Szene and Claire stopped as soon as a dying corpse of a woman and her baby raised out their hand toward the two. The baby, whose body was lifeless and cold, nearly made the two vomit. Half of the woman's face had been burnt off, leaving the muscle and bones of the woman still intact. "H-Help... help me... please..."
Another battle droid entered the fray, stomping on the woman's head until it splattered across the pavement. Szene held her breath as she lunged on top of Claire, entering a weak part of a loose wooden wall as the droid missed a horizontal swing from its saw blades. The two collapsed on the flaming floor of the establishment, where smoke began to render the two nearly unconscious.
Szene pushed Claire along with her as the droid began firing its machine gun towards them once more. As the two reached the end of the store, they breached the side once again, falling on their flank as their faces were powered with black powder and dust. The droid lost visual with them as it failed to track them in time, prompting it to move on to claim other victims' lives.
After speeding through more piled corpses of the villagers and avoiding the flames, the two found themselves in Thatcher's house, which remained unscathed and fire-free. Szene barged through the house, leaving Claire slowly catching along.
"PIRELLE!? MOSSEN!?" Szene desperately called, shutting the door behind her with Claire inside. She began moving the dining table of her house towards the door to barricade it. "Claire, help me find them!"
"Okay." Claire stated, rushing toward the back door of Thatcher's house. The back door was open for some reason, and as Claire received a better look for he shed where they had sparred for practice, she froze in place. The shed was completely destroyed. The question was, who could have done it?
A battle droid's fist plunged through a solid wall beside Claire's face, prompting her to scream and leap back in retaliation. Szene dragged Claire back as the droid entered the house, scanning through the house searching for the two in the darkness. Its vision aimed directly straight, leaving the two covering their mouths to hide their breaths and movement in secrecy. Claire's body shook uncontrollably in fear, while Szene tried to keep what little composure she had despite her father's death traumatizing her.
"S-SCANNING..." The droid's mechanized voice was corrupted by the sound of a human and machine hybrid speaking through a speaker. The droid was plagued with the same Rot influence attached to its chest plate, housing a deceased and infected human within to power its body with flesh and blood. As its single eye continued to search for the two, it eventually began stepping on the furniture to continue to draw them out. "SEARCHING. S-SEARCHING. LIFESIGN ON BATTALION ERPHA MISSING."
After Szene and Claire garnered enough distance from the droid, they began their way outside to the back of the shed where the droid had broken from. However, a slight shift of a wooden debris piece attracted the droid's attention immediately, prompting it to turn around to scan the two of them. Szene held Claire tightly as they closed their eyes, accepting their death.
"RRGHA!" Mossen's sudden battle roar engulfed the dangerously silent atmosphere as he charged at the droid's extended machine gun with a slab of metal, prompting it to fire at the ground to disrupt its targeting system. Pirelle, who had also been hiding with Mossen, launched himself from the shadows with a sword, attempting to slice through the arm of the droid to sever its weapon.
Instead, the droid swung its arm out at Pirelle, sending him flying near Szene and Claire while Mossen continued to hold the droid's face down with the metal slab.
"MOSSEN!" Szene cried as Claire held Pirelle tightly, dragging him away from the droid's vision.
"GET OUTTA HERE!" Mossen shouted at the three of them, revealing that he had been missing an entire eyeball after the attack on the village commenced. He looked at Claire with his remaining eye, somehow appearing quite peaceful before purposefully letting go of the metal slab. He accepted his fate as the droid stepped on his leg, twisting it into becoming a malformed piece of flesh.
Pirelle dragged Szene and Claire back out of the shed, but the two fought with him to attempt to save Mossen. Claire, who had only known Mossen for a short time, screamed his name in utter agony.
Mossen turned to Claire as she called for his name and smiled one last time before he closed his eyes. The battle droid primed the same laser cannon that took Thatcher's life in its right arm and blasted Mossen's head into bloody red giblets, splattering his brains across the battered house. His remaining corpse fell flat, twitching at the severing of his head.
"FUCK!" Pirelle shouted, successfully pulling the two of them back. "MOVE, NOW!"
"Mossen... no..." Claire whispered to herself, too unfathomably weak and frail to move on her own.
Pirelle lifted Claire over his shoulders and sped through the outskirts of the village beside the shed with Szene, who also could barely move. As the droid rushed toward where they had last been seen, it scanned its eyes and locked onto the three of them as they descended the incline downhill. "BATTALION ERPHA DETECTED." It said before firing another laser cannon bullet straight at a tree beside them.
