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Author's Chapter Notes:

Dang, this one was actually surprising easy to write. Which I find weird because its probably one of the most complex chapters. A lot of plot is thrown around, a lot of emotions. Things are building up. In many ways I always consider conclusions to really have two parts. There is the conclusion using words and the conclusion using action. This is really the start to the resolution using words. I hope that makes sense, I didn't put it very eloquently. Anyway, with finals coming up and the Devil's dogs baring their teeth at me I fear that the next chapter might not come quite so quickly. But I promise I won't take two months like I did for the last. Anyway, as always feel free to comment, provide feedback, whatever. I'm starting to think about what I want my next story to be so if you have any preferences or ideas of your own let me know! 

Also, shout out to Stubbornstain for making these awesome renders of Vera and Ellis: http://stubbornstain.deviantart.com/art/Vera-and-Ellis-2-575618196 I gotta say I can't say how happy I am that people like this story enough to produce fan art! So thanks again man really awesome stuff.

To be honest his story has been doing so much better than I initially anticpated and I'm really thankful to all my fans out there who have been following me all the way! I'm just glad I have the oppurtunity to share stories with you all. Anyway that's about it, enjoy!


“What men or gods are these? What maidens loth? What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape? What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy? Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter…”

  • John Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn


Coarse grains of soil ground out patches of blistering sores on my skin. Sticky fluids gripped tightly to the crumpled detritus clogging the sebum and blood pouring out of my open wounds. Something crawled across the edge of my neck. The light peddling of insectoid footsteps on my epidermis seemed to amplify themselves across the rest of my body. The uncertain horror I felt was not of the flesh, it was almost purely psychological. Like a diminutive devil searching for the right point to burrow into my flesh. Then, in my madness, I laughed. The tiny creature scurried away and I was left chuckling softly to myself.

I considered how strange it was that I should fear something so small, so mindless when everywhere else in the world giants tore through millions of perfectly intelligent creatures without a second thought. How cruel it was for me to laugh at a time like this. When, just next door, I could hear the tortured moans of a woman who I’m fairly certain was sexually assaulted the night before. When, just yesterday, two of my captors dragged my cellmate away with a pair of pliers clamped down on his tongue.

I saw nothing. Not because of the damp piece of rag they tied around my eyes but because of the ignorant veil of complacency my brain had constructed. Nothing seemed worth it anymore. All was just a single length of rope with no definite end or beginning. All I knew now was the disgusting squish of the earth beneath me, the chorus of agonized groans that kept me up at night, the seemingly endless cold nights, and the pinch of soreness at the back of my throat. Water, if I could just get water then I would be cured. This was a sickness. I decided that after my first two nights. Now how long had it been? This was the third day. I knew because the guard for our row came back every morning banging a bucket with the butt of his rifle screaming how many days we’d been there. I think he intended to make us feel trapped, but it was the only source of perceivable hope that I could grasp.

This was to be my grave wasn’t it? This hovel in the earth. With two rock faces between me I was finally and truly a prisoner. But I’m sure you have a lot of questions. Who were they? At first I thought they were just another band of outlaws hiding in the forest, preying on innocents. I soon realized as I was brought in during the early hours of dusk that this was not the case. They had a hierarchy, there was some kind of uniformity in their dress. They all seemed to wear hunting camouflage with white bandanas over their mouths. Some of them even knew very odd marching songs, which they would grunt to one another as they gathered what captives they could into the makeshift holding cells. The first night they executed half of us, something about “too many mouths to feed”. Why I got to live I’ll never really understand.

I assumed they were The Sons of the Deluge. I had heard rumors that they had been operating in the area when I first arrived at Juliet. Like most other Bandit groups though, I never really thought they’d be much of a threat. Oh, how I was wrong. Even now the bullets from their rifles echoed in my mind. I could still hear the rattle of ammunitions amid the cries of confusion.

Wait, no...that wasn’t in my head. This was real. There was the tearing and screaming of war forcing its way into my narrow cell. The horrid sounds scared me enough to try and rock onto my feet. It would have been a relatively easy endeavour had my arms not been bound behind me. The awful burning bruises around my wrists kept me from trying to wriggle them loose as I had attempted a hundred times already. Instead, I just used my momentum to sit up.

The clicking of metal grew louder. Its presence forced itself upon those of us cowering in our holes. It was an enormous demonic entity, spreading its leathery wings breathing anguish in our faces. A body crinkled back against the soft earth near my door. The gibbering and gurgling emitted by the failing organs filled me with dark feelings.

