Moonlight veiled over the village's skies with its twinkling bright stars watching over its wandering citizens. The living peace among Qliphos's influence had seen its careful management with the silence of all creatures, Rot or not, out of the vicinity. While it was considered peaceful among the others, the lingering issue continued to lie within Qliphos's dark depths, still unanswered.
Among the most visually breathtaking locations in the village was a gentle waterfall that collapsed upon two other pools of water that led to multiple other waterfalls. People from the village would frequent the area to enjoy a well-deserved break from the monotonous control of Qliphos.
And among these individuals was Claire, who sat on the edge of the rocky waterfall with her legs clutched against her cheeks.
Szene, who had also frequented the location to calm herself to practice stress control, arrived minutes later when she had saw Claire from behind. Her frown, sorrows, and worries had all vanquished the moment she had seen her, prompting her to smile and approach her secretively. Although when she did, nothing could have expected her to see Claire breaking down into tears, despite their cheerful conversation earlier in the forest.
"Oh my god, Claire!" Szene called, rushing to her aid. She placed her hand on Claire's shoulder and peered over, catching her reddened cheeks blossoming as no words could be uttered from her salivated agape pink lips. Her drooping brows and crusted eyelids indicated that she had been in this state for far too long. "What happened?!"
Claire gave multiple rapid huffs and puffs of air as her face nearly bloated like a balloon. She then gave a high-pitched whining sound as she exhaled her breath at once, drooling her saliva down to the rocks below.
"Hey, come on, hey!" Szene shook her and brought her head closer to her collarbone. "Breathe, girl, just breathe! Tell me what's wrong!"
"I... I..." Claire hesitated to speak, for her emotions obscured all signs of life from her body. Nose droplets and waterfalls deterred her from speech. "I... I don't want it... I don't want it anymore... I don't want it, Szene... I don't want it." She repeated.
"What don't you want?" Szene asked, bringing Claire's head closer with a warm embrace. Szene caressed the back of her short brown ponytail, reaching down to her back to calm her down. "Slow down and breathe, girl. It's going to be okay."
"It's... it's not... it's not going to be... okay." Claire's incandescently loud breathing halted her from finishing even a proper sentence.
"Why?"
"Because I'm a Qliphosian, and I don't want to be anymore! I... I hateit! Everywhere I go, I'm branded as an absolute monster, when in reality, I want to be just like you, Szene. Free. I can't... I can't escape who I am. My eyes. My white eyes... they're a sign of my failure on who I am, and every day, I have to look in shame because I can't destroy what I was born into!"
"Everywhere... you go?" Szene pondered on her statement. "But... what about your family? Why can't they accept you?"
"My family...?" Claire laughed as another teardrop collapsed on her knees. "They don't... they don't want me. What would I bring, more death and hatred to the family? No... they abandoned me, for they are Qliphosian as well, and more in the family would create the ultimate brand against all of us," She spat. "I'm tired of it! I'm tired of everything! I just..." She sunk her head down against her knees. "I just want to disappear."
Szene held her softly, leaving her to grieve while she remained beside her. She peered out into the beautiful stars, as she usually would when one was lost in sorrow to replace with peace.
"I don't know why... but I feel like, I've known you for a long time, Claire." Szene confessed.
Claire slowly swept her head to gaze upon Szene's hopeful eyes, still drowned in misery. "Why?" She asked.
"Maybe it's because... you're no different than the other kids I've met, who eventually become friends with me," Szene continued. "I guess this just proves... that the difference between a Qliphosian and an outsider like me is zero to nothing. The only difference are those cute eyes of yours."
Claire giggled after hearing her sweet compliment.
"And those freckles," Szene continued. "Never seen someone with freckles like you before."
"Szene..." Claire nearly choked on her next words.
"My point is, your family are assholes," Szene announced completely with a flat tone. "And... everyone else who thinks you're a creep are assholes too. But there's a way to change all that, and that's to look in the future, like we talked about before. To be free, and to fight for that freedom eventually," She gripped Claire's shoulders and kneeled in front of her. "I don't care that you're a Qliphosian, Claire. The way I see it, we're all just humans tied together under one big shit-storm, caused by some freaky old people who want to control the world. And you just happened to get caught in it."
"That... makes more sense," Claire said, wiping away her tears with her hand. "Those boys... Pirelle and Mossen... they were talking about how they shouldn't show mercy to a Qliphosian like me when we were sparring."
"Makes sense, although they shouldn't have taken it out on you. It's not your fault," Szene said. "The way we and many others have been raised were to hate the Qliphosians. They eventually just have to get over it."
