The air is thick with malice and drying blood. Rioca Antonella stands before us surrounded by a flower field of blossoming tendrils that complement her now-gothic attire. As she proceeds towards us, the tendrils separate, creating a partition of shadowed thorns whose ambitions are only to kill, like a Red Sea of death. The closer she gets, the more I grip my sword tighter. The skin on the palms of my hands clinging to my flesh as it slowly scratches away. The hairs on my neck shiver. My migraine returns with a full force.
"What the hell do we have to talk about, Zidane?" She queries, her voice a mere echo of her natural sounding tone. Now replaced with a deep tenor distortion "We're still partners, right?"
"You lied to me!" Zidane screams as his body contorts. Wings sprout from his hunched back. His shoes burst as talons form where his feet should be. His teeth elongate. His eyes redden. He soars into the sky and dives talons first into Rioca's obnoxiously-sized swords, pushing her back down to the ground.
"I just twisted the truth a little! Don't say it wasn't fun!" She taunts as she swings her swords in desperation.
Zidane somehow allows his talons to maintain the consistency of silver, as the light shines off of them in brilliant radiance. As Rioca defends herself from his hawk-like barrage, Zidane nods at me.
Abi jumps on my back and wraps her arms around me as tightly as she can. She somehow weighs as much as a feather. I sprint through the tendrils as Abi keeps us intangible, keeping my sword ready all the same.
I draw my sword back and swing with as much strength as I can muster.
Her head soars in front of my face, grinning as if she's won.
A click is heard.
Her body dissolves into murky black liquid.
"Alright, alright. I can't win against you rambunctious people." Rioca says from her chair on the other half of the room, her voice gradually retreating to her human tone. "I'll tell you why I lied."
Zidane snarls at her, steam erupting from his clenched teeth.
"I lied because humanity doesn't deserve a second chance." She begins. "Humanity is filth. It's disgusting. Look around, isn't it horrible? I've witnessed five wars within your century! It never ends! The conflict, the lack of empathy, the murder, the abuse, the manipulation!"
"And you think you have the right to take that away from us?!" Zidane screams. "You are not God. I know God, and God said that you are the great deceiver."
"Tell us the truth." Raphael follows. "We're sick of your games."
Rioca simply laughs in her chair as she progresses further into full-bodied bellowing. Her voice filling the whole room, echoing off the corners.
Violet holds back the urge to laugh alongside her.
"Where was the lie? You've seen it yourself, just how despicable humanity is. Give humanity a second chance at peace and they choose war. Give them a chance at love and they choose violence. Well, it ends at MY hand." She monologues, raising her fist and shaking it in anger as identical clones of herself appear intermittently around the room. Starting with three and continuing into the dozens.
A grappling hook shoots straight through me as Abi maintains her intangibility.
"Shiro! Grab on!" Deus yells, as the hook returns back to a grappling hook gun he must have created during Rioca's monologue. I grab hold of the rope as it drags us back.
We soar backwards and the feeling of falling into a pool of water with your clothes on comes over us as we emerge back inside the protective sigil.
Zidane remains flapping his wings in the air as his expression gets angrier the more he remains in Rioca's presence.
Her clones constitute themselves one by one, and upon the final constitution, their eyes and bodies shift to Zidane as they all grow wings themselves and soar towards their new target.
"I have to help!!!" Violet screams. "My comrade needs me." She finishes in attempt to fix her tone to a cooler one as she begins a fast sprint, igniting her feet in a royal purple flame.
Violet leaps, jumping on the heads of the clones that remain on the ground floor, heading only towards Zidane. Zidane bats away all clones he can as his wings beat the air below him. He notices Violet as he soars towards her, plowing through anything that isn't a comrade with his claws until he reaches her. He grabs hold of her tightly as his bat-like wings wrap around her.
"William, now!!!" Zidane screams, his voice, too, becoming distorted.