The exchange went on for twenty or so minutes. The focus of the commotion seemed to shift off to the right. No doubt the the Sons were being pushed back. The question now was by who?

Luckily I didn’t have much longer to wait. The audible squeal of my unoiled cage door launched me to my feet. The barking of orders, the slap of boots on the mud, and the weary breathing of the man who pulled me from my dark prison made my head spin. They were hardly gentle. I was pushed around, flung onto the earth, but finally a narrow blade severed the cords binding my hands. It was like I had been holding my breath for three days. I let out so much air from my lungs that I nearly fainted. When I finally removed my blindfold I saw a troop of six Blue Shirts spattered with blood and ash standing over me.

“Get up! Get up!” cried the one closest to me. He was young. No older than myself, but the lines of war had aged him immeasurably.

“What is your name?” another voice cried out amid the hellish clamor. I turned around and saw an emaciated man with a muddy face and awkwardly aligned glasses. He held a clipboard with a list of names, some had checks next to them, but most had been crossed out. I emptied the contents of my stomach at his feet. When I wiped the last tendrils of vomit from my chin I stood back up and looked him straight in the eye.

“Ellis...or Gulliver...or Jung”

“Ah” he said, “the man with three names”


An hour later I sat with a blanket thrown over my shoulders next to the hastily erected medical tent. Dozens of traumatized souls were being thrown in and out. Entering with bloody appendages and septic wounds, leaving soon afterwards with mountains of white bandages holding their guts in. Beside me was an old friend. One, whose words had once filled me with mild contentment. Now, he only spoke of carnage.

“I can’t believe you made it. I thought you were gone! When we got word the convoy was attacked I was...I was certain of it. Oh lord forgive me!”

I looked up at Zinc with bloodshot eyes. Whatever had happened, it gave him a slight tremor in his limbs. The oil that usually spotted his body was long swept away by streams of nervous sweat. I was lucky, he was correct. Sure I had suffered some physical and mental damage but I was resilient. After what I had been through with Vera and Amora, this seemed only a slight step down.

“Its ok Zinc, listen. I need you to finish what you were saying. What happened at Echo?”

He dropped down onto a log next to me and groaned. Both hands went up to his eyes. For a moment I thought he was crying. A second later his palms dropped and he turned back to me.

“It was a day after you left. The two giants arrived. My god they were...there were huge! Two males, out for blood. We were counting on Cinna and his team. They had set some traps, they slowed them down. It wasn’t any use though…” Zinc’s voice trailed off. He looked up at the boughs of the trees overhead. It was as though he forgot everything that happened. That was a typical defense mechanism.

“And? What happened? Did they...did they get to the containment chamber?”

Zinc, without shifting his gaze, nodded slowly. Immediately my heart dropped into my stomach. Had there been anything in my digestive tract I would have expelled it again. Everything I feared would happen….happened.

“Zinc, did they free Amora?”

He nodded again. My tongue shrunk back in my mouth and my jaw clamped down on it. Was this it? Was it all over for us?

“We had to make a full retreat. People scattered. Everyone who was in Echo is now somewhere in the valley, running for their lives. I...I mean, we, managed to get together. We are en route to the river. The only reason they haven’t caught up to is us is simply because they’re taking their damn time hunting down the stragglers.”

“Wait!” I suddenly interrupted. “What happened to the Constables? To Cinna?”

“I...I don’t know”

“Well...wait what? How did you get here?”

“Major Kestrel heard about the attack on the convoy. When we found the camp we thought we might as well save you guys. Pretty lucky to.”

I nodded. It was about that point I noticed another crowd of people moving up the road toward the medical tent. These were not soldiers. They were not prisoners. They were some other band of refugees. Women, children, elderly, the infirm. All scared, all desperate.

“What is going on over there? Did they come with you?”

Zinc looked equally confused. We both exchanged a pair of bewildered looks.

“Wait, Zinc, the river? Why the river? Why not head back toward Juliet?”

“Well...that’s kind of what I’ve been afraid to tell you…”

My face sank. The corners of my mouth twitched with awful anxiousness. What could he mean? Did they already reach Juliet as well? Was all lost? Everything I had worked for. All those sleepless nights and gut-wrenching mornings wasted? All the beatings and the fear? For nothing…

That’s when another familiar voice cried out over the mulled mumbling of the weary mob. Amongst the desperation her’s seemed most eminent. The broad sweep of grey faces cast in the dimming afternoon shade was only outmatched in their hopelessness by this one spark of anticipation.

