Chapter Text
The sound of his rubber shoes on metal was going to be the death of him. With cuffs holding his hands behind his back, he was being led into his realization. After this, he will be free. It was a baptism, where he, as an unwilling subject, was dipped into blood to cleanse himself of all sin he had committed.
And committed he had.
He hadn’t meant to, really, it wasn’t supposed to go like it did. His brothers died in there as well, just because he lived doesn’t mean he suddenly holds all responsibility for a mission gone wrong. It wasn’t fair that he was being cleansed in blood, while some otherworldly god caressed his brothers with clean water, somewhere out there where a garden of Eden really existed. It had to exist somewhere, if not out there in empty space, then in the storybooks he read as a child.
The convict bit back the urge to snarl at those who were leading him by the shoulders, with a thin piece of cloth hung over his face.
Before the cloth was put on him, he checked his timer; a little tattoo in his shoulder area, always visible due to the hole he ripped in his shirt (which he was berated for at Eden, since clothing was already so sparse).
He was called “the spared one” back at Eden. When the world as everyone knew it disappeared, so did people’s timers off their shoulders. Like some weight of fate giving up with a dying breath—he was that breath.
His timer was the only one to stay, across all of Eden. They searched far and wide for a brother at Eden who still had a timer like he did, but found no one. They reached the conclusion that his soulmate must be from the COI, or other stations, and decided that they had other things to worry about. Life was the same now as it was then.
People didn’t like the fact that he was lucky, didn’t like that fate decided that he was the “chosen one”, the only one to get to live a life with a destined someone. And the fact that that someone wasn’t of Eden’s kind, well, let’s say life really was the same now as it was then.
But what the fuck did they know? They could be jealous all they wanted. To him, that timer was his last resort. He needed to see it at all times, keep it in his sights like the last source of natural light. He couldn’t be loved. Not by anyone at Eden, nor in any other station. His timer was his last hope that maybe, just maybe, he was wrong.
He was always “The Butcher” after that time. No longer the chosen one, no longer the lucky one, but the chains around his soulmate’s feet—the cuffs tying them together. They were stuck with him, and there was no way that he could break them out, though he wished he could.
He didn’t care for the predicament he’d be put in once that timer hit zero. If he suddenly realized he’d been colorblind his entire life, and could see real colors only when they locked eyes, like what he was told in old fairytales. Or if he wouldn’t be able to utter a lie ever again, like most soulmate couples he saw as a child, passing through the station (his parents were one of those). Or if his and his soulmate’s thoughts would connect and collide, or maybe their skin would, he didn’t care. He was ready to face anything. He just wanted to get it over with, so that the time he had left would stop killing him from the inside.
At least, that was his mentality for most of his life. Now? He wasn’t so sure he wanted that timer to hit zero.
The SM-13, nicknamed the Iron Lung, was empty aside from him. He sat, uncuffed with his vision obscured, obediently waiting for instructions as he was being welded in. His foot tapped impatiently on the metal. God, that sound was going to be the death of him. He just wanted to check, just to see-
Upon being allowed to take off the cloth around his head, he hastily obliged and checked his timer. Only a few hours left, he was free in less than that, then. He would meet his soulmate afterwards. His freedom was only a few hours away, so Simon familiarized himself with the controls of the SM-13, and awaited instruction.
Briefly, he wondered if they had it wrong all this time, and it was ticking down to his death instead.