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I know indeed what evil I intend to do,
But stronger than all my afterthoughts is my fury,
fury that brings upon mortals the greatest evils.
Euripides
I have come here to impart a tale. To explain truth that she refuses to see. I have come as King, yet a beast of a man. Her eyes, complacent in our shared lie, will see the fiction she enacts with what is left. I am a stone, merely here as a solid guard against the void that I embody.
I will make her see.
This place will be a fitting end. The Gilded Coin, generally overlooked by anyone with more than a few coins to their name is where the tale will end. A permeating absence dilutes the senses, there is nothing but what lies directly before me. The door colorless, paint faded, a temporary barricade..
She must see.
A gun is a silly thing, so small and powerless when compared to what I am capable with bare hands, but it gets a point across much easier than a fist of any strength. All mortals fear the bullet, even the mighty pod pilots, so safe and secure in their capsules, when faced with a gun to their face even Brutor break down and cry. It slips easily enough from it's hiding place, station security really is a joke.
The door disappears, I am aware of four fleeting existences, only one of which I need. Three bullets and she is left standing before me, two long curved knives in her hands. For a second I am blinded, I know the emotions are replicated from something real, but the programmed responses are just as debilitating. She is a goddess to me, everything to me, again, replicated, from someone long dead. I shake the program from my mind, resolute in my purpose.
“You will see!”
I am screaming at her as the distance between us closes. She stares at me, minute sensors detect the tears welling up behind her eyes, not something that a normal man could ever possibly achieve. With her inches from me I strike my wife, the act sending a shock wave of physical emotion through me, holding on to my purpose I strike her again. She drops her knives, the tips driving hard into the wooden floor to either side of her. She sinks to the floor, her gaze never leaving mine.
“I am mortal no more. I am human, no more. I am your husband no more.” the screams come forth as the barrel of my gun is pressed to her head. “I cannot be what you want me to be. I cannot be what I had intended to be. I am but a shell, the cast off remains of something that once was. I once held on as desperately as you do now. I am here to free you! This, none of this real!” I indicate myself.
She continues to stare at me, tears flowing freely. It hurts to see her this way. It's painful to know that I am capable of hurting her, and yet my entire being continues to tell me that I love her. She doesn't understand, or maybe she does but can't bring herself to admit it. I will prove it to her, I will make her see. Her knives will prove to be perfect instruments. A sharp blade in hand, I thrust it deep into my chest and rip downward, a blast of heat issues forth from the heating unit directly beneath the skin causing her to flinch reflexively. I pull the hole ever wider revealing the machinery underneath, red fluid seeped from the wound, lubricants, oils, it didn't really matter what else, it was all synthetic.
“There is no humanity left to me.” finally her gaze turns from me. “Look at me!” I scream and increase the pressure of the gun. She winces, but her attention remains fixed, but not on me.
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Outside the tears of the station shed themselves upon the elaborate glass windows that looked towards the shipyard docks; the position of the sky confusing, distant lights and structures on the far side of the stations walls curving and encompassing the stations interior. The muffled cries and shouts had garnered Koshmarnaya’s attention upon entering the main entryway of his home above the bar below.
Kaiden, or Kosh as he had been known, placed his identacard near the door and stepped to the windows that overlooked the city. He placed a hand gently against the cool glass. The paths of water cascading down the side of the building arcing and tracing infinite lines of possibility and Kaiden let himself listen for a moment.
‘I’ve been here before.’ The thought trailed; far in the back of his mind he watched the rain, the only difference perhaps in their path.
He shook himself from his thoughts and focused for a moment on the pleading from the room that adjoined the great rooms’ foyer.
‘Sorrow.’ He could hear the voice of one lost and one who had forgotten what it was to live.
He stepped quietly towards the voices, his thoughts drifting towards the sound of the rain’s staccato beats upon the glass; a comforting repetition that embraced him as he slid the old wooden door aside, its dark gnarled look smooth to the touch and effortless to move he stood watching the act play out.
He thought of the construct before him, the man that in all ways was just that before him. Isaaik Morgan had defined himself upon the existence of his wife, and there she knelt, seemingly aghast at the steps through which Isaaik had found he needed to take.
It was the pistol that stirred Kaiden from his thoughts of Isaaik’s self, the barrel of the gun pressed firmly against the temple of his friend.
‘Friend?’ His hands had slipped unconsciously to his thigh holstered pistol, his long conservative coat a stark contrast to the brutality of the emotion that flowed in front of him. As he let the service sidearm slide free he spoke.
At least, he thought he did.
“Don’t.”
The round that he had charged and his command caused the person, the thing, or perhaps Isaaik himself to turn towards Kosh and there was pain in the biomechanics’ that bled before him. There was an emptiness between them and Kaiden could feel the traces of water that streamed above them, the second itself was unfolding, a muffled cry of protest and the ferocious retort of Isaaik’s pistol were but brief moments.
The flare of the gun and the sound occurred in unison with the projectile that traced past his head. Kaiden’s immobile gaze focused on the singular instant that was created and he had already emptied his clip of semi solid charges into Isaaik; the muscle memory of his past reacting apart from his thoughts.
There was an unexpected response, a look of amusement and shock from Isaaik that he had missed. The hand that had revealed his machinery traced the outline of the entry wounds and he gave a throaty laugh.
“Come down from the clouds little Knight…”
It occurred to Kosh that he might need to reload but he was already sparring with Isaaik their blows being exchanged with a force that implied lethal intent. The barrel of the pistol in Kaiden’s hand flared blue plumes occasionally, his thought of reloading slower then the act when it had occurred; Isaaik’s own blows were held off only by the warm metal of the weapons. Each a crashing and thundering strike that could shatter stone were it to land solidly.