“Ellis! Ellis! Here!” the woman cried. Finally I saw her. Cyan came running out of the crowd. A rather prominent trail of blood dripped down from her nose onto her shirt. It was then I realized what was happening.

“Cyan? Are you? Did these?”

“Yes, we are coming from Juliet…”

“But...but...why I...I don’t understand”

Was I crying? I could feel the tears streaming down my face. I was not sad. I was not scared. I was just so shocked. The salty fluids stung my already strained eyes. My throat felt as though it had swollen shut.

“Ellis, you need to calm down. Have you been helped yet?” she said as she placed a hand on my forehead.

“We just pulled him from the death camp. He’ll be a’right” Zinc muttered.

“Cyan, what happened at Juliet?” I finally managed to blurt out.

She looked down. Nothing, it would seem, would allow her to meet me eye to eye. She set another of her hands on top of mine. I reflexively reached out and grabbed it.

“Ellis, she’s...she’s gotten free. Aleph got out.”

“Vera!” I corrected.

“Yes, Vera, she...somehow the chamber door was left unlocked. No one knows how. No one bothered to check, it was never supposed to be opened. She just...walked right out. Last night. The camp...it was unprepared. Helpless. Oh god Ellis…”

Cyan immediately fell to sobbing. Zinc knelt down to help her up. I, in the meantime, simply sat staring at the trees. I watched how the wind softly moved them...and became angry that nature should give me the delusion of peace, when in actuality the entire world was falling apart.


At that moment, I could not decide what the worst decision of my life had been. As I shut the truck’s driver side door and stepped down onto the dusty ground there was a moment of emotional reprieve. It quickly passed. During the drive over I thought it must have been when I opened the damn braces in Vera’s cell. That’s what caused all of this anyway. It was reckless, irresponsible, who knows how many died because of it? Surely no one would ever count. I could already tell as I waded through the rubble and debris that this was my only legacy. Indiscriminate carnage. Yet, even amidst the thousands of collapsed tents, the few crumpled vehicles, and the dozen shattered buildings I saw few bodies. One civilian man lay face down beneath a chunk of concrete. A Blue Shirt still clutching his rifle lay pinned and motionless against an overturned Jeep. I thought that even with all this death (which was clearly my fault) I somehow wanted it. Maybe not directly this but perhaps I wanted to set her free. Somewhere in the recesses of my unconscious I had secretly wished for it. I still naively believed that she was capable of compassion.

Stealing that truck was not wise. The soldiers and panicked civilians chased me for nearly a hundred yards. I’d would be deemed a deserter. Whatever, I didn’t care. I had to come back. I needed to see it. I needed to know what I had done.

Then, I remembered the early days. When, my father’s bakery fell. I remembered his words. I remembered my words. They were as clear at that moment as they had been when I first heard them.

“Ellis, go. This world is too much for me!”

I could have pulled him out. It would have been easy. All it would have taken was a few moved stones and a little effort. I could’ve done it, but I was too afraid. Fear, not purpose, has motivated me all those years. Even now, after all this time I see that.

Then, I remembered where I was, and at that instant I knew that this had to be the stupidest decision of my life. Returning to that place. Too think, just four days prior I had walked its streets. All was in order...or at least most of it was. Now it was just this...waste. I was quietly thankful that my father had not lived to see this. Thankful he didn’t witness my greatest failure, because I know he would have been disappointed.

That’s when I saw her. Sure enough, through the mountains of rubble and piles of discarded miscellany, the containment chamber still stood. It loomed over all like an imperious fortress, unshaken by the wave of destruction. Inside, through the fogged plexiglass I could still see the enormous silhouette I had become so familiar with. She sat, as she always did, hunched over. The steel outer locks had been clearly torn from their anchors. This brought many questions to mind.

Why had she stayed? Why, of all places, did she go back into her cell? Perhaps most importantly: What should I do next?

I cannot tell you what drove me to her. I cannot tell you because I do not know. It was painful to climb over the endless piles of canvas. It was painful to think of fleeing. The only thing I could do was face my fears. I owed all those poor souls that much. Maybe I deserved it. Running into the fray like that. Maybe I wanted to die; for her to kill me and end it all.

Fair. Is. Fair

Whatever it was, it spurred me on with such intensity that I grew scared of myself. My shaking limbs were gone. The countless injuries I had endured over the last few days melted away as I took the shattered staircase up to the main building. Its roof had caved in. Piles of cinder blocks lightly covered a string of bodies which I dared not look at. I feared that at any moment one would spring to life again, crying for relief, for mercy, and I would be unable to give them either.