Claire remained silent as her gaze lingered over the stars with Szene. Szene then nudged Claire's shoulder with her own, checking up on her. "You still with me?" She asked, peeking over her. "Still got a pulse?"
"I... I do," Claire said, nodding rapidly. "I... guess I do."
"Not guess, you do," Szene corrected for her. "So... you're homeless?"
Claire's eyebrows furled over the disgusted intent of that word, but knew that it was the only way to describe her situation. "I am." She admitted.
"Where did you get all of your clothes from?" Szene asked.
"From an elderly woman, miles away from here off of one of the beaches. She tailors clothing... and I'd been living with her for months before she passed away. She gave me flowers everyday from the forest and she would always bring them to me while I was on the beach, watching the water sway back and forth." Claire said.
"The beach, huh..." Szene begun. "Never been there before, but... sounds like a beautiful place to be. I'm glad that woman was kind to you. It's hard to find that, nowadays."
"You're kind," Claire admitted. "You... really remind me of her."
"Oh, yeah? Wrinkly face and all that flab?" Szene joked, pulling on her cloth shirt.
Claire giggled aloud. "Stop it, she was actually quite fair for her age. You know what I mean..." She retorted.
"Oh, yeah, I bet." Szene quipped.
The two of them remained in silence as the reflection of the stars glistened among their eyes. As they talked about other underlying issues, the two off them stopped as soon as Claire's entire flushed face was reverted to normal standing, prompting Szene to tickle her cheek as a tease.
"Glad to have you back," Szene said, standing up and extending her hand for Claire. "Now, I guess it's time to give those two boys a good'ole smack after we get some dinner. Ready?"
Claire's smile was light that beamed through the night. "Yeah." She said.
Just as they stood up and were about to take the exit through a narrow rock arch, an unknown figure adorned in black and white kingly garments approached the two girls slowly. His face was masqueraded by the night's failure to reflect the moon on his face; the only thing that could be captured was his dwindling middle-age wrinkles across his brown spotted hands, along with his white eyes that glowed in the dark.
Szene placed herself in front of Claire, who appeared confused at the arrival of the individual.
"Who the hell are you?" Szene asked rudely.
The figure did not answer. Instead, he took several more steps forward until the moonlight revealed his face. He was a handsome black slick-back haired man with stern appearance, gazing down upon the children as if they were mere insects. His royal white fur coat made him look like a prince among the local villagers.
"Answer ME!" Szene continued. "Claire, stay behind me."
"Step aside," The man's deep voice nearly startled the two. "I only need her."
"Oh, yeah? What's a snobby old Qliphosian like you want with her?" Szene asked. "You still haven't answered me. Who ARE YOU?!"
Claire continued to hide behind Szene as the unknown man refused to respond to them. They stepped back, as they were beginning to run out of distance between them. Suddenly, from the rock arch entrance near the waterfall, two of the same bladed droids that the duo witnessed in the forest approached the man from behind, standing passively while waiting for orders. Their clawed feet pierced through the tough cliffside ground underneath them, sending shards of rock with each step. And still, the Rot's influence dangled underneath their chest plate, still unknown to the two.
"What the hell do you WANT?" Szene shouted once more.
The man pointed at Claire from his hip. "Her," He stated. "I won't ask again.
A bullet's sudden roar shocked both Szene and Claire, prompting them to cover their ears and duck down. However, it was not from one of the battle droids. It was from near the entrance, where an enraged Thatcher arrived with a combat shotgun smoking from the barrel of the gun. As the bullet attempted to strike the man from behind, one of the droids reacted to the blast, shielding the man with its robotic arm. The bullets ricocheted off of the steel armor, propelling it toward a higher section of the cliff the girls were located at.
"Get away from my daughter!" Thatcher roared at the top of his lungs.
"I want nothing to do with her," The man stated. "I just want the girl next to her."
"Well, you can't have her either," Thatcher stated, cocking the shotgun back. The shell bounced off of the ground and landed beside his foot. "GET OUT OF MY VILLAGE!"
"Then die."
One of the battle droids beside the man raised one of their arms up, activating a system of mechanized joints attached to its arm. In an instant, the droid fired a searing hot laser bullet that completely incinerated Thatcher's right arm off, severing it from its bone in less than a second. Thatcher's right arm fell beside him, bleeding from the inside out as the laser's heat began melting it into pure lava.
"DAD!" Szene cried, charging forward. Yet the man in front shoved Szene back to Claire, who had burst into tears again, refusing to let her pass. "YOU FUCKING PSYCHO!"
Thatcher, who had been severely paralyzed by the blast, slowly pushed himself off of the ground with his knee and began approaching the droid that had shot him. He placed his hand on the droid's chest plate and with the remaining strength he had in him, he yanked it off to its very bare state.
