restart

"and how shall you rise beyond your days and nights unless you break the chains which you at the dawn if your understanding have fastened around your noon hour?

In the truth that which you call freedom is the strongest of these chains, though its links glitter in the sun and dazzle your eyes."

The prophet, kahlil gibran

Finally, I awoke.

But where, I did not know.

All I could feel was cold hard stone against my face. And pain. An unrelenting pain that seemed to consume my entire being.

I didn't open my eyes.

I didn't want to find out what had happened.

I didn't want to find out how it all ended.

I wanted to hold on to this final moment of peace, to savour the last moment of what would be my life.

To say everything hurt was an understatement. My ankle was assaulted with a deep, sharp pain, caused by my fall earlier, my head and neck was subject to a throbbing ache worse than any headache I had ever experienced, caused possibly by whatever device they had on me that was stopping me from using any of my powers.

I felt something liquid on my face.

A...tear?

it didn't matter. It didn't matter what I did now. I knew that soon, it would all come to an end. Every battle I had ever fought for my freedom, everything I had ever suffered, was it all been in vain? Had I endured so much, only to have it all crash down upon me?

It all condensed down into one thing.

I had failed.

Another tear. It didn't matter anymore.

I drew myself into a ball. My body was still stiff and sore but I didn't care. I had nothing left, not even my dignity.

Suddenly, a door opened. The noise of it sliced though my sobs. There were footsteps. They stopped in front of my crying form.

Still, I didn't open my eyes. As if that would somehow save me from the inevitable.

Whoever the intruder was, they remained silent.

And after awhile, so did I.

Finally, he spoke.

"Mewtwo? Are you awake?" I froze, pure terror taking a hold of my mind. I opened my eyes, hoping that mind had deceived me.

It had not.

I whimpered, drawing myself in tighter.

Once upon a time, I might've fought him.

Once, I might've yelled or attacked him.

But now, I felt fear, not anger. My mind had slowly changed, and I now feared him, not loathed him. And so, I didn't fight. I had been running for too long, and it had warped my mind. I felt powerless, as if I had been drained of all my anger and my will.

"It doesn't have to be like this." He said. "You don't have to fear me. There's no shame in starting again."

I turned around. Despite his words, he still terrified me.

"You….you betrayed me." I finally said, but the words seemed hollow, as if they meant nothing. "We were never equal. And we will never be. Not in your eyes." I looked upwards, desperate for something that wasn't him to focus on.

Up high in the wall was a small opening, from where the rooms light came from.

And sitting in it, staring down at me was a dove. A rare sight in a world where beings of immense power where the norm. but it was there, preening its pure white wings.

I looked up at it, envying its freedom and the simplicity of its life. I would give up everything, my power, my humanity to become that dove. To be free and not constantly chased. I would give it all up to be anything that wasn't who I was.

I wasn't a blessing.

I was a curse.

Once again, the tears threatened to spill, but I held them back.

The dove, now finished cleaning, gave me one final look and flew away.

A single white, slender feather floated down from where it was perched, to in front of me. Slowly, I uncurled myself and picked up the feather. It was so white and pristine; I almost didn't want to touch it. I didn't want who I was to spoil it, to turn it into dust like I was.

I had once been told that doves represent peace, but if that was true, what was it doing here? This wasn't peace. This was as far as I could get from it.

I looked down, not at the feather, but past it, at my disfigured parody that was my hands. I tried to remember why I hated him, tried to remember why I had been running.

But I couldn't.

I had been running for so long, I had forgotten why I was running in the first place. All my memories had started to blur into one painful mess. Why did I even care anymore? Was I running because of something I didn't know?

I let out a shaky sigh.

All my hatred was gone, replaced with…I didn't know what anymore.

I knew I had been running, but not from what anymore.

Why had I run in the first place?

I couldn't remember anymore.

AN - where does one put an epigraph? before or after a prologue?