"You think creation is your blessing, replicant? We all bloom thinking we're gods! But you'll know one day, we are all the same!"
Yulou stepped forward, into the storm.
The lightning orbiting Mercury routed in a pattern; Yulou's mesh of red and black roses sloshed in a dimension where only chaos sings.
Around Mercury, a cloud of thunder hugged him dearly as he looked barely awake.
Yulou stepped closer and ordered Watcher to come. "Those born of construct don't destroy, replicant! They rebuild on top of predecessors. Make your choice! So, what's it gonna be, huh?"
Mercury didn't speak; he was in a trance of an endless hurricane.
"Do it! Kill me! Everything about you is a lie! Even your name, your friends, and your country! So do it! I'm right here!" Yulou screamed.
"I've spent my whole life lying to the top, and I'm ready to die! Show me what the truth can do!" He continued, cackling.
Mercury's pupil darted, locking on Yulou's expression.
"Come on! You defied life, death, and hell, even yourself! Show me what you, the truth, the almighty divine, can do to a sinner like me!"
Mercury didn't speak; he kept a stone-cold face. He accepted it further.
"So tell me! Are you the prophet, or are you what you say you are?" Yulou laughed.
In a careful, automated motion, Mercury stood. His orbiting storm made way for their grace.
"I died once, then twice. What could I explain to a lying fox?" The replicant spoke cunningly for Mercury.
Yulou's eyes widened. He tried to laugh out of pure awe, but he saw, and snapped his fingers instantly.
Then Mercury grabbed from his haze of storms a bolt of lightning, wrapped it in wires, and formed it into a pervasive javelin that cried louder than all tears.
With a brief, almost mechanical throw, Mercury pitched the spear with the force of a stallion. The wind broke the silence; the air deafened like shattering glass.
Yulou smiled.
Just as the spear neared him, Watcher took the entire lance to his heart. A heart now broken, corrupted by obedience. Oh, how he could've had a beautiful life.
Then his body gave up, never knowing solythe, never knowing freedom. He died the most loyal companion for the most cunning liar.
His mangled face showed no regrets, even as his eyes teared behind hair. His mask finally broke—not from disobeying, but from finally tasting the end of a life he never wanted, one he had only accepted.
Yulou watched the scene and kneeled beside his friend.
"You never broke my trust, yet look where it took you. Such a shame." He frowned, then cackled.
"Oh! How could I ever forget you'll never feel it again? That previous life already had it, and you're just a shell."
Mercury walked in front of Yulou. Before he could react, Mercury created another icicle to dig into his jugular, but his suit formed a cup that fit the icicle perfectly, like a glove.
"Remember, replicant, the limits of your imagination are the limits of your creation. Just don't lose your mind in the process!"
Yulou spread his arms, and a dead rose integrated into reality with a hard clap.
He brought out the rose, smiling as he offered it to Mercury.
"For you, since you have brought the fox out of its den."
Mercury stared into the withering stomata, the perfectly folding petals. How could such a man have created this?
Suddenly—
The stomata summoned an even larger icicle of red and black stripes.
Mercury narrowly dodged, feeling the anger and spite behind the gift.
"An eye for an eye, eh? You would know a lot about that," Yulou mocked.
"Enough!" Mercury blurted.
He grabbed his head, caressing his white mane, forgetting the wired braid hanging from it.
I am a replicant, nothing more. An exceptional one.
A blazing typhoon of rotating lightning engulfed him, a baptism of rumbling thunder.
He screamed. Veins drove up his body, lighting in bright blue sigils. He felt it all. He continued screaming through the asphyxiating agony.
"Ahh. In search of creation, you destroy yourself. I remember those days," Yulou rambled.
As Mercury pressed on, his eyes were white and blue, a gyrating sphere of recollection consuming his very name.
Mashia was no more, and Mercury was a faint glimmer behind the replicant.
Yulou marched. "Alright, that's enough—"
Mercury's muscles convulsed, and he punched Yulou in the gut.
Yulou spat blood as Mercury drove him upward.
Blue flames circled in the symbol of infinity, an ouroboros of flame encompassing himself.
Mercury held Yulou in the air and pummeled him, pulverizing his organs, attempting to mangle his face.
Not all punches landed. Yulou had instantly constructed shreds of forcefields over areas struck by Mercury's fists.
In essence, most punches were useless.
"Keep wasting your time, Mercury!" Yulou shouted, laughing as blood escaped his mouth.
Suddenly, Mercury charged and smashed Yulou's face in, messing his black hair into a messy shell of what it once was.
Yulou blew away in the wind, but he didn't fall.
He had learned how Mercury managed to levitate.
"You old shear! I know how you did it now!" Yulou gleamed, gliding in the air.
