Book Three: Redemption, Chapter One-
Rei casually walked away from the town. Turmoil and panic gripped its citizens as blazes rose from its central establishment, staining the starry sky red. None paid attention to the woman in black as she slipped unseen into the shadows of the night. Many viewed it as murderous, senseless destruction while some deemed it as saving. To her, it did not matter. It was just another job done. Unbinding the small pouch that hung around her neck, she dropped in the latest token she had earned.
"What was it that he told me," Rei recorded when she stopped for the night, "that caused all of this to happen? 'Twas things no one knew and things that I still don't want to believe..."
The old man laid on his death bed, repenting for the harm and wrong he had done in his life. The wounds that the engineered warrior dealt to him were many and severe. After the spirit of the beast was dragged off to hell, the old man stirred, beckoning her to his side. There was nothing Rei, nor anyone, could do for him at this point, but he was strong for his age and managed to hang on long enough to tell his story.
"Is it over?" the dying voice of Rocket asked. "Is it finally over?"
"Yes," Rei assured him with a smile. "It finally is." He did not return the gesture but only a grave and solemn stare that sank her soul.
"Oh, how I wish that were true," he gasped, wincing with agony. "You couldn't be more wrong, little one." She could not understand what he meant with his words, but her eyes implored him to try and continue. "We are," he corrected himself, "they, the Rockets, were not the foe. None of this was meant to happen. It was all a huge mistake, but the reins of power will do such to even the greatest of man kind." He coughed up some of his own blood.
"What do you mean?" she begged. "There was another?" She contemplated for a moment before realizing, "It was Silph, wasn't it? But I took care of them-"
"It was not Silph," the moribund man interrupted. "They fell from grace much like the Rockets, tempted by lust of power and greed. They thought they held the ultimate power, and, in the end, it was exposed as the folly of their diminution."
"Then... who?" He worked up the strength to speak again.
"The ones who pull the puppet's strings behind the curtain," he strained. "The ones who have been right under your nose the whole time, as well as mine and everyone else's. They control the true power, dominating the cities, nations, even life on a whole. They are the Masters."
"No," she refused. "You can't be talking about them. It's not the Masters of ... the League." He's brows arched with vexation, overwhelming any expression of pain.
"Not just the those higher up, either. The entire League, save a select, naive few, are corrupt," he grimly revealed. "They have the perfect set up. Their authority reaches and is obeyed everywhere, yet no one ever questions its rule, let alone how it got there. Like gods atop Olympus, they watch over their domain from lofty throne, planting their seeds in towns across the world, as lords in a manor, to serve as their eyes in the distant lands over the blinded people they rule. The most powerful people, their only competition for dominion, are flocked right to the Masters' feet by their inane contests. One of two things happens to anyone who makes it though: they are either absorbed into the system of tyranny or ..."
"Or..." His eyes stared into hers before dropping away.
"Or I'd get blamed for what they did to them," the senior uttered. A heavy silence hung between the two for a moment. "Maybe it was the glimpse at that power that drove me down the path I chose," he confessed. "I, more than all of them, deserve this fate," he spoke, slowly more quietly, as his head was laid to rest, ready to accept the approaching doom. "I could have changed things, but my chance is lost."
"But mine is not." His eyes flew open while his head perked up as if he was not dying at all. Rei proceeded, as a red tear from before dripped down her face, "I can still end it."
"You cannot be serious," he roared, "it is not your fight. Even if it was, it's hopeless."
"I defeated you, didn't I?" He grunted.
"Those were extreme circumstances," he pointed out. "That power has left." He saw the determination in her eyes, the dire ambition.
"Let me become the last Rocket," she demanded, "the one who will redeem your name and the world. I shall be the black throne in their side, my venom slowing extinguishing their breath." She threw out her hand. "Please, let me do this. Give me your gun." Slowly, he reached for the holster on his belt, and drew his pistol. Placing it in her hand, he clung to it as she tried to pull it way and peered deep into her eyes.
"You are aware that if you do this," he perilously warned, "you will die. To take the burden of the Rockets upon your shoulders means taking upon the curse as well." Looking into each other a bit longer, she ripped the weapon from his clutches and immediately began to study it. "You don't care, do you? You're serious about this. You're going to do it."
"My life is forfeit," she solemnly proclaimed. "It has been for many years now. Besides, it's the least I can do," she reasoned, "after, um... killing... you." A single and awkward cough emerged from her. Respectfully bowing, Rei prepared to leave, but his claw snatched her.
"Would you give a dying man two wishes?" His eyes, now glossy, wavered as they gazed up at her. She nodded, feeling pity for the departing. He took a while in his speaking, every breath bring pain on top of that caused by his refusal to die. He wheezed, "Bury me as a man, not some accursed monster. Remove my sinful attire as I am no longer that hated and loathed villain." She agreed to his first request.
"And what of the second?" she asked. He sighed deeply, clearing his head enough to be able to speak.
"Before you start your new task," he groaned, "please, you have to finish your first." Eyes swelled with tear and blood, slowly drew the given gun in line with the fading man. "Please, end it." Wiping her face, she wrapped her finger around the trigger, but waited until her bawling ceased.
"As you wish..."
