Arc 1 Epilogue

Pouria could sense what had happened to him through the entire night even while completely unconscious. It was a new feeling that he’d never felt before. His Soulflare felt different that night, he’d never really felt it like that before, but now he felt more in tune with himself and his surroundings than ever before.

It felt safe, like a warm hug protecting his slumber, watching out for danger.

He had sat in Kaino’s lab for an hour at most before the door opened again. He couldn’t tell who it was, but he knew they took Thunder and him outside. Osefin wasn’t there. Pouria felt sorrow for him, hoping that whatever happened to him in Kaino’s clutches would not end in his death. He already vowed to find him, and Vevlan too, wherever they both ended up.

He was placed into an ambulance, not the same one as Thunder. He heard a rather heated discussion between the Stormcloud and someone else, they seemed to want to make sure their boss was safe and sound. Another voice reassured them he would get the best treatment, as ‘they’ wanted Thunder to wake up for questioning. That voice was familiar, not familiar enough to remember though. Like an intentionally dull droning tone to stay unrecognizable to people like Pouria.

The ambulance drove for a while after that, all the way to the hospital. It didn’t seem like they went in through the front entrance, not even the doctor’s entrance either. They went in through a loading dock normally used for receiving medical supplies, and up into an elevator. Once they came out, the halls were extremely quiet despite the general hustle and bustle at a hospital on the weekend. He was wheeled through the silence by two, maybe three men. They didn’t speak or chat amongst each other, they just brought him into a room, set him into the bed, hooked him up to a drip and a heart rate monitor, stepped outside, and shut the door.

He heard muffled discussion for thirty minutes outside the closed door. He slowly felt like he was coming back to reality, but even as he regained full consciousness, he kept his eyes shut.

The door swung open again. Two men walked in, one sounded like he was dragging a chair with him, and the other had a mug of coffee, the strong smell unmistakable.

“You think he’s waking up soon?” one of them asked impatiently.

“The monitor shows that he’s already conscious, so you needn’t wait much longer, Mr. Blue.” another one asked, and with that, Pouria’s eyes flung open in shock.

“Oh boy! You were correct.” Blue said.

He wore the same thing that Pouria remembered from two years ago. An abundance of his favorite color across his rather formal fashion, trying hard to make a statement. A button-up tailcoat with matching color pants, a silken ruffle inlaid with a disgustingly excessive diamond on his collar. He clutched one of his many top-hats, this one navy blue with a feather and a yellow rim. Pouria knew he was an avid collector of them, wearing them at all times.

While his outfit had stayed the same since last he’d seen the businessman, his face had changed. There wasn’t really a word Pouria could place for how it had changed, but it was definitely different.

“Hey there, bud. Long time since I saw you last.” Blue said from his chair, relaxing in it. “Icy you’ve been getting around the town quite a bit! Heheh.” he chuckled at his own pun a little bit. Pouria knew his ice puns were his specialty, but also a way of flexing his Soulflare, the most famous one in the city; besides Pouria’s while he was in office.

Pouria turned his gaze to the other man. Another Soulflare wielder, another one he remembered. Tall with skin literally black as night, unnaturally so, flesh warped under years of stress. Or so he’d told Pouria. He peered curiously through glowing purple eyes at Pouria after his mission was complete, equal measures impressed and intrigued from the look of it.

“I’d like to be the first to congratulate you, Mr. Mayor!” The Dustman said psychically, giving Pouria a standing ovation with his twiggy fingers. They clicked together like sticks hitting each other, boney and nightmarish despite his usual kindly demeanor. “You took down Thunder and forced The Stormcloud into surrendering their portion of the East Side. Good work indeed!”

“W-what…?” Pouria mumbled.

“Oh yes, you must be quite shocked right now, but don’t worry, you’re safe now.”

“Since when did you work with Blue?” Pouria quickly asked.

“Dusty’s here to mediate, and for his own curiosity.” Blue butted in.

“Did you manage to find Dr. Phantom?” Dusty asked Pouria.