Kaiden spun to avoid an arcing blow; the bloodied and torn flesh exposed the structure of bone metal beneath and tore through the side of the heavy, old wall. The arm holding the pistol lowered and reloaded, Kosh aware only of the distinct clack from the clip entering the old sidearm as he still moved to avoid the expected fire.
He felt the rounds. They rolled and flung themselves around the room, the machines rage the only difference between life and death, until they were once again closer, and the thick smell of iron filled blood off set by the nasally discharged gas of Kaiden’s pistol filled his senses. They fought quicker and harsher but the event was a blur of time. Kosh was vaguely aware of the shower and plume of red that would spark from Isaaik as he let loose small bursts in executed sequences and openings.
‘Did not Isaaik feel? Was he not alive by feeling such turmoil? Surely this must…’ The blow that his thoughts had allowed came fast and hard, his right ribcage shattering as the open palm slammed against his side.
Kaiden coughed and spat up blood, his right lung pierced by splintered bone he fell to his knees and took a painful breath the pain muted by the hollow clicking of his own pistol, the hammer falling on an empty and barren barrel.
Kaiden thought time had sped up, or perhaps it merely caught up; regardless he was aware of scorched carbon and a substantial metallic musk as he looked up into the barrel of Isaaik’s old projectile sidearm. He smiled he figured for the first time during the fight. It pleased him that he had been beat struggling for something worth fighting and saving.
Time slowed again and he saw the void in the machines eyes, blood trickled down the side of his mouth and he took another deep viscous filled breath, peaceful in his defeat as the flame sprayed his eyes, blinding and deafening him. He swayed on his knees and involuntarily coughed, the blood still sprayed from his mouth yet he saw nothing but the blinding white outline of motion.
‘Surely it was still raining…’
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Her thoughts were empty, hollow, as the core of each idea was stripped from it as it formed, only to be case aside as unimportant. There was motion, but she could not, or perhaps refused to acknowledge it. It was the rain. Endlessly striking the grand windows looking out upon the city engulfing their meaningless lives, it was dirty, the tiniest amounts of sediment deposited upon and eating away at the glass. Eventually, it would wear through, and the rain would seep in.
Vaguely aware of events happening around her, sharp noises, movement, something. All she can hear is the rain striking the window; the thundering drum beats consuming every moment of her awareness.
Something wet strikes her face, rain, no...something else. Warm and thick she wicks it away trying to gain her bearings.
‘Why is the rain so loud?’
She sees Isaaik, the man that she married so long ago. She remembers the day they met, the day he proposed, and of course the day they were married. Every detail, every moment, shared with the man she grew to love. Now she saw him as an engine of destruction, the nature of the sounds and his actions finally crystallizing into her awareness that he was an avatar of emotion; but a husk and no man.
Kaiden, the man who had come to mean so much to her, a simple man by many accounts, but beneath the genial joking she had found so much more. He was the anchor she clung to in her turbulent times, now he had become a part of who Isaaik had been when they first met. Now, having stood before the avatar out of devotion, concern or perhaps even something deeper; he was broken faced before with Isaaik.
The scene was already playing out, she knew, it would climax and time would unfurl without remorse or love. She saw the end clearly for a brief respite in time, Isaaik had always been jealous of the attention she showed to other men; none more so than Kaiden. Isaaik would kill.. She was the Queen time itself and her will would forever change the threads of fate.. If she did nothing, Isaaik would kill Kaiden, and then she would be broken herself, lost without her….
The rain stopped.
She would not let him, not anymore. Her body moved finally willed into action. Kaiden knelt before the machine, defeated and at peace. He had given his soul to save her, to spare her some amount of pain, either physical or emotional, it didn't matter which anymore, what mattered was that he cared.
The blood spattered from his lips gave his face a reddish hue amongst his otherwise pale complexion. His side coat heavy with blood as it left his body and yet his lips held a slight smile and his eyes reflected…. Forgiveness.
He looked amazing.
She reached out, for anything, she needed to stop this.
There was a flash of light, a sharp crack. And then everything changed.
Time stood still for one more brief moment, but eventually, she could hear the rain again. She glanced down, her hands still clutched the smoking instrument, they were burned, but there was no feeling, no sensation at all. Strangely, there was no pain any more. She smiled and felt her eyes haze.
‘I can let go now.’
She collapsed to the floor suddenly, the force of the round catching up to her and a swiftly growing scarlet stain edged around a torn hole in her stomach. She could feel a chill spreading upwards, she knew that something had been damaged, her nano-bots weren’t responding, the sudden realization of vulnerability caused her to smile.
Sounds became muffled; there were shouts and screams of orders. She felt a hand wrap around her torso, pressing against the growing wound with another hand. Letting herself come back to the moment she could see Kaiden’s soft eyes looking to hers as he held her, the last of his energy spent to stem the wound that had sundered the queen.
Isaaik too had knelt next to the two. Armed response personnel had large bore energy weapons aimed at him and he knelt ankles crossed, torn and broken hands above his frayed body. The thing that she saw smiled and his ring fell to the gore covered floor. The screams of the officers muted to his words as he looked into her eyes, “It is done. There are no more paths for us, for what I am to you.”
As the last words left his bloodied face he was subdued and shock-cuffed face down into the bloody mire and Sieesa found herself lightly cradling Kaiden’s head as she weakly slid her wedding band off and let the growing stream of life encompass and erase it.
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