Six years worth of memories came flooding back in an instant. Fuck, and here I thought I’d done well in forgetting them.
……hah, no, that couldn’t be further from the truth. I cried in front of a new recruit not ten minutes into meeting him. Embarrassing on my part but the newbie deserved to know what’s at stake for us Resonators. What’s more is that he didn’t seem to mind— definitely a few neurons dormant in that brain of his. Thinking about it, Akane was that way too.
Fuck.
Why am I thinking about something like that now, crawling across the desert floor? Hell’s Belle is tough, majorly so, but she couldn’t survive falling from fucking orbit with literally no armor and missing an arm. Heat built up and damaged the circuitry in no time at all, didn’t have any other choice but to eject, and calling out an explosion big enough to soften my blow was costly.
Still, better than dying.
And there’s an upside in having so much combat experience— you more or less know how critically you’re injured. After crashing next to Hell’s Belle I could tell I’d sprained my ankles and had second-degree burns on my upper legs and thigh. A few bones were totally broken, three or four of my ribs were cracked too, my shoulder dislocated, some gashes, and a pretty little busted lip to round everything out; not to mention everything looked fuzzy, probably caused by overexerting Concussive Flames.
Still, better than dying.
The memories all came flooding back in a jumble— leaving home after getting scouted, talks with Yukiko and Chelsea, training with Senpai, being in charge of orientation…a conversation with Lia.
Lia.
I raised my head— my hair littered with grains of sand and highlighted red with blood. Right there— Tezcacoatl is right there! I could see his distorted shape! That bastard…that BASTARD! All of them— ALL OF THEM!
“I will do everything I can so that the world can see flowers bloom.”
“KchT—! Like hell I’ll let you get away!” I roared, forcing my trembling body closer to Tezcacoatl.
“On my pride as a Resonator, I’ll erase that Outsiders’ story from this world!”
“You owe me— you owe me! So repay that fucking debt with your life!” I forced my body to obey me, forced myself to stand despite every muscle in my body shaking in protest. I hacked up a chunk of coagulated blood, and it cleared up my lungs just enough to let me stay standing.
I knew the condition of my body. I knew better than anyone just how far I’d pushed myself to the point a breeze could knock me down. But no wind would blow now, not right now, not without consequence. And as I watched a pillar of light fall from the sky, the words Lia spoke to me that day, visiting my shell-shocked self in psych-care, were all I could think of.
“I think Akane believed in that dream, believed that we would conquer the Outsiders. Even if it’s not feasible…people will leave their unfinished dreams behind, trusting others to pick them up. Akane trusted us— trusted you. Passing her belief along. Until the day it comes true.”
“ANON!!”
I screamed as the pillar of light I knew was him tore through the Endbringer. Light and heat seemed to swirl and collect before exploding out in violent ripples. I had to shut my eyes, blinded and stunned, because the sky all of a sudden turned a color I’d never seen before— a gold light that swept away every black cloud until all that was left was soft, childish blue.
Though I was leagues away, I managed to tear open my eyes to see the shockwave that would eventually reach me; I couldn’t run, insteading diving behind what was left of Hell’s Belle, shielded from the blast. To my surprise though, the ripples didn’t have any force behind them, instead feeling…clean? I sat there for a few tens of seconds before realizing that nothing would happen at this point. So I grunted, pushing my back against my Slayer to help me stand so I could walk back out but…
I didn’t recognize the world anymore.
“……wha…?”
Moments before where Tezcacoatl stood was now a…column of white light. I inched across the desert with my broken body, shielding my eyes from the blue sky, white sun, and glass reflecting its light. Wait…glass? I squinted and realized I could see glass for…shit it must cover practically the entire desert.
I looked back at the column, watching it become thinner and thinner until revealing a…sludge vaguely resembling a hexagon. And in the center of it was an eye.
Tezcacoatl’s eye.
“Resilient to the end.”
“Ch-Chelsea..!”
I called up to the red mecha beside me. It hurt like hell to crane my neck, but fortunately the conversation ended there. She limped her way across the desert, and when she held out her arm I saw Chansonnier materialize in her palm. Senpai’s characteristic ivory Slayer burst out of ground zero holding half of a mecha, Even, with Rojin close behind.
And walking atop glass that didn’t crack or break, Chelsea finally approached, stabbing the Endbringer through its eye. And just like that, the tension in my body evaporated.
As if I were robotically controlled and someone yanked out the batteries, suddenly I couldn’t stand up anymore. I felt weak, and tumbled into a sitting position as a sense of security blanketed the landscape.
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“…fuck.”
My body, my instincts— they knew the danger had passed. It was only my mind that was still reeling, trying to catch up.
“Fuck, it’s…it’s…”
I couldn’t process it, but I didn’t need to. For the first time in three long decades, since the start of this war……an Endbringer has been killed.
An Endbringer has been killed.