William waves his arms in wonderful fashion as a tome appears before him. Upon clasping his hands, Zidane's wings spread open to reveal that Violet is no more, and neither is he. In their place stands what would only be called a demon.
Long, flowing purple hair that bounced with their air. His hands now brandished with claws that stretch like katanas. His talons leaking flames.
"William?" I ask.
"It's a spell that fuses people together for two minutes." He confirms. "But really, I think I'll use it a second time." He teases as the book vanishes upon close.
The new being one would love to call Zidiolet, screeches like a mighty hawk, and begins its flaming descent upon the true Rioca.
It seems, however, that she anticipated this. Her swords block every strike he launches at her, never wavering nor ascending from her throne once. Ariel attempts to leave the sigil we remain stationed in, but is held back by Deus who shakes his head as if he knows it's not her time yet.
Raphael fiddles with the contraption that previously brought him to life earlier, pondering his next decision.
He flicks a couple of switches on the side of it and taps it a few times. Sparks erupt from its mechanical parts. From the moment the sparks are noticed, Rioca's clones pursue us.
This somehow created a twitch in my left eye, which flowed through my entire body from one corner to the next, as a clone appears before me - primed to impale me with one strike.
It starts with one, and then ten. All of them savagely slashing at the magical dome that protects us. The more that attack, the more that show up, until the dome is completely encased in the darkness of the shadows
Abigail grips me tighter, never removing herself from my back. William flicks through three books at once. Ariel and Maryanne hold hands and pray. Raphael panics as his contraption malfunctions. Deus closes his eyes.
A sudden beat.
"Okay," we hear from above, "I'll help you this once. But don't expect anything else from me, alright? Lest you wish to die a bazillion deaths." As a gleaming, brilliant golden light surrounds the entire room, burning away everything aside from us, Zidiolet and Rioca.
Just when we needed her the most.
God pulls through.
The protective dome dissolves.
Ariel and Maryanne break out into a sprint. Maryanne holding Ariel's hand, throws Ariel at a bullet's speed where Ariel delivers a perfect guillotine kick to Rioca's neck, plowing her into the ground where she sat. Her body now contorted, bend in two places; her neck and her waist. She attempts to lift herself out, but the kick was so powerful that it bent the chair in two, forcing her into a Rioca-sandwich.
Rioca screams in imitation of Zidiolet's hawk screech, and breaks into tears.
"Why?! Why? Why…" She starts, blubbering through her tears. "Humanity made me… Why should it know happiness? Why should it have a second chance?!"
Raphael taps his contraption one more time, and it projects a magnificent cinema-sized video image onto the wall behind her.
It plays videos of us one by one.
"I would do anything to see my family. I want them to see tomorrow." Says Deus on screen.
"I will protect my comra… my friends. Till the bitter end." Violet says from behind.
"I want my family together. I want us all to live happily." Abi said through tears.
"I wanna eat anything but pizza. I'll kill myself if I see another one." Maryanne exclaims.
"If I never have to kill again, it'll be a great world." Marc says, his tenor voice pouring through a lit cigarette.
"I want to finally be reunited with my sister." Locke says through bated breath.
"The world deserves to see forever. No-one deserves to be trapped." Ariel speaks proudly.
"Humanity deserves as many chances as it takes. We're capable of change." Zidane exclaims.
"Humanity makes as many mistakes as it can, but we deserve to make more tomorrow." Raphael follows in the same clip.
"The people deserve a second chance. My brothers deserve to grow up." William announces.
"Humanity is my responsibility, and I will see it to the very end." God sternly states.
"I want to be together with my twin, and my older sister! I want us to be happy!" Says an unfamiliar, static-encased woman.
"I want a world where tomorrow is guaranteed. I want everyone to have the ability to move on, no matter what." Says my own self.
"You see, Lorelei?!" Raphael shouts, proceeding closer to Rioca's contorted broken body. "You can keep us trapped here forever, but you can remove the hope for tomorrow!" As he readies his contraption and aims it straight in her direction.
