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Eiji didn't even know if this was a dream or not. He'd finally gotten what he wanted: The power to help anyone, no matter where they were. And that red arm had given it to him.
What was its name? Ankh? He believed so. And he didn't understand a single thing that the floating thing, now possessing a cop's body had told him. He needed to ask him later, about his past. Although he'd traveled a lot and been to many places, his memory couldn't hold that many details. He was always bound to forget something.
And yet, somehow he knew that Ankh's past wouldn't be among those shed and forgotten memories. Fallen memories.
Eiji still hasn't forgotten the pain that lanced through his back when Ankh tossed him aside. This was, after all, just a measure of how willing the Greeed was to get rid of him after he'd served his purpose. He watches, helpless as Ankh's hand approaches Hina's unconscious body.
No. Not helpless.
He'd thought of an idea. Something that would work against someone like Ankh. Grabbing the OOO Driver from his pocket, he pulled the only act of crap that Ankh would actually take a hint from. He dangled the thing over the water. He threatened to drop his power into the bottomless depths of the abyss.
Of course Ankh relents. But if it ever came down to it, Eiji knew that he'd never let go.
A little more. Just a little more.
He could see Monta inside there, struggling and hurting. He wanted to take the man's hand, grasp it, grab it and hold it so tight. He wanted to reassure this man that nothing was going to happen and everything would work out fine.
He wanted nothing else. Just the sight of the man safe.
His legs were burning. Burning and aching and longing for rest. Screaming in protest. But he couldn't give up now. He was that close. He keeps at it, boring his way through layer after layer of Cell Medals. He doesn't care about those pieces of plastic that Ankh wanted so badly. All he wanted to do was to reach out to the innocent victim. This whole mess wasn't even his fault in the first place.
He does it, eventually. Eiji knows that he'd kick his legs off to save him. Gladly, even. He wouldn't stop, there and then. He wished he could say the same for every single other person that he wanted to save, all these years.
But he couldn't. Because once, there was a promise he couldn't keep.
Ankh knows that Eiji isn't stupid. He's an underwear obsessed idiot, sure, but he did know how to hold his own ground in a fight.
Especially that one, with Kazari. The moment had passed so quickly that even Ankh missed it. In that airborne clash, Eiji'd pulled out not one, not two, but three of Kazari's golden Medals.
He'd been impressed, to say the least.
And now, he knew that Eiji had probably seen him staring at the building in which Mezool's Yummy grew, patiently and peacefully.
Knowing the moron that he was, he'd probably also go after it. It was fine.
He couldn't transform without the Medals, anyway.
He'd been so, so stupid. He couldn't save her.
It wasn't her fault. He couldn't, or he didn't, or he wouldn't pull it off. He's sick and tired of being useless, of being so weak and helpless and not being able to help anyone at all. He just couldn't, and the thing was that he didn't know why. Was he too tired? Too fatigued? Or had God decided that he'd done enough?
What did she do to deserve it? A sweet, innocent girl that had been his best friend in Africa. Gone. Blown to bits by a bomb that had probably been fueled by something which had nothing to do with her at all. He wonders. He'll probably wonder until the end of time, seeking peace he knows he would never have.
It feels like you're walking on a treadmill. On and on and on, until your body gives up and collapses and that's the end of your run.
But then... he'd met Ankh. The one person that had given him the ability to protect people, to finally be able to reach out his hand and grab hold of theirs.
Maybe, just maybe, if he uses this power carefully enough, he might slowly be able to outrun the treadmill, change the circuit to work with him, and not against him.
Maybe, if they worked together, his run would not end like this.
Rage coursed through his veins like molten lava, and waves of fury come, electrifying him.
His fist swings.
Stupid Maki and that damned doll of his. So cruel, not giving a darn as to how many lives would be lost if the bombs went off there.
The fist hits an unlucky circuitry box near them, the force of the thrown punch enough to dent the casing. Eiji let out a breath that he could no longer hold back. A short, simple breath of anger. He'd never felt this angry before. Maki was lucky that he'd managed to disengage all the bombs in time. If he failed, he didn't even know what he'd do to Maki.
He didn't even know what he'd do to himself.
Hina doesn't even know what to say.
Despite Eiji being so hurt, he still used a Combo.
Not just any Combo. Ankh's Combo. Tajador.
She can see the envy burning in Ankh's eyes, so bright and strong, like the kindled flame of a candle. She doesn't know what he's thinking right now, but she can understand how he feels.
Ankh's had his Cores torn from him, for no reason at all. He looked at though he wished he were OOO, so that he could fly again. The feeling of flying must be awesome, if he could desire for his wings that badly.
She feels her heart twinge a little in pity. She's been feeling the same way, after all. Whenever she sees Ankh, his face so damn familiar, that spark dancing in his eyes, she envies. Her brother, too, was torn from her, for no reason at all.
She must have taken the feeling of love for granted then, if she could desire for her family that badly.
Ankh is scared, after he sees Eiji go out of control for the first time. Eiji now has foreign Medals in him, those purple, empty ones, so eerily hollow that it makes Ankh want to turn tail and just ditch Eiji there and then, to run away with his Cores and never look back. He has never felt this pull to his Cores, so ominous and dark that he might as well just not have any Cores at all.
Ankh can't sleep at night. It's the period where he's the most vulnerable, after all.