An Endbringer has been killed.
“Hah……ahahaha…!”
I didn’t know why I was laughing. Fuck, maybe this was a dream. But right now my body feels light as a feather……shit, my eyes are closing. I’m losing consciousness.
Yet, I’m still laughing.
“Ahahahahaha! F-Fuck you…” I slurred as I fell back, body stretched out and feeling unnaturally warm beneath this new, blue sky. “I didn’t think I’d ever live to see one…debt repaid goddamn freak. But there’s…still……more……”
I slipped into unconsciousness. If this was a dream, then this kind of ending sits just fine with me. There’s no such thing as a happy ending but…maybe this could be the next best thing.
So just this once, I’ll let myself embrace it.
Just this once.
----------------------------------------
“Commander Meredith.”
“I’m aware.” snipped the elegant woman with a bristly tone. Her eyes moved between tens of different holographic screens, each of her fingers on a task for no more than a few seconds before moving on to the next. She was absorbing and directing so much information it was difficult to believe she understood it all.
“Annika— reroute satellites J-One through J-Six, I want constant eyes on them and on the surroundings! Watch for spikes— I want no surprise attacks!”
“R-Roger!”
“Updates on the evac!”
“Ma’am! It'll be another four and a half minutes before mobilization units enter the former territory!”
“I want them there, stat! Burn through the reserves and keep nearby Dome Cities and Scavengers out!”
“Ma’am! Issues with reprioritization of the bots to create a perimeter as well as evac Endbringer spoils!”
“Ohhh I’m sorry! S-See they’re not meant to carry Outsiders! When I was programming them—”
“Annika!”
“Sorry ma’am!”
Faylin watched as the Redoubt seemed to be in a frenzy. She didn’t understand most of the terminology they used, but one thing was exceedingly clear even to her:
An Endbringer has been defeated.
People had swarmed into Skull Beach Redoubt from who-knows-where, and now hundreds of them were scurrying about. Life as a soldier is tough, she thought. Seeing how Miss Lia had ended up in the medical bay, and not knowing whether Mister Anon and the others were okay…
She forced her tiny hands into fists, standing up from the chair that served as her ‘confinement’.
“E-Excuse me, Miss Commander?”
“And the guard who was watching you?” she said without looking at Faylin. It was the first time she’d seen her without a smoke.
“He told me not to move as some other officers requested his help to mount a misplaced—”
“Speak already.”
“H-HiIII!” Faylin shivered. But she steeled herself, determined to speak to Commander Meredith even if she was intimidating. “D-Did I overhear anissue with reprioritization? Ican m-maybe be of assistance withmy ability, as long as I…uh, maybe have access to a kind of master console?”
Commander Meredith didn’t speak for a few moments before sighing. Slamming her hands shut, the holographic screens in front of her closed as she directed her focus onto a console beneath her.
“Light a smoke for me then speak with Annika. Hahh…enlisting more children, not to mention that deserter Brin…” The latter part of her sentence was so quiet Faylin nearly missed it, but she grabbed a box of familiar lengthy cylinders, putting one in the Commander’s mouth before lighting it with a match.
The Commander took a long drag, letting the smoke course inside of her before softly exhaling through her nose and mouth. It seemed to have calmed her down, at least in part, in stark contrast to the girl she motioned towards who looked…stressed.
“Annika?”
“S-Sorry Faylin not now!" Scurried the engineer, frantically searching for something. "Waaah! Have you seen our OOL to SR transducer?! No no, before that I need to—”
“May I help with reprioritizing the bots?”
“Huh!? O-Oh right! Technopathy! Yes, please! Just direct them to pick up the mirror-limbs from the Endbringer they sliced off! We need them here before anything happens to them! Like, what if they disappear like normal Outsiders?! Gahh! What if they—”
“You want the Endbringer’s…organs?” she asked with a furrowed brow. Her expression was less one of disgust, however, and more…curiosity. “Being a scavenger, I understand letting no spoil go unused, but…the limbs? Whatever for?”
The question narrowed down Annika’s attention, and to Faylin's surprise, she set down the tools in both her hands looking…serious. Unnaturally so.
“Because while today marks the first time humanity killed an Endbringer, things are bound to get worse. I don’t like the way the Outsiders have been acting as of late so…I had an idea. One that those mirror-organs will serve beautifully.”
“An idea?” Faylin asked as she put her hand atop a console.
“Yes. I have a gut feeling things are going to get worse, especially since we don’t know what resonance is…so I want to create a weapon.”
The young girl’s eyes went wide, animating the freckles on her face as she whispered. “A weapon?”
The engineer nodded. “An idea born from the time Anon merged with a Crysfiend, I want to create a weapon that will let Resonators wield the power of Outsiders.”
Annika went silent for a moment before leaning down.
“…a weapon I hope will one day let them wield the power of the Endbringers themselves.”