"You can take the boy out of the park, but you can't stop him playing!!!" Deus yells alongside him, summoning tens of rocket launchers that float stationary behind him.
"You can't stop the people making mistakes!!!" William bellows, levitating as a ball of shining light appears and grows in his hands.
"I'll do anything for my family!!!" Maryanne howls as she dashes into a second sprint towards Rioca.
"Even if it takes a thousand kicks, I'll make sure we see tomorrow!!!" Ariel shrieks as she sprints alongside her.
Zidiolet screeches a piercing cry that forces Rioca in place as they maintain their position in the air.
"You will let humanity go." I demand, as one by one, everyone launches a full-scale assault on her.
Raphael's contraption launches an electric net that cages Rioca. Deus's rocket launchers fire in unison at her. William's released shining light rises and escalates into a humongous holy beam of light that burns at her very soul. Ariel and Maryanne collectively give her a two-person guillotine kick further into the steep ground. Zidane and Violet separate in the air as Violet plummets down with a flaming fist directly into the ground, setting the immediate vicinity ablaze. Zidane dives down with his talons and rips Rioca's mutilated and torn apart body.
Abigail Walker launches off my back like a torpedo, using both her ability to be as light as a feather, and her mixed martial arts prowess, fires through the air at the magnificent speed of light. She grabs Rioca by her neck, and somehow, through a sheer miracle, separates Lorelei from Rioca.
Now a writhing shadow in her hand, Lorelei squirms like a fish out of water.
"Please don't kill me…" It whimpers. "I just want to live…"
"Your living shouldn't come at this price." I retort. "How can you call this living?!" I yell, making my way to the now incapacitated enemy.
"If tomorrow never comes, nothing bad can happen…" It cries through whatever tears it can manifest.
"Something bad will always happen. Every day. It's up to us to fix it." I say as I raise my sword. "If nothing bad ever happens today, what about the people you've stopped from living their full life?!"
"What do they have to do about this?!" It snaps. "Humanity can fucking die for all I care!!!" It screams through the idea of tears.
"It'll never understand human emotions." Raphael states as he places his gloved hand upon mine.
Together, we drive it straight into the 'heart' of Lorelei.
It ceases 'crying'.
"See you later, alligator." It whispers as it dissolves into black mist.
We stand there in silence. Rioca's unrecognisable body now limp in Zidane's talons. Zidane lowers slowly and releases her onto the flat ground next to the now flame-singed, bent and tattered battleground.
She doesn't flinch. She doesn't twitch.
Deus chimes up.
"Why don't we all go for a beer?"
…
...
But that's not exactly how it went.
Every single one of us is dragged by a heavy pull that drags us back to the moment Raphael had activated his contraption.
The contraption worked; it filled Rioca with such rage that she learned how to create a separate reality from this, contained within this reality.
Following my final recorded message, Rioca had impaled Raphael. She rushed towards him in the blink of an eye and destroyed his contraption in the process. He falls limp on the cold metal ground.
"Raphael!" Ariel calls as she races to his aid.
"Hope?! You thought my weakness was hope?!" Laughs Rioca as she constitutes a clone that slams Ariel into the ground and pins her down.
"You're all either really stupid or incredibly ambitious." She continues as she scans through us to identify who's next.
Ariel writhes and struggles but Rioca seems to have a good grip on the Mafia boss.
Maryanne arrives to aid Ariel, surprising the clone with a running haymaker, and immediately helps her up, to which Maryanne grabs Ariel's collar and throws her towards Raphael.
Zidane swoops down from above and begins deadly swordplay with Rioca. His fingers that work like katanas, and her tendril blades that burst with erratic shadows.
"Did you see what happened, Shiro?!" Zidane yells through the conflict.
"Was that a different reality?!" I respond - my words vanishing from the air with every clash of blades.
"I felt it happen, though!" Maryanne agrees.
"So we all saw the same future…" I ponder, as Violet approaches me.
She holds her hand out and smirks as suddenly, an immediate pain is felt within me.