Pouria didn’t answer immediately. He didn’t know what this was, and what Blue’s ulterior motive was. He was pretty sure Blue had turned against him, he remembered that from the sting of Alec’s fists upon his chest.

“No.”

“So why did we find you collapsed on the floor of his lab?” Blue asked pointedly. Pouria realized that lying wasn’t going to get him too far. Blue always had a knack for collecting information, and people with that information.

“I don’t know exactly what you want from me, but I’m not telling you anything about Kaino. Your employee beat the crap out of me on your orders.”

“He has since been fired for that.” Blue hastily explained. “When I heard you were back, I sent my finest bodyguard to protect you until I could arrange a formal meeting, but it seems that you’ve gotten yourself into a fair amount of trouble. The man that attacked you was acting on his own accord, not on my orders.” Blue replied, sounding genuinely peeved about the situation. Pouria was too, but it was because he wasn’t buying Blue’s bullshit.

“Whatever you want from me, I’m not interested. I’m here to right my wrongs I made while in office, not to have a reunion with you.”

Blue shrugged. “Maybe you’d like to hear what I have been doing to fix the city in your absence. Cus, while I understand the cold attitude after what happened, I will remind you that I would return you to a position of power if I could…” Blue explained, standing up and walking beside Pouria’s bed. He sat down beside him, put a hand on his shoulder, and looked him directly in the eyes. “That’s why I’m offering you a job.”

Pouria honestly expected the proposal from the moment he saw Blue in his room. He had a habit of hiring anyone that he saw potential in to his side, and as one of the world’s richest and most successful businessmen, the offer was difficult to refuse for most. But Pouria saw behind the curtain of his snake oil cart, and while there was a lot to gain from joining, the cold truth of Blueberry Corporation counterbalanced any gains he could offer.

Despite his reluctance, he was willing to hear Blue out. He was an old friend after all, even if their relations only boiled down to business meetings. The man was an intentionally charming fellow, and despite Pouria’s cynicism toward that attitude, there was at least an ounce of goodwill he had for him.

“What’s even in it for me?” Pouria asked.

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“What isn’t in it? Would you prefer for me to throw you to the wayside? Thanks to my protection, the public doesn’t even know you’re in the city, let alone in the central hospital.” Blue retorted.

“I was doing fine on my own, thank you.”

“That’s alright, Pouria. You can believe that. But I think you will find working for me to have some very sweet advantages. If you want to fix your mistakes, I do too, I’ve been doing that for years now. I will give you control of any of my resources you’d need, and we will make sure that this city becomes better with every step we take.” Blue said with a passive aggressive nature buried beneath the flurry of kind words. “Would you give a chance like that up?”

Pouria didn’t reply for a moment. The offer was certainly enticing if Blue wasn’t lying, which Pouria didn’t think he would. But Blue could certainly be withholding information. It was a tough choice.

But the real question, the most important one, had yet to be asked.

“Would you help me track down Kaino and Penove?” Pouria asked.

“I’ve already called for a search for Kaino. After his arrest and incarceration at the asylum, I knew he was lucky to not go to prison after what he did, but I considered him a lost cause. His lawyer somehow helped him stay out of prison, and apparently he’d been working with Thunder the whole time in there and nobody knew. So, now that he’s out, I want to know what the hell he was up to.”

“Vevlan told me that he wasn’t working for Blueberry Corp anymore.” Pouria said pointedly.

“That is correct, but I was still keeping an eye on him. The city still remembers his past with you, and when he found some business partners that were willing to fund him, he told me that he wanted to work with them. He said it was a ‘rare opportunity’, given his situation, I agreed.”

“You didn’t try to keep him around?”

“I could tell he needed the space, he wasn’t working well without you around. He traded in his Soulflare awakening secrets to sweeten the deal.” Blue said. “And then Penove… Well, last I checked, he was missing, most likely dead in an unmarked grave somewhere.”

“I saw him myself, spoke to him too. He’s who inspired me to return.” Pouria said.

Dusty raised his hand. “If I may, Blue,” he said politely. “I have heard whispers about his existence. If Pouria thinks he is alive, I would say you should believe him.”