The bullet prompted Pirelle to release Claire off of pure shock and adrenaline, sending them both tumbling down the leaves and twigs that riddled the ground. Szene slipped from the uneven pavement and tumbled along with them, reaching flat ground with them after several seconds. Scratches and bruises tore through their bodies as wet mud and debris stung their arms and faces. Szene and Claire, who had fallen into the waterfall prior to their escape, had begun to completely dry from the intense heat from the flames of the village. Fire began to spread up into the air as the tallest trees of the village's outskirts. Numerous dead leaves began to fall from the skies, landing on their faces the longer they remained still.
Now that the droid had lost vision of them, they were safe, for a temporary period.
"We need to get out of here, right now," Szene stated, pointing her index finger outward while contemplating of the numerous escape routes they had. However, nothing stood out. "We can head north and reach the railroads there. I know they're out of commission-"
"You're crazy," Pirelle said. "We need to go back and look for Thatcher-"
"THATCHER'S DEAD!" Szene retaliated, stunning Pirelle with just those two words. She watched as Claire began to break down again on the ground, tightening the grip against her feeble knees. "It's up to us now, and we're going to make it out. "
"Make it out?" Pirelle chuckled. "You're fucking kidding, right? We're all going to die. Qliphos won't let a single one of us live!"
"Have you such little faith in your people?!" Szene shouted back. "Then why did you save us back there, HUH? If we were all just going to die, WHY?"
Pirelle stayed silent and moved to the side of a nearby tree. The inhalation of the ashes from the village began to make the three woozy and weak, leaving the three of them vulnerable. "I... I just... I couldn't... let Claire die." He confessed, cricking his neck in admission of his failure.
Claire lifted her head up from her knees, looking at Pirelle's guilt-ridden face.
"But there's no use," Pirelle continued. "Qliphos has won. They've taken the village, and they'll take the others too, Szene-"
"My God..." Szene interrupted.
"You KNOW THIS!" Pirelle continued despite Szene's denouncement. "Soon there'll be nothing left! You saw how many of our people died!"
"And what the hell are you even suggesting?"
"We have to accept Qliphos as our home," Pirelle suggested, watching Szene's face blossom up into ridiculousness at his response. Claire had done the same, only ashamedly much weaker and less imbued with stable energy to keep her up. "As a part of our lives now. We have to join with them, and they'll spare us!"
"You think that's what our villages would want for freedom-" Szene began.
"Oh, FUCK THE VILLAGES, SZENE!" Pirelle exclaimed, shoving Szene back. "FUCK THEM ALL, because this is it. We're knocking on death's door, and this is the only way to live."
"I would rather die than join Qliphos as their slave," Szene continued. "I'm taking Claire, and we're getting out of here."
"PIRELLE!" Claire suddenly cried.
A targeted bullet struck the back of Pirelle's shoulder, sending it flying through his flesh and lodging it towards a tree's wood. Claire jumped up and seized control of Pirelle's body weight before pulling him to safety behind the tree. Szene lunged out of sight as another battle droid from the village descended with its scanning eye trailing the two.
Claire clutched Pirelle's shoulder wound with her palm, attempting to block out the hemorrhage from within. However, nothing was happening. With blood splattered across Claire's face, she desperately wanted to save the lives that she could after experiencing death across multiple instances at an unstoppable rate.
Pirelle gazed into Claire's teary white eyes before gently massaging her blood-ridden and bruised cheek with his gloved palm. His breath began to turn shallow and slow from his wound. He caressed the bottom of her chin and held her arm as tight as possible, but even the tightest to him was frail.
"I'm... sorry... for hurting you..." Pirelle whispered to her as blood began to seep up his throat. After choking on his own blood while Claire's efforts remained fruitless, Pirelle's eyes rolled to the back his head, dead in a matter of seconds.
With blood trickling from the edges of his lips, Claire's breathing rapidly increased in utter shame after losing the opportunity to know that she had accepted his apology. He had died not knowing her true feelings. She closed her eyes and set him down gently beside her, too stunned to even move from all of the death and destruction.
As the droid made its descent down, Szene lunged at Claire, sending the two of them tumbling even further down another short incline. The droid began to blast where they rushed with bullets, but managed to miss all of them with the distance they had covered.