I fall to the cold ground, holding my left eye as it twitches spontaneously, causing my head to pulse as if it was breaking into fractions.
My hand stays acclimated to my eye as if it quells the pain any less.
It doesn't.
Violet uses this moment to humour her complex.
"Yes! Feel the power coursing through your veins!" She cries.
I scream in agony as the pain increases to a hundred percent… and then subsides.
"Rise, champion! For I have bestowed upon you - The Devil's Eye!" She bellows as if creating new life.
I remove my hand from my eye, as I behold the remnants of a flickering purple flame protruding from it.
"What can it do?" I ask.
"What can't it do?" She retorts.
Why did I even ask?
I turn my attention to Rioca, who's being distracted by Zidane whilst Ariel heals Raphael.
I manifest my blade, which has somehow turned from a black hole encased within a gladiator-like sword to a space-black katana that glimmers like the night sky.
Violet claps like a child being entertained.
"Let's do this, partner! I will taste the blood of my enemy, and they will feel the Judgement Fists of Hell!" She cries, taking her place at my side.
Abigail jumps on my back - still light as air - and holds on as if the future depended on it.
Deus creates a handful of mannequins that resemble our fallen allies.
The clones resembling Shun and The Crowbar take their side defending Ariel as she continues in her endeavours.
The clones resembling Milli and Locke take their side by Violet and myself.
It's like the whole team's back together.
"Don't forget about me." Comes a voice from above, as a single point of light comes down on Rioca - and explodes into a globe of heavenly judgement.
Upon the globe's disappearance, Rioca floats limp and assumedly incapacitated in what used to be the centre - smoke trailing off her blackened body.
We take the initiative.
Violet and I dash to Rioca, my blade primed to finally take her down, and Violet's primed to slice her charred body to ribbons.
But just as we're prepared to strike, Rioca's eyes open.
Her body moves like a ballerina, twisting and trailing her tendrils like ribbons that create a perfect cocoon of death and horror. She shields herself entirely as the cocoon grows in size and mass.
Violet grabs my arm and retreats back to the clones who I now understand to be protecting Deus more than us.
Deus clicks his finger abruptly and the clones manifest guns that shoot repeatedly at Rioca's defences, but to no avail.
Ariel grabs Raphael's arm and helps him to his feet before throwing him by his collar towards Deus.
Lucky for Raphael, Deus broke his fall - so it was only a few injuries between them.
"What the hell do we do?!" Abigail cries.
"I know what we do… but you have to trust me." I declare.
"What do you have in mind?" She asks.
"We go inside." I say as I point at the cocoon.
Abigail and Violet nod.
Abigail grips tighter, her fingernails digging into my chest.
Violet removes some of her bandages.
"Don't forget the gift I gave you." She demands, creating a ball of purple flames within her palm. "You're the only one who can do it now." She finishes as she launches me with a mighty explosion into Rioca's shield.
My eyes close for just a moment.
…
Drip.
The feeling of being immersed in water with your clothes on.
My eyes open to an ungodly sight.
Red and black evil swirling around me in chaotic improvisation.
A woman being strung up by her own tendrils as they slowly pick at her body - mutilating her piece by piece.
The pieces grow back, and then the tendrils continue to eat at her.
A voice appears before us.
A cold, raspy voice.
The voice of a clear deceiver.
Someone who only acts on their own benefit.
"Do you wish to save her?"
I consider for a moment.
This woman, our enemy from the very beginning.
But then I recall something she said.
Humanity made me…
Maybe she does deserve redemption, or at least a chance at peace.
"Who are you?" I call.
"I have many names, but I've grown fond of Lorelei."
My left eye twitches and springs open as I am greeted with the image of a little boy. Or… the blinding white silhouette of a boy.
He half-kneels on the ground with his head resting on his knee, smiling at me.
A malicious, dirty, evil smile.
"So? Aren't you gonna save her? It'll be fun, I promise!"
