Work Text:
How?
“One more step Salvation, and the Supreme King will be pass on to be history!”
How did things turn out wrong so bad?
“Salvation! Don’t listen to what he says. Finishing the mission is more important!”
And why? Why does he simply stay there, allowing himself to be a prisoner?
“Shut it!”
Nirvana keeps his blade on King’s neck, Dokja notices some blood trickling down from where the blade meets his skin.
In silence he sees it falls, it slides down King’s neck, and then it falls, under him, on the pavement a little pool of blood is starting to form.
The blade to his neck isn’t the only thing of concern.
All along his body Kings sports multiple injuries, and the mask that hides his face is half broken, only showing his eyes.
Dokja doesn’t understand, he has fought against the Hero many times.
He knows that King is more than able to win against a villain of the likes of Nirvana.
And yet.
And yet King allows himself to be subjected to Nirvana’s mercy.
Kneeling over the floor, his life handed over to Nirvana on a silver plate.
He doesn’t move, doesn’t fight, he does nothing.
“Tell me Nirvana…”
Even the words that King had shouted at him before felt empty.
“Why should I, a well know Vigilante…”
And now, the attention once again on him, he looks at him, and what he sees in King’s eyes is wrong.
“… and enemy of the Supreme King, and the hero system…”
What he sees is nothing.
“…make an attempt at saving his life? We all know that if he were to die that would make my life thousands of times easier.”
His eyes shouldn’t look like that.
Empty.
Their shine gone.
Extinguished.
Cold.
Lifeless.
That expression shouldn’t be on his face, those eyes shouldn’t look like that.
Nirvana stays silent. A pensive expression on his face.
Dokja’s back is cold, his wings have started shaking, and it has nothing to do with the cold winds of the night.
Around them the place is silent, the streets were evacuated hours ago when King and Nirvana started their fight.
The fight had started at noon, the first notification of it arriving when Dokja was still at work.
The evacuation had been fast, he wasn’t in the direct zone of the fight, but the building in which he worked was considered of high risk.
The only bad thing that had occurred was that amongst the commotion he lost his phone.
But aside from that he was quick to leave and go home.
And the fight between the Hero and Villain continued.
At first he thought nothing of it, Nirvana and King clashing was a common thing, the fights always ending with King as the victor.
These days the villain was seen mostly as an inconvenience instead of the threat he had represented when it came to his first attacks.
It will be a quick thing, he had first thought.
And then the sun was almost down, and the news were still reporting about the fight.
Dokja realized that something was wrong.
And now here they are.
The Supreme King at the hands of Nirvana.
His life nothing more than a poorly sheltered flame in the middle of a snowstorm.
And as if they were in and actual snowstorm Dokja’s body goes cold.
“Why indeed, a really good question.”
Nirvana talks and beads of cold sweat run down Dokja’s back.
He doesn’t move, barely dares to breathe, and never takes his eyes away from where the blade rests heavily over King’s neck.
What should he do? What should he do?!
What is he supposed to do?
“What a good question!…”
Nirvana keeps on talking, he pays attention to Nirvana’s words, but the only reason is the fact that there’s nothing else he can do.
King’s empty eyes look at him, there are no emotions but he feels like there is an order in them. Commanding Dokja to do something.
‘Finish the mission,’ is what King had told him.
Good thing that Dokja isn’t here for the mission, he doesn’t even know what mission is currently going on.
King probably thinks that he appeared because the mission that he was doing aligned with one of Salvation’s goals.
It wouldn’t be unusual.
That’show he has worked for years.
The vigilante appearing only when it was convenient for him.
That’s how for years he has managed to always escape, his apparitions were only when some other thing was occurring.
And at the end the Heroes had to prioritize other things over him.
For years.
It had always been like that.
But not tonight.
Tonight the only reason.
The only reason was to help King.
“…and that’s the reason as to why I also thought, but it doesn’t make sense! Salvation must be here because of some other reason. After all, it is just like you just say, getting rid of King would be nothing more than a blessing for you.”
Keep talking, keep talking, waste your time, and maybe I will be able to come up with a plan.
“But ever since you arrived you came directly to intervene in the fight, your presence today, it is the first time that you have gone against your modus operandi ever since your first apparition.”