“It’s not that I don’t believe you, Mr. Mayor.” Blue said, hearing Dusty’s words and projecting his answer outwardly to Pouria. “If you had a chat with him, why isn’t he here with you?”

“I don’t know. He was just trying to figure out if I had something to do with the Exodus Event.” Pouria sighed.

“Well bud, look, if you can convince him to not be the prick we all know he is, and not be suspicious of his best friend, I can help you with him too.” Blue said, locking eyes again. The warmth of his words had already melted Pouria’s frozen heart, but he still knew it could freeze over again should anything happen in the future. His answer was already prepared for the question Blue was about to ask.

“So, is that enough to sway you to my side, Pouria?”

“Yes, Blue. Let’s hope you don’t mess this up.”

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Each day he spent in purgatory was another day that Penove felt his smile slipping. Outside, he saw them, every single day, inside the very office he once served, now twisted and corrupted.

His captor stood right in front of him, wearing the same suit that his friend wore, the same scarf, the same boots, the same watch, the same hat. He was physically the same, but not mentally, not at all. He had a thousand people’s faces within him, and yet, Penove had never once seen the real person beneath the false skin.

“He escaped.” Penove said in defiance. “I love your anger. You are so goofy when you get all mad, you know?”

“And yet, I extinguish another rotten Soulflare. One less man in his army, one less soul to defy me.” they replied. They spoke in poetic words, and yet their voice could not make them sound threatening to Penove. “The mighty Thunder… I knew he would fail me. Though, I did not expect him to take Pouria’s side.”

“Your pride is struggling to hide your rage. Keep kidding yourself, though. It’s good to know I’m not the delusional one here, Angel.”

The Angel laughed at Penove’s jab. He knew their insanity well, he knew how flawed they were compared to how they appeared to others. Some saw The Angel as a savior, cleansing the world of evil. Some saw them as a fallen Lucifer, punishing the world out of spite. But Penove saw them differently, in his presence every day for two long, agonizing years that slowly wore away at his joy.

“The end of time approaches all the same. My course doesn’t change, it only buys you extra days, trapped here.”

“I won’t ask why you want him back now, but I personally think you are quite an idiot for doing so.” Penove chuckled, knowing every laugh was a shield that would keep him from snapping. “He’s going to fucking kill you.”

“His flare will be the very thing that leads him astray in his quest for vengeance against me. And you… you are his friend that shall whisper the sweet words of deception that will either draw him to my side, or snuff his insolent candle out.”

“Is that so? Because he’s going to find out the truth sooner or later.”

“He trusts you, and that is why you are here…” the Angel said, his face smearing over, wrinkling and contorting into a featureless blob, rippling out all across his false skin as it reshaped and morphed. The blur of his bones morphing, his skin melting and rehardening, and his body changing. It was inhuman, utterly otherworldly, like he didn’t belong in reality.

Patterns formed that looked familiar to what Pouria remembered of Penove, and what Penove remembered of himself. The soft white cloth of his robe, contrasting with the black of his puffy hair like that of a tree’s leaves. The mask he wore to hide what he’d done from the world, right above his memorable grin. Skin a pale white, not always that way. It was natural to Penove, but now unnatural upon the one who now wore it.

Penove himself was a facade to hide his past life, and the Angel now wore the disguise of a man who hid behind one his entire life. Enigmatic layers interwoven.

The form he took was identical in every way to Penove, down to every particle of skin, hair, and tissue. An exact replica.

“You will not be able to scream for help, Penove. Ah… I truly hope that your sins were worth it, because, just like everyone else in this world…”

Penove watched with a scowl across his face as his other form began to walk toward the bookshelf beside his prison, flicking a lever and opening the secret door inlaid within the tall painting of a fruit tree. They’d used it many times before, even while Pouria was in office, and now they would see Pouria again in the same form they had just a week before in the Wastelands.

“You are guilty, and I will snuff you all out.”

End of Arc 1, To Be Continued in Arc 2