"What do I do to save her?" I ask.
"Run that sword straight through her core."
"And how will that save her?"
Silence.
The image disappears entirely and my eye sees no less than what's in front of me; a woman, being destroyed from the inside-out.
I grip my blade in good faith that I'm doing the right thing.
I compose myself.
I breathe in the murky air beneath the cocoon.
My sword impales Rioca through her chest, then twists, and slices her torso in half.
Her lower body dropping to the ground as her arms and head stay strung up. Her bones slowly dissolve into black ash as her blood pours out of her in a torrent of black.
The cocoon dismantles itself and I notice that Abigail isn't on my back anymore.
Exiting the fully dismantled cocoon, I find the team huddled together.
I approach them and peer between them to find Abigail's body lying there, covered in blood.
"What happened?!" I cry.
"When you got to the cocoon, only you went in. Abi was torn to shreds." Maryanne bluntly admits, trying not to make it my fault.
I feel responsible.
If she wasn't permitted entry, I took her to her demise.
I don't want to wake up to a tomorrow where Abigail isn't there.
I would do it all again if it meant having her on my back once more.
But lucky for me - in my self-loathing - Abigail's eyes open. She looks around until her eyes reach mine, and she smiles.
The whole team turn back to where Rioca's cocoon was, and find absolutely nothing.
I run back to the space to make sure I'm not hallucinating, and even manually twitch my left eye to activate Violet's gift, but I can't see anything.
Suddenly, a voice reverberates through the room.
"In a while, crocodile."
An intense shiver flows through my body.
I turn to Deus.
"Why don't we all go for a beer?"
I black out. My vision darkens, and when I come to, I find myself being tended to by Ariel.
The team reconvened together in the middle of the room and Ariel tended to any wounds we may have sustained, but through sheer luck, no-one was truly beyond repair.
All aside for the fallen, that is.
Upon my recovery - me, being the last to recover, that is - we all make our way to the previous room, completely forgetting the haunted staircase that doesn't allow us to progress.
Raphael looks up and sighs.
"One more." God's voice sighs as she speaks from above. "One more and that's it." As we are engulfed in golden light.
As the light subsides, we find ourselves at the entrance to the station. God waiting for us with her trademark dolly dress and iced cream.
"There's a pub just around the corner from here." Deus offers. We all instinctively nod and follow him complacently.
Not a single person questions the clothes drenched in blood and rips.
It feels surreal.
As we make our way there, I can't shake the feeling that unfinished work is still around.
Deus leads us safely to a bar named 'The Soleless Soldier' and ushers us towards a table where he leaves us to order drinks.
He doesn't ask what we'd like.
"Who's gonna tell him?" Raphael queries. Everyone collectively places their index fingers on their noses.
Everyone except me.
"Alright, give em to me." I sigh.
Everyone says their order at the exact same time. Raphael quickly notes on paper that he (assumedly) keeps on himself at all times.
He passes it to me and I read a list of everyone's orders perfectly, alongside who the drinks are for. I take it to Deus, who laughs as he gives back to me.
"I got it, neph." He insists.
I make my way back to the table and Deus follows shortly after. He gets every single drink wrong. Not a single drink was correct.
We take a random drink each, and Raphael raises his glass of either cider or beer.
"Here's to tomorrow!"
"To tomorrow!" We cheer, as our glasses clink in gracious celebration. Everyone laughs as alcohol pours over our hands as the glasses collide.
A tiny voice is heard from behind me.
"…iro… Shiro…" I stand up and walk towards the voice. It's small, but if I focus, I can hear it comes from the plant pot in the far corner of the beer garden.
"Hello?" I introduce.
"Shiro." Says the voice from the plant. A hydrangea plant that pours from over the fence seems to keep its focus on me also. "I must thank you. You have unlocked my memories."
"Who exactly are you?"
"My name is Willow," she follows, "and I've been looking for you all for a long time. We have to meet. Tonight."
"Where?" I ask, still unsure.