Nirvana is close to the truth, and as much as he would love to ignore it, Dokja knows that he has arrived at the right conclusion.
And still at Nirvana’s mercy, still with a blade to his throat, King seems to have started to connect the dots.
And in previous empty eyes, something starts to appear.
“No, tonight, Salvation, your presence here has no other reason but to save King!”
Drops of sweat fall, they are cold and as they run along his body they make him shiver.
The truth is out.
The truth is out and to him, it feels like his biggest shames have been exposed.
Confusion appears in King’s eyes, and alongside it, regret.
“How brave! How heroic! With no doubts, this is the thing that the news outlets would devour like hungry sharks.”
They would, and Dokja can only but be grateful that the fight had been so violent that not even reporters dares to stay for too long.
“It’s just such a shame, the out dear King here has no reasons to keep on living. I myself dealt with that.”
“What the fuck are you talking about!?”
King? The most stubborn bastard that Dokja had had the misfortune of meeting?
King? The same man that has gone all alone against whole organizations just so he could keep on living?
King? The man that the public has named the Supreme King, because to this day he has remained as the strongest hero?
He can’t, he can’t.
That King? That man, forsaking being alive?
“Isn’t that right?”
The blade presses on stronger, but King says nothing, but he doesn’t need to, Dokja can see it.
The emptiness of his eyes, the eyes of someone who no longer wants to live.
“Why?”
The words escapes his lips.
It is a whisper, but over the silence it is clearly heard.
“Oh, Salvation. Don’t you know? Love is truly the thing that keeps many in this world. And now that the one that the mighty King is no longer in this world, well, he simply has no wish to exist in a world without them. ”
The one that King loves?
King is in love with someone?
“What did you do?”
Nirvana laughs, and it is a cruel one.
The death of someone has occurred at his hands, and he laughs.
Strong and full of glee.
King does nothing but despair at Nirvana’s laugh, and in an almost impossible way, the already broken man seems to break even more.
“What did I do? Well, I killed him! Isn’t that obvious? And oh, how easy it had been. But well, it was to be expected, after all, Kim Dokja was nothing more than an ordinary man.”
Fucking. Pause.
Nirvana laughs once again, King seems on the verge of tears.
What. In. The. Ever-loving. Fuck?
***
Salvation’s first encounter with King was almost 8 years ago.
Kim Dokja meet Yoo Joonghyuk 6 years ago.
Here’s the thing.
Kim Dokja, is actually a smart man.
It’s how he has survived as a lone Vigilante for more than a decade.
So when he meet Joonghyuk drawing similarities between the hero and the other man had been easy.
And in less than a year Dokja was sure, Joonghuyk was Supreme King.
And when he had been able to prove it, he did nothing, and he acted and pretended that he knew nothing.
He also did the same when he realized that he had fallen for Joonghyuk.
And life keep on.
And now here they are.
With Joonghyuk having lost his will to love and fight because he thinks that Dokja died.
And now here they are.
With the truth only being known by Dokja.
What to do?
What can he do?
The answer is a simple one.
***
“You fucking sunfish bastard, I’m starting to think that you do really enjoy causing me nothing more than troubles don’t you?”
The answer is immediate.
Confusion in Nirvana. But Dokja could care less about him.
And Supreme King.
And Yoo Jooghuyk, well, Yoo Joonhuyk has his life returned to his eyes.
Nirvana never stood a chance.
***
There’s a need to run.
His wings ache and urge him to flap them, to rise above the ground and disappear amongst the clouds.
But he doesn’t, instead, he remain in his place.
Unmoving and just waiting.
Around him there’s silence, Nirvana has finally been dealt with, and for now, Dokja has nothing else to do but to wait.
Above, the moon and stars are the only witnesses, dawn is still hours away.
The silence is broken by steps approaching him, and then, in front of him, King appears.
Beaten and bruised in a way that Dokja had only seen him after their fights.
But alive, and well.
He stops in front of him.
No words are spoken.
And then.
“Kim Dokja.”
There’s no reason to keep on hiding it, and so, with King watching him and never taking his eyes away from him, he reveals himself.
There’s a tingling to his face, indicating that the blur to his face is disappearing.
“Yoo Joonghyuk.”