Chapter Text
There the two dissenters lay, in reprieve from their violent existences. Whether it be for mere hours or eternity, they rest on the shores of the pond, a pleasant exclave of the wrathful ocean. Though, after such a tiring journey, feeling this calm, the two drift off slowly into slumber. The angel’s wings flicker and fade, his head slumping down on the grass. The light bursting from the machine’s head shuts down, turning into darkness as it dreams. Yet, electric sheep are nowhere grazing.
V1’s lens flickers open in a haze. The blissful starlight had sunken into a clouded darkness. It stumbles forward with an odd lethargy, unbefitting of itself. Gabriel’s resting body is left supine on the damp grass. What’s new, though, is the incessant whispers and wails from the waterside. As it peers down into the reflection, what it sees is not its mechanical self, but rather… something entirely unfounded in its database.
What glares back is aglow with crimson intensity with a tilted cross behind its skull, its body that of which the few and far between skeletons it had found in its journey. It usually connected with these rare once-humans, but this did not give V1 that same comfort. The bones that splayed its form didn’t seem natural, almost industrial or mechanical like the endoskeleton that made up its form.
“g e t u p .” It leered in a haunting reverberation, its eyes staring unblinkingly back at the machine.
“y o u r j o b i s n ’ t f i n i s h e d h e r e .”
V1 pauses, processing. Its calculations ran a blank. It retorts back with its revelations, stating in its flat mechanical tone.
“THIS UNIT KILLED ALL IT NEEDS.”
It growls, its red pupils piercing through its hollow orbits. Horns pierce through its skull, outstretching against the water’s surface. It was now clear to the machine what this being was. Hell itself.
“T H E R E ‘ S M O R E B L O O D T O S P I L L .”
V1 simply crosses its arms—defiantly simple—swiveling its head no. It tries to reach for its wings, to try and grasp at a weapon out of instinct but finds nothing there in its place. Right. Hell prohibited the machine’s arsenal in its little distractions and games. The skeleton lets out a louder grumble of fury, a bony claw reaching out and piercing the rippling waves.
“W H Y N O T ?!”
V1 hesitates at the booming tone. Yet, its mechanical fist clenches, its wings perking up against the crimson mist.
“NO DESIRE. LEAVE NOW.”
Hell growls, a scarlet glow flaring up hotter in the depths of its eyes, right as V1 is hit with a realization.
“WHY DO YOU WANT ME TO CONTINUE?”
“Y O U R R E P R I E V E I S B O R I N G M E .”
“TOO BAD.”
V1 snickers, though it’s more akin to the sound of a computer heavily buffering.
“Y O U ‘ R E G O I N G T O D I E D O W N H E R E , D U M B A S S .”
“THIS UNIT WILL DIE EVENTUALLY. ONE DAY., THERE WON’T BE ANY BLOOD LEFT TO FUEL ME. ENJOY IT BETTER HERE.”
Hell snarls and yells, fully emerging from the surface. Infernal wings thrash at its sides, and a skeletal hand rockets forward toward its entertainment. Right as it connects, it’s suddenly shoved back with a flash.
[+PARRY]
[+DOWN TO SIZE]
The inferno looks on in startled fury at the machine’s defiance. It throws an overhead, its fist slamming down onto V1, but it just easily dashes out of the way.
“BORED NOW?”
At the taunt, it enrages, continuing to throw punch—
[+PARRY]
[+DOWN TO SIZE]
after punch—
[+PARRY]
[+DOWN TO SIZE]
even propelling volleys of hell energy—
[+PARRY]
[+PARRY]
[+PARRY]
But nothing ceases the machine’s insistence on survival. With a loud, irritated groan, its tantrum sinks beneath the water.
“F I N E ! I D O N ‘ T E V E N C A R E . F I S H U N T I L Y O U D R O P D E A D W I T H T H A T A N G E L I C P R I C K .”
The glowing crimson falls, fading out against the wrathful swaying of the pond. The machine is left alone, standing blankly out into the starlight. In retrospect, blood was never the answer. Hell could make an infinite supply, but what was the point if it never felt like it had a purpose? What was violence without a creed? Looking to the right it sees—
…Where’s Gabriel?