"I'll meet you at the usual spot. Your favourite bench. 8PM." As the voice trails off. I listen for a bit longer, but I am beckoned by Deus who exclaims that we're about to take shots.
I return to my comrades as we continue celebrating on a tab that Deus will apparently pay back in the morning.
I can't help thinking about my fallen comrades. If this loop ceases, they'll never come back.
Locke will never know who his sister is.
Abigail can never find her family.
William loses an older brother.
I can never punch Marc in the face.
We stay in the bar until 7PM, and only leave when Deus can't walk anymore. I've never seen him drink like this before, but I've also never seen him celebrate.
Maryanne and I take Deus back to his by cab. It's a trial getting him in and out, but he surrenders after a while. We get home ourselves at 7:45PM and Maryanne leads the way to the front door. She turns to me.
"Look, bro." She pauses. "Shiro. I'm glad we did what we did today. We lost a few people, good people. Great people. But without you, we wouldn't be here right now."
"I could definitely say the same about you." I argue. "You truly were awesome back there."
She unlocks the door and I instantly remember an agreement I had made earlier.
"I'll be back in a bit, I just have to have a talk with someone for a moment." I insist.
"I'll save you a slice of pizza." She teases.
I stride towards the park where hopefully I experience this sky for the last time. I sit on the bench and ponder the experiences I've had over this endless loop of June 7th.
I recall my allies, my friends, my trials and traumatic moments too.
Suddenly my head pulses. I remember the alien at the basement of the clock tower. It said something along the lines of how we 'need to go back'.
Before I can question it any further, someone sits next to me.
They wear a sun hat and a long floral dress, accompanied by a handbag with the same design and a chain strap.
"Shiro." She starts. "Today may have bore fruit, but her plan has just begun. What exactly happened to Rioca?"
"We killed her. Ripped Lorelei from her body and took them both out… I think.
"Hmm. That's definitely something." She says in disbelief. "Roots don't die just because you cut the stem. If I'm correct… I think you'll start having dreams from now."
"Is that my trophy?"
"It's more of a curse than anything." She begins. "Rioca was the shackles. Without her, this loop has a higher chance of malfunctioning. Did you notice anything weird when you beat her?"
"Not a single thing."
"Look, I know you think I'm crazy right now," she starts in popular crazy-person fashion, "but the plants have told me that this might be just the beginning. Roots don't just die, Shiro. They burrow deeper. Rioca's alive. Lorelei's alive. She's basically a God now. You can't just kill her and this be over with. Remember, roots remember even when trees die."
"Then what do we do?"
"You have to go back." She says, her words echoing through my mind, reverberating through my soul. My mind drifts. It wavers.
I cease consciousness.
***
Abi and I are sitting on a checkered blanket with a wicker basket. We're having lunch, it seems. Her head laid on a makeshift pillow made from a jacket and, well, a second jacket. I'm feeding her grapes. She laughs. I lean down and kiss her. The skies are clear, nary a cloud in sight. The sun beams down like holy light. Abi smiles as she caresses my cheek and holds my face close as she keeps the kiss going.
Her lips are soft, yet full. They move with unrequited passion as they get more assertive.
The skies begin to darken as her fingernails begin to crackle and dissolve, alongside the rest of her body until I am left with a pile of ask in my hands.
In her place is nothing but seared, dead grass.
On the hill over yonder, with the full moon as her comrade, stands a woman with auburn hair and piercing eyes the colour of the setting sun.
She walks towards me, summoning the very blade I struck down Rioca with.
I try to get up and run but my body stiffens into a paralytic state.
The woman draws closer, moving into a sprint, and eventually drawing close enough to see-
She looks just like my master.
She opens her mouth as to speak, but no words emerge.
I can only work out the words; "not" and "dream", nothing more.
Just the sword, which swings in familiar fashion.
The steel case of a black hole feels cold as the midnight air as it slices through my neck.
***
7:02am, June 7th, 2000: I wake up.