In the dark forest of silence and somber, ashes of the villages began raining down from a fiery hell, stinging their faces and injuries as they continued to rush down without any hope or faith prevailing. Claire's entire face and hands had been covered with the blood of the deceased, including Pirelle. Her mind could not stop replaying Mossen and Pirelle's death while Szene clutched her head and sprinted as if her life depended on it.
After they trod nonstop for half a mile, Szene paused with Claire, kneeling on the ground to recover her stamina. Claire remained quiet, much too weak to speak. "We're close to the stone gates," Szene pointed out as she breathed loudly to catch herself up. "We'll cross that border and we'll be free from Qliphos's influence."
"But the monsters..." Claire's frail voice nearly choked on itself.
"It's better than staying here," Szene stated, holding Claire's hand and pulling her up from the ash-spotted ground. "Once we reach there, we'll make way for the railroad and find shelter nearby. There has to be something we can use or a place we can stay at-"
Claire released her grip on Szene's hand and collapsed on her knees. Szene dove in and caught her. "CLAIRE!" She cried, examining her face and noticing that her eyes were closed. She shook her viciously as her face seemed vapid among the chaos, wondering if she had perished as well. "No... no, not you too. Please, not you too..."
Szene laid Claire on the grass and began performing resuscitation on her. She breathed into her mouth and began pressing against her chest to revive her. At the same time, teardrops rained from her reddened eyelids, blotting her vision almost entirely.
"No, no, no... NO! CLAIRE! PLEASE! Don't die. Don't fucking die on me, please..." She repeated to herself multiple times before clutching her head close to her face with her arms. "You can't die. You can't fucking die. Please... oh, please... Claire..." She repeated, imagining the faces of Thatcher, Mossen, and Pirelle with Claire all standing together in peace in the sunny village.
Szene let out an anguished cry before her face shrunk up in utter chaotic disbelief and sorrow. "SON OF A..." She uttered before dropping her will to the darkness. Yet in that moment, she thought of the future, and lifted Claire off of the grass and carried her behind her back like a soldier would during war. "I'm... I'm getting you out of here, okay? I'm getting you out..." She yelped.
She mustered enough strength to haul Claire on the journey toward the stone gates off the border of their village and out of Qliphos territory. After reaching there, Szene began reminiscing about her dreams to be free from it all, realizing that it would never happen despite the amount of hope put into it all. Thatcher's demands, Mossen's laughter, Pirelle's wits... had all amounted to nothing. And with this mindset, Szene half contemplated on dropping herself with Claire after hearing Pirelle's final words to join Qliphos for survival. Nothing she had ever wanted had come to fruition.
Because that is what a dream was in this dying world. A dream.
They never come true.
The only thing that prevented Szene, what seemed to be the only sole survivor from the village from giving up, was Claire. She had dreamed of protecting her ever since she had met her, and now that she had one final dream and promise to herself to fulfill it despite her losses, she wanted to do what she could to ensure that she deserved at least a proper burial among every other life lost.
And so she trekked on forward, toward the stone gate with a numb expression.
Once she had finally reached the stone gates, she realized that numerous amounts of other escaping villagers had attempted to have done so. Their bodies faced the small slit of the open gate, all dead and decomposed from the Rot's influence. On the stone floor, remained Szene and Claire's body on her back with only twenty steps left to be free from Qliphos's influence. Despite the bodies riddled on the ground, Szene pressed on, relentlessly storming past her memories and dreams to succeed one final time.
Five steps past. Thatcher's face appeared in her mind.
Three more steps. Mossen's goofy chuckle and jokes echoed in her ears.
Two more steps. Pirelle's seriousness began to irritate her slightly.
Three more steps. There were only seven more steps to go.
Claire began to open her eyes slightly.
Two more steps. A flashing light beamed across the horizon, shining down upon Szene's body to cast a pale reflection of herself.
One more step. A bullet struck Szene in the back of her spine, paralyzing her and severing her nervous system's lower half. She was rendered unable to move any further as she was about to drop Claire. However, with the remainder of her upper body strength, she tossed Claire over to the shadowed edges of the stone gates, believing her body could at least be found by a passerby on the other side in the future.
As Szene's body began to bleed profusely from her torso wound, she dragged herself through the lit stone ground, extending her hands to reach for Claire's.
