Under the Light of Venus
Disclaimer: Camelot owns Golden Sun and all its characters.
It was ironic really. There were so many ways of dying in this world, yet the reactions to such a constant were limited. One reaction may be a calm acceptance, realising that death was something that couldn't be escaped. Others may rage against it, denying fate. The third category was one of pure fear, the famous "I don't want to die! I'm too young!"
It was those who fell into the third category that Saturos truly despised. If you were about to leave the world, you may as well do so with dignity. And honour. You couldn't forget that. Those who fell into the first category were slightly better, but Saturos couldn't help but despise them. The strong cry out against fate while the weak bow their heads and succumb.
As a warrior, Saturos despised weakness.
Less than a minute ago, Saturos would have been disgusted at himself. Here he was, falling down the aerie of Venus Lighthouse, accepting that whether it be by the wounds that he'd suffered or the fall, he was going to die and there was nothing he could do about it.
Yet why was he accepting that fact so quickly? He'd previously been engaged in combat with that bunch of deluded fools which, despite their misguided beliefs, had won his grudging respect. Hell, even a transformation into a Fusion Dragon couldn't stop them. They had to be insanely powerful to do that, no other possibility.
Actually, that was a lie. Saturos knew why they'd won.
He'd let them.
The Proxian glanced down-still quite a way to fall, still quite a bit of time left to think morbid thoughts. He turned his gaze to the body of Menardi, a few feet lower than him. From the looks of things, her wounds had killed her before the fall had. No doubt she would have been pleased to go out like that.
But why had Saturos failed to pull his weight when they became one? Why had he let Menardi down? Because of his lack of effort, the quest had presumably been passed to Felix and therefore fail in an instant. Felix was tied by morality and no doubt emotion, if the little girl from Lalivero was anything to go by. Because of his lack of conviction, Weyard was doomed to die a slow, suffocating death.
Undoubtedly true, but why did Saturos feel ok about that?
The answer hit him faster than one of the lightning bolts that the midget Jupiter Adept had thrown at him. He'd succeeded by failing.
Memories came through Saturos's mind as he recalled the events of the last three years. Triggering a storm that resulted in widespread destruction in Vale, triggering an eruption and leaving the two boys named Isaac and Garet to die, blocking the entrance to Goma Range, causing two landslides on Silk Road, slaughtering numerous soldiers and scholars, men who'd just been doing their jobs.
It had all been done without guilt.
Agatio, a few years his senior, had once told him that emotions defeated you. They made you act irrationally, made you lack conviction. Saturos grimaced; he didn't lack conviction. In contrast, he had too much of it.
Conviction had allowed him to kill without guilt, which ultimately allowed the quest to save Weyard to continue. But if those were the steps required to save the world, then why bother at all? If a lack of guilt was required to save the world, then what would become of it after a lack of guilt had succeeded? Men without morality would come into prominence again.
Men like himself
Hence, Saturos realised that his demise was actually a blessing. The task was now in Felix's hands, a man who had morals, had pure emotions rather than the more simple ones that Saturos had possessed.
Hate. Rage.
Felix could succeed where he failed, he was sure of it. If not, then the world would die. Yet surely that would be the better way to go. If the world needed hate and rage to save it, then it wasn't worth saving.
Saturos didn't consider himself a martyr, he simply considered himself someone who had died because he had seen the truth; salvation had to be justified. If he'd won that fight, he wouldn't have been able to stop. Morality would fade in order to save a world that needed something that its saviour couldn't provide.
Love. Morality. Sanity.
Saturos had become everything that he'd previously despised. At this point in time however, the view was reversed-his former self was everything that he despised and Felix everything that he respected. Even Isaac had his respect. Fighting against Felix was the wrong course of action. Fighting against Menardi and himself however, was the right thing to do. He was undoubtedly superior. He'd used emotion as a weapon, his frequent glances at the cerulean haired Mercury Adept were enough to show that. Saturos would have previously seen that as weakness. Now, he realised what it truly was.
Love was a beautiful thing, even having the ability to make battle pure.
And love and purity was what Saturos had been lacking.
He glanced down. Only about fifty metres to go before every bone in his body would be shattered. He accepted that fact calmly. The ability to face death without anger had been something that he'd previously despised. Now, he realised that it was the most appropriate way of departure.
He hit the ground with a sickening crack. Before losing consciousness memories of his sins flashed through his mind. Hopefully they would never be repeated by man again.
Saturos reflected on what he and many others had been capable of, what humanity was capable of. He looked into himself and saw something that disgusted him. As the darkness took him, he uttered his final words;
"The horror. The horror."
Yep, another depressing oneshot. Hardly exemplary I know, like many oneshots I do this was just a drabble. And yes, as the last line indicates, we've been studying 'Heart of Darkness' and 'Apocalypse Now' at school.
Anyway, it may be against Saturos's character, but he always struck me as being more moral than Menardi, considering how he always seems to act as a restraining force against her whenever Jenna tempts her wrath.
So mediocre, but meh. I've done my usual morbid two cents.