Beneath it, the severed, bloody, and mangled corpse of the village's mayor had been fused to the droid's body using the Rot's influence. His face's eye sockets were empty, along with all parts of his teeth. The moment Szene and Claire witnessed it, they began to cover their mouths to blot out the severity of its gore.
"Last chance," The man's emotionless voice stated. "Walk away."
"Without my arm?" Thatcher grunted, pressing his left palm against where his arm used to be to block the bleeding; it proved ineffective and purely useless. "You've lost the plot. I won't let you have those girls... if its the last thing... I DO!"
As the droids began riddling Thatcher's back with their machine gun bullets, Thatcher charged forward and shoved both Szene and Claire off of the cliff's waterfall, leaving them suspended in midair for a brief moment. Down below was the village's square, making it harmless for them if they had landed safely. Yet before they managed to even contemplate that fact, Thatcher voiced out his final concern out for them.
"Run. There's more." He finalized before the droids executed him from behind with their bullets.
As Szene lost her grip from Claire's hand, all of the events that had unfolded seemed like a dream to her, a surreal nightmare that had to be granted to the worst of all humans. She imagined that it would never have come to her, but it did. In that impossible moment, Szene closed her eyes as she failed to even think of protecting Claire. No other word was uttered as the two of them plunged down fifty feet down into the water below.
As the unknown man watched the girls escape with Thatcher's assistance, the droids discarded his body to the side of the cliff where he laid dead and riddled with bullet holes. The Qliphosian man showed no sign of remorse for the murder and departed from the scene with the droids following suit. Before he made it to the rocky arch, the distant pelting and roaring sounds of gunfire broke the peaceful silence of the night, followed with gut-clenching shrieks and cries from innocent civilians who had slept in peace.
Szene and Claire managed to reach to the shore of the village's waterfall, drenched in freezing cold water. Szene snatched Claire's leg and pulled her close, enraged by the unknowing.
"Who the fuck was that man, and WHY DID HE WANT YOU?!" Szene cried, shaken to the core by her father's death. After reading Claire's innocent and gentle white eyes stricken with grief as well, Szene concluded that she had no idea what had just happened as well. She released her grip on Claire's collar, leaning back against the sand with her eyes and brain scrambled to the point of no return. "Fuck, fuck, FUCK!" Szene shouted at the top of her lungs.
"I'm sorry... I'm so sorry..." Claire could barely utter a word as she got up on her knees. She held Szene close, unaware of the dangers that lie ahead. "I should have went. I should have. It's because of-"
"Your powers?!" Szene shouted. "It IS because of YOU! You're the reason... you're the reason why..."
Hailing of more gunfire commenced soon after, shocking the two of them as the sound was barely distant from their location. Screams of the villagers falling one by one to their deaths by the innumerable quantity of Qliphos's battle droids laying waste to them paralyzed the two of them, rendering them both afraid to even move a single inch.
"W-Why...?" Claire whispered to herself, placing her hands on her head as she was unable to contemplate the reasoning behind the attack. "Why would Qliphos do this!?"
Another scream set the two off of the ground in an instant. Szene, who had seemingly gathered her senses after watching her father's death, grabbed Claire by the shoulders and drew her close. "Okay. Claire, you need to run. Run out of the village and get to the outskirts of Qliphos-"
"No, NO!" Claire interrupted, hyperventilating at the thought of her running away. "I'm coming with you."
"Claire, this is NO time to be fucking around!" Szene yelled back, shaking her. "I need to find Pirelle and Mossen and get them to safety-"
"I don't care, I'm coming with you," Claire demanded, pressing her wet forehead against Szene's chilled body. "I'm NOT LEAVINGYOU!"
A distant explosion resulted in the spreading of flames across the village's planted foliage. A scream of another village engulfed in flames resulted in him collapsing beside their deceased family, dead upon impact to the ground. The battle droid that caused that travesty approached near the corner of Szene's eyes, catching the two of them by the shore.
"Run, CLAIRE!" Szene cried as she shoved Claire with her.
The droid caught movement from the two of them, prompting it to fire its machine gun from its arm. Luckily, the distance between them was far too long to be able to reach them accurately, leaving them unscathed in time.
As the two of them made way for Thatcher's house and shed, Szene and Claire encountered hundreds of bloodied victims with their bodies burnt and bled on the ground. The Rot's influence began to spread to the corpses of the bodies, turning them into creatures the more they laid decayed on the ground. A flaming pillar from a store swung past Szene and Claire, striking two droids and a village couple and sending them to their deaths.
All the two could do was spill their tears, but the adrenaline of those who perished before them kept them moving. There was no time to mourn, nor pause for relaxation.
The peace had been broken.