"You constructed material under your feet and moved it along your trajectory! Genius!" he shouted. "Now you see why I wanted you to live? You defy all that defines this horrible nation! No, not even the nation—the whole world!" He laughed.
"No… you are beyond a rose, a fox, or a shear. You are the revelation of mankind! A paradox of humanity and artificial creation!" Yulou cackled onward, as Mercury stood in awe.
I did that unconsciously, but he's adapting quicker than I am. Is that why he's always ahead?
"Adaptation requires one to defy their nature. That is why we created consciousness! Our greatest mystery and our greatest curse!" Yulou kept on.
If I must, then I will.
"Well, I killed your friend, and you killed mine, eh? But I guess we're not even because your friend was 'human.' So come on, Mercury! Let's finish this!"
The wind blew in their faces. The crack of dawn began to rise.
Just like Mercury hadn't followed life's conventions, the day and night cycle in most realms hadn't either.
In their collected fury, they screamed at each other.
The dull buildings felt alive again; their lights blinded them, but they pushed past it.
Mercury's circuiting lightning roared in his presence, while Yulou's amalgamation of roses engulfing his suit bellowed in utter greed and desire.
Together, they charged, pulverizing each other again.
Mercury was no ordinary replicant.
Yulou was no ordinary man.
Clashing, they bled. Their blood covered the dull buildings in stunning works of abstract art. Their solythe stenciled history into the walls.
As they had discovered humanity in the caves, they would now discover industrialization on the walls of modernity.
They continued. Teeth had flown. Faces were swollen. Clouds cheered above. Lights kept shining.
They rammed each other like blood-born beasts, letting go of all rationality for this moment.
Because whether lying or dying, they felt more alive than any other moment in existence.
Yulou mumbled while spitting blood, "This is what we live for, eh?"
Mercury dug into the head bearer's neck with his nails. "This is what we die for!"
Yulou let go, biting into Mercury's neck, severing wired tendons as Mercury choked him out.
They grabbed each other and crashed into buildings with families, people, and tears of all emotion.
In a last-ditch effort, Yulou pulled out a switch from his pocket.
When Mercury noticed, it was too late.
An army of mindless replicants came from the windows that cheered for him.
There was never anyone rooting for him, all was in the favor of authority.
They had no solythe, hence their undying presence.
They clawed at Mercury's back.
The louder he screamed, the more arrived.
They clawed at his wired skin, swarming like piranhas as Yulou laughed.
The screams shook the city. Their solythes had reached their last stage.
Once one accepts the desire to fight, they never want to let it go.
For the desire to live has made us what we are.
Obedience, corruption, and masks have conformed us into sheep that listen.
Fight! Fight for your cause!
Mercury and Yulou jumped from the buildings, crashing into the ground. Supports on their feet were knocked off, and they crashed, choking each other as they drilled further.
Their broken bones, torn ligaments, and dismantled tendons persisted.
The replicants followed as they dived, targeting Mercury as he mauled Yulou.
All parties persisted as Yulou cackled in agony.
Blood and wires sprayed throughout the ground's crevices.
It is perseverance that defines a human. No matter man or machine, tenacity defines the purpose of being.
Debris crashed downward, smoke hazed the air, and the solythe climbed into the sky, drilling past the haze of industrialization, accepting the creation of dawn.
Their solythe built; their confined hole underground kept building. Energy charged between them like a vollvern.
"GRAHHHHHHH!" Both screamed. Blood trailed their path of salvation. Injuries dictated what they fought for: one for control, another for belief.
As pressure built, the crater heated like a furnace. Their solythe built a storm of blue, black, and red.
As they punched, kicked, clawed, and screamed, they let loose.
They finally let it go.
The sound was ear-splitting; all within the vicinity felt it. They accepted it.
A giant rose peaked at the summit of eminence in stripes of solythe.
They were nowhere to be seen—they had become one with the rose.
The rose screamed louder than they did, awakening the people to what lay behind the thick fog.
A sun that determined today and tomorrow.
No matter the loss or the victory, the sun will always shine.
The dull buildings were ruined, and so was authority.
When authority breaks into pieces, survival is all that remains.
A hymn of revelation enveloped the nation in a snap.
Mercury's arm clamped around Yulou's bleeding throat.
They soared the skies beside their rose.
They laughed in their demise.
Each replicant clung to Mercury, tearing through metal and flesh.
Blood sprayed the city.
Mercury was nearing.
He smiled as Yulou stopped laughing.
Then they both closed their eyes.
The rose's final petal turned bright blue.
Nearing, his blue light surged—he was about to detonate—
Then everything stopped.
The world stopped spinning.
Just for a moment.
The last thing he saw—
A reflection of Sara in a river of white grass, smiling back at him.
The next instant, the world exploded in white.
A white dream that echoed in solythe.
Only white dwarfs remained.
. . . . .