The fall had awoken Claire from her unconsciousness, leaving her confused as to where she had been. After several seconds passed, Claire regained full awareness and found Szene at heaven's door, reaching out toward her.
"No," Claire whimpered. She had completely lost it after seeing Szene's bleeding body moving towards her with her lifeless legs dragged around like a sack on the floor. "No..."
Claire lunged forward, but Szene pushed her back with her hand, sending her toward the opened door of the stone gate. Claire gasped and tried to reenter, but she caught wind of multiple battle droids approaching her from behind the lit establishment. They all were armed with their weapons completely primed.
As Claire stood there, her soul froze and prevented her from reacting properly, as a human would. Her white eyes trembled in absolute...
No. It was not fear.
It was not cowardice.
It was not weakness.
It was MALICE.
It was VENGEANCE.
It was DEATH.
"Szene..." Claire whispered as her eyes quivered in insanity.
Szene rested herself on the pavement as she began to bleed out. She released one final smile towards Claire, extending her right hand out in good faith. The two only had a few feet away from them in distance, but it felt as if it was miles, no, light years away from their fingers touching one another.
A white light broomed over Szene's eyes as she saw Claire clearly for the final time. Instead of seeing the young brown-haired ponytail girl covered in anguish, wounds, bruises, and paleness, she had been replaced by an older angelic version of herself, smiling down upon Szene like an angel from heaven. She wore her village's leather clothing, and she winked her charming eyes at Szene to send her off.
Located behind this version of Claire was a wide field with grass, life, and unknown friends and family who were waiting for her to approach them. And on Szene's side was darkness and fire, having taken the blow for her by tossing the baton over to the other side. As Szene's eyes began to wriggle in tears, so did the angelic version of her, and she was met with Claire's current state in the present.
"Be..." Szene uttered.
Claire held her breath as her heart pounded.
"Be... the real you, Claire. Fight... for... the future. For... freedom... and hope," Szene's mouth began to drench in blood. She coughed it out in front of her to finalize her statement. "My... dear sister... I... love you..."
One final laser bullet blew through Szene's entire back, causing her eyes to roll back toward her skull. Claire looked up from Szene's corpse and caught the unknown man who murdered Thatcher far away from her, extending his palm out with his army of battle droids by his side. He looked up at the sky and sighed after sensing a raindrop from the sky tickle his cheek. He began stepping forward to Claire with his droids by his side as the rain began to shift into full downpour.
Claire's eyes began to glow beyond white, achieving a godly glow within her body. She quivered in absolute anger and summoned the last of her grief to project as a weapon.
"SZENE!" Claire screamed at the top of her lungs as her left hand began to vibrate with unknown golden tethers tattooing itself on her skin. The scream sent an impenetrable wave of energy that shock waved outward against the ensuing droids and the unknown man. The man froze as soon as the wave struck the droids around them, dissolving them into ash instantaneously. All of them were mixed with the rain and vanished, never to be seen again.
However, an invisible barrier appeared in front of the man and blocked Claire's scream, forcing it to repel against the rainy winds. He then looked up at the skies and stars before looking back at Claire, who aggressively stood by the stone barrier with unknown golden and white energies protruding and glowing from the outline of her body.
The man sighed once more before turning around and vanished, leaving the scene.
Claire's energy dissipated as she collapsed on the water drenched ground, groveling toward Szene with her hands extended. She held Szene's head by her knees and covered her eyes with her palm before embracing her corpse tightly.
"I love you..." Claire's frail voice uttered nothing but poor verbiage. "I love... I love you too, Szene... I'm sorry."
With one final touch against Szene's cheek with her left hand, her lifeless body vanished into ash, buried into the memories of Claire's mind.
"I'm sorry," She repeated after being numb to what she had to Szene's body. "Please... forgive me..."
Claire remained kneeling there, frozen in time from all of the death and despair she had only experienced in two days.
Szene's voice and plead still rang clear in her head. She clenched her fist and stood up from her kneeled position before retreating toward the stone gates with the rain piled up against her face. As the village's deathly ashes from the skies, along with Szene's incinerated corpse began to fade away from the rain's turbulent winds, Claire peeked back toward the stone gates and stepped outside, forming an entirely new identity.
Claire ni Szene. The new her, borne forevermore in the hearts of the false Qliphosian.
A feared duelist... who would reign supreme in vengeance.
The Battalion Erpha.