So I came to the vault. I opened it, just as I had many times before. Its gears echoed in the empty hallway that cast itself at my feet. I hastily stepped through and into the main chamber.

She was there, sitting, just as she might when still a prisoner. I entered with the intent to die, but I quickly realized that might not be as likely as I thought.

“Vera…” I said in a completely neutral tone. It was a mask to hide my true dismay.

She lifted her head, turned it a few cautious degrees in my direction, and through the veil of her hair I caught one of her azure eyes peering back at me. Both hands moved down the length of her shins until they rested comfortably on her ankles.

“Ell-Ellis?” she whispered back. Even I had a hard time hearing her. I said nothing. I just stood there and stared. No muscles pulsed, no breath of air exchanged. I wanted her to act first.

“Ellis?” she repeated. “I-” she paused. With her left hand she motioned as if she was about to brush the curtain of hair away from her face but she stopped as soon as the tips of her fingers brushed against the first few brown strands.

“I had to”

“Vera, I-”

“I had to do it Ellis”

“Is this punishment? Is this your revenge on me, because this is far greater than anything else you could have done…”

“No Ellis”

“IS THIS BECAUSE OF ME?” I found myself suddenly screaming. When I finished my outburst I found that I had collapsed onto the ground in a raw puddle. Vera finally smoothed her hair from her face and turned her body toward me. I saw her clearly now. Nothing about her was very different...aside from the dirty smudges on her hands, knees, and feet. Coarse, maroon stains were found intermingled with the grime.  Her once ivory shaded clothing had become tainted with gunpowder and cement dust. Beyond all that however, she seemed, for the first time, completely human.

“Ellis!” she roared. I remained sprawled in a strange crouching position, choking for air.

“Ellis this was revenge on them!”

“Vera I can’t, I can’t be this anymore…”

“Ellis shhh, shhh” she tried to hush me with a consoling tone. “This has been a long time coming. Are you...are you really that surprised?”

To be honest I was. Logically I knew that this sort of thing was very likely, but for some reason I chose not to believe it. The psychologist in me was dead. But looking back I now think he was killed long before that point.

“Yes!” I screamed back up at her. “I don’t know why but yes...I am.” Vera turned away from me for a second. She stared directly ahead at the wall. When she spoke again there was restrained fury in her voice.

“Ellis, you have been...good to me. Not many people in my life have been. But you are naive. You don’t know me, you never have. This was the only way this could end. Death is the only way any of this ever ends. Maybe it's my fault for not having shown you this earlier.”

“Vera…”

“No, this needs to be said. I need to go ahead and get it all out there now.” she groaned amidst half angry sobs. “I have hated this world the second I entered it. I came before, but things were...different. Men lived in cities of stone not glass. They carried sharp sticks and wore yellow metals. I was scared of them and they were scared of me. So I ran away. Darkness in and out. I was only seventeen my first time, and I never wanted to return. A decade must have gone by, and this...Asphod guy. He finds the same darkness. He begins telling everyone about it. I had come to hate my world more, so I thought...you know maybe it would be better. I decided not to be afraid. I wanted to walk amongst your kind like a god. Only...when I came back things were completely different.” She stopped for a moment to look at me. Her left hand stretched out toward me. Her palm held up, leveling carefully against the rim of the outer platform.

“Ellis, come here…”

I just backed away. I scrambled wildly with my arms and legs until I was against the wall. Vera, defeated, withdrew her hand and twitched with spite.

“When I came before I had nothing to fear. But when I came back, there were so many new, strange, terrifying things. You had...bombs, gas, drugs, flying machines. There were others like me. I thought that if I stayed by some of my own kind I would make it. But they scared me as well, so I tried to eliminate them. Well...you know how that worked out. Then I ended up here! Here of all places. They taunted me with death. They brought you in here to make me feel like I had a chance. Snatch you away. Prod me. Drug me. Why? Because they were scared. Because I was scared. But you see Ellis…”  Vera let her knees drop as she shifted onto her side. One hand planted itself firmly on the ground while the other moved up to her chest. “I’m not afraid anymore. I set myself free. I overcame it all. Is that not worth anything?”

Between my gasps of oxygen I fished out the words I wished to say:

“Vera, this...this didn’t have to happen. How could you do that to so many innocent people? How could you do that to me? I thought...I thought you liked me?

“I HATED YOU!” she screamed. The force of her voice nearly snapped me in two. Tears now flowed freely from her eyes. “I hated you and I cared about you all at once.”