After seeing the events of the theme park repeat themselves at the dock, Ankh has has enough.
"You better keep yourself in control if you want to be OOO. It's pathetic!" He knew it wasn't fair, but the words were out before he could bite his tongue. He needed somewhere to vent his frustrations, and the ideal somewhere was Eiji.
This had sparked an escalation into an all-out argument, and Hina had ruined everything with her strength.
But he knew that the purple Medals would only make the rift between him and Eiji grow wider, stretching open like an ominous mouth.
Waiting to swallow him whole.
This was so selfish it nearly killed him.
Hina was still taking care of him, bandaging his wounds tenderly after every fight, as though they had a relationship. She's told him that it's perfectly normal to be selfish once in awhile, and that he can't carry the burden alone.
But he couldn't let others carry it for him either. His heart was cold, so cold that he never felt that he needed to tell anyone. He's heard the old saying, "Freeze the heart and freeze the gab." Freezing his heart had essentially frozen his mouth too. He had to be more careful now, with his choice of words and his phrasing of sentences.
He'd rather bear everything on his own now than let this sweet girl carry it with him. Because if somehow, after all this nonsense, if he makes it out alive... he'll tell her.
He'll spill the words that are frozen now, with his lips and heart.
Ankh had only one goal in mind: become more than a Greeed. His plan had been simple; to use Eiji as a tool to gather Medals. How did it go so wrong?
Eiji's there now, telling him to give Shingo back, because Hina needs him just as much as Ankh needs his wings.
Ankh doesn't need to answer. His family's name said everything and more than all the explanations he could give.
The purple flame ignites in Eiji's eyes, dancing and glowing so brightly that for a moment, Ankh remembers the day where Eiji had lost control, and he flinched. But still, those Cores were his. So he fights back. A dumb thing to do while Eiji was in this state, but Ankh doesn't think he wants to do anything else. He could run, and it would be a sensible choice, seeing as he would profit his Taka core. But he wants to see if he could get more.
So when Eiji invoked the Medals another time, Ankh spread his wings, no longer clipped, and soars.
He hasn't felt this feeling for eight hundred years. It's refreshing, every single sense so sharp, so refined. Air whipped through his hair, and he flew, with all the freedom of the hawk, the gracefulness of the peacock and the pride of the condor.
But if one looked closely, they could see something else. Something, that was making one of his wings flap slightly lesser than the other.
Stupid Eiji. Now he'd turned into a Greeed and the situation is so stupid that Ankh could laugh.
His mind is swirling and is a complete utter mess. He can't help staggering out of the water in shock, staring at Eiji's new form. Ankh searched the detective's vocabulary for the perfect descriptor.
'Monster' would fit. Maybe 'Devil'.
Ankh knew this wasn't Eiji's fault. At all. It wasn't his fault that any of this mess happened.
If Eiji couldn't save Alfreed when it wasn't her fault, so many years ago, then Ankh wouldn't make the same mistake. Because he took off that day because he could no longer bring himself to hurt him. He couldn't let Eiji become what the King became, so long ago.
Ankh's Core is cracked. He wonders why it doesn't really matter to him anymore. If he'd really been that scared of it breaking completely, he'd at least chanted it in his head over and over again.
When he sends Eiji to get ice, Hina comes over, and he turns to her.
"Don't tell Eiji about my Core."
"Huh?" Hina's voice is filled with so much concern for a pile of dead Medals that it almost hurts.
"So that we can fight properly. You don't want him to worry and start blaming himself, right?"
Hina opens her mouth to answer, but Eiji arrives and she closes it again.
He couldn't bring himself to tell him.
He didn't want the same frozen claws that were raking his heart to assail Eiji's too.
First it's Hina, then it's Ankh. And then it's him.
They're joined, connected by hands that they never knew could be so warm in each others'. They're something they never realised they were, but they were all along.
They were a family.
If this was the only reason why the bars that were their souls hadn't snapped yet, maybe it must have been something that was imbued in this special bond.
Ankh wasn't about to turn back and admit that he was sorry. By not telling Eiji about his Core, he was already saying more than a million words could say.
Would they ever be separated? Maybe. But bits and pieces of families could be put back together, couldn't they?
If maybe one day they win this, the stress on their souls would lessen. And this relationship could stop being so strained.
They've won. And all Eiji feels is serene peacefulness as he falls from the sky. It's over. But Ankh is gone. His sacrifice was nobler than any Greeed would ever understand. Even now the fibers of his brain couldn't figure out why Ankh had done something so incredibly stupid. So stupid, like something he'd do if he were in Ankh's shoes. Maybe Ankh has learned something from him after all.
He sees Ankh, one last time. Bidding his goodbyes and telling Eiji things that wouldn't matter if he wasn't here.
He can't stop his hand from reaching out to Ankh's own.
He was seeking the peace he needed so long ago, after he'd failed to protect someone he should have.
Maybe he'd find it, buried somewhere in the hands of those people he'd formed such close bonds with all the time this nonsense was going on. The only people in the world that actually dared to listen to his past, cared for him like a relative, as though he was one of them.
Maybe he'd find it, frozen in the depths of the red broken Core that was the last thing he had of the person that had given him what he'd wanted.
The last thing he had of the person that had given him his desire.
"...Ankh."