"So I'm just supposed to stay out of it!?" a loud, powerful voice rang out.
And yet, though I screamed, shouted, articulated with everything I had, though I fought with every ounce of strength, trying to drown my weakness in sheer volume, I could not stop the sadness and despair that kept bleeding through, echoing back at me again and again.
The sound begins to fade, like the color of an old shirt washed too many times in the dark of night, while my head follows the cold wind down toward the quiet, glowing city stretching far out to the horizon beneath my feet. The wind catches the edge of my robe as well, tugging it over the lip of the rooftop, where it cuts a stark shape against the warm yellow of the streetlamps—still revealing almost nothing of who I am.
"Just sit here with my legs swinging in the wind, and wait to see what the future brings? Just hand it all over to them? You want me to—"
I stop, holding my breath, holding my rage—deep, red-hot—just long enough to lift my head toward the shrouded night sky.
"After everything that's happened? Just accept the ending again, and... do nothing?"
The pent-up air bursts from my lungs, joining the cool night breeze, whose veil steals my words away and carries them aimlessly into the darkness.
And in that moment, the sky clears: the stars, the full moon, casting its dazzling light onto the tall rooftop, onto my motionless figure, illuminating the mask upon my face. That one green dragon mask, with its sharp eye holes and the black-tipped horns curved inward.
"Even though you know. Even though you know that I know. How it will end."
Violet light spills from the mask's eyes, closing my speech and sealing the decision I've made.
A decision to keep moving forward.
A decision that belongs to the future.