“I don’t understand…”

“Stop trying to understand me and just listen!” Vera sobbed. “That’s all I ever wanted from you anyway. Just to listen. But you had to come in here and try to read me. Judge me. Whatever the hell you were doing.”

“That’s why I was here!”

“No Ellis…” she sighed. “They just wanted a reason to kill me. They didn’t care about you...so why do you even care about them?”

Everything fell. The whole shackle of truth kept me as the roof of my mind fell down. None of this was new...none of it was inconceivable. I think maybe that’s why it was so hard. Everyone saw this coming. The escape, the destruction, even my return. It was as though it was written in the stars. I must have been the only one to ignore it though. Everything just seemed easier that way.

“Well, Vera…” I began once more. “that’s just something you don’t understand. Empathy...it’s strong in us. Your kind tear down our buildings and stomp us into puddles of blood but you can’t destroy everything we are.” My words felt insincere and cliche. They were, but at that moment I felt bound to them.

“You would defend your kind when they have done so much evil? To me? To each other? You said so yourself. Sin Core or whatever the hell you call them, fucking with people. You think you’re so great but you are no different from us. I’d bet if things were reversed you’d do the same.”

There was some truth in her words. Nevertheless there were lies too. I would make sure she knew it too.

“You are wrong. Partially. I have learned a lot since I first came here. When I first came to you I was scared. Every time after that when we would sit and talk for hours about whatever, I was still scared. You made me think you were different but you’re still just a fucking colossal murdering psychopath like the rest of them!”

Vera wiped the tears from her eyes with her wrist. The anguish in her face gave way to concern. She then leaned closer, propping her upper body up against the floor with crossed arms. The scarlett in her eyes filled me with a different sort of regret. One I could not clearly define.

“I am what I have always been Ellis. I tried to go my own way. To live a separately as I could. But when a crowd of people on a bridge start shooting wildly at me, yelling drunken insults. I have to overturn them. I have to hold them underwater because then I am not afraid anymore. I’ve never known any other way. That is...until you came along.”

“And what, am I supposed to believe I showed you how to be good? Is that it?”

“You showed me something different. Its not your fault I am incapable of taking it up. And fuck it! You know what? Its not my fault either!” she hissed. “People are the way they are Ellis, nothing changes that. No amount of therapy or luxury will make me your friend.”

We both fell silent.

“So, if we are not friends then. What are we?”

Vera just stared blankly back at me. Her rapid blinking only made her response even more trivial.

“I don’t know Ellis”

“Am I your enemy then? Like they were?”

Again Vera paused. I started to pick myself back up again. Untying my knotted limbs so that I had at least some semblance of dignity.

“No,” she said, stifling a smile. “Of course not”

All that was left that needed to be said suddenly disappeared as though the drain in the center of the room suddenly sucked it away. Neither of us were comfortable with each other yet. Hell, we may never have been comfortable with one another ever again. The possibility seemed distant, but I was content. Vera sniffled a bit, wiping what fluids she could from her face.

“So,” she eventually said. “Now what”

“You sure you don’t want to kill me?” I asked. It wasn’t even a joke. I figured I probably deserved it more than anyone. I held my arms aloft in a Christ like pose. If she wanted me dead she would have to see to it right then and there.

“Of course not, stop it.”

Vera held her hand out for me once again and this time I felt as though I was required to climb aboard. So I did, although the whole movement was much more awkward than it had been prior. Once I sat down on her palm she brought me up to chin level.

“Scared?”

“As always”

“Hmph, fair enough”

The suspension of our problems was not healthy. I knew it, she knew it. We were taking the easy way out all over again. I could tell both of us felt resentment toward one another. The mutual suffering was definable now at the very least.

“You know, Amora is going to kill you”

“I figured…”

“No, Vera, she’s out, she’s coming…”

Vera sighed. Her head drooped a bit before finally responding.

“I’m starting to think I’ll never be rid of her…”

Then we were quiet again. Outside the wind whistled through the slight crack in the door. It was like ancient music. Soft pipes of Arcady that invoked us both with a keen curiosity. We studied each other for another few seconds. I felt like a nobody. Then again who needs to be a someone? It seemed pointless. Vera, even in spite of all her titanic grandeur, felt the same way. I could tell. It was something in the temperature of her skin. She wanted to hide it, which I found strange considering how much she wanted to be a nobody. Those antique gales kept sweeping in, easing my nerves and reminding me of a time when I thought the greatest trouble I’d ever encounter was not being able to see my feet in the winter time. Maybe being a nobody wouldn’t be so bad. It helps when you have someone else to be a nobody with.

 

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