Ch 25: Blood Marked Retribution

Where do I go when I am like this? Rejected by both humans and Diclonius. What is the point of it all? Ever since that day I have made this choice, for I refuse to be alone in this hellish world. Every moment I see the faces of my victims as I fell them with my guns. I see those twisting horrid hands of my victims, I feel them brush past me as I dodge them, and I feel their death gripping fingers miss me.

I refuse to be alone. I want to have a purpose, but is this truly it? Was I born to just kill my victims with these bullets, watching them fall mundanely to the ground with blood dripping from their wounds? My choice is simple now…

I kill because I have made a choice, a choice on my own volition. Every day I see my victims fall, all of them starring hatefully at me. All of them wishing me to die, to burn in hell, to rip me to pieces. I can't even remember a time when I was happy, I hardly know what "happy" is anymore. I see everything in that dreary gray coloration and for the first time ever…I hate them.

Those cold red eyes starring me down, wishing for my demise. Those angels of deaths, their vectors ripping through everything but myself, I hate it. It is not because they are trying to kill me that I hate them though. Tear me, rip me, destroy my body and soul and turn it into dust. I would deserve every single moment of it. Spread my blood across the ground, make me scream in agony. I would earn every bit of pain, every drop of blood spilt from my body.

Do not talk to me about loss though. I kill my victims not because I can, but because I see that hateful, malicious look in all their eyes and it says only one thing. "I have lost everything! You took everything from me! I have nothing left, I will kill you!" These words sicken me. What choice do you have? Everything! Every thought, every action is your choice.

Kill me for revenge.

Kill me for fun.

Kill me in whatever way makes you feel better.

But I will never accept the foolish notion that there is no choice. Everyone has a choice…everyone.

Bloodied and bruised, bullet wounds and broken bones. Celia and Jericho stand apart, sweating and panting heavily. The distance is clear, one single move from each of them. Every single on of Jericho's bullets has been used up. He had only one more gun, one more single bit of ammo. Celia's vectors were fading, the pain pulling on every single fiber in her body. She refuses to give up though, she made the choice to keep that one single vector held up. The Voice is telling her to kill him, and she will…but not because of The Voice. She will kill him because it is her choice to make. From that point on the words of The Voice mean little to her. She will kill mankind and replace it with Diclonius because of own choice. This is her choice. Her choice alone.

Simultaneously they attack! Jericho's arm digs into his coat and pulls out the unique weapon. He felt something dig into his chest. There was a loud click as the weapon came into place, the wires flipping back and the single shot of ammo came spinning out. Jericho could feel the pressure around his heart, a tight squeeze as the vector gripped it. The end for one had come.

Celia involuntarily spewed blood through her own mouth, collapsing onto the ground. She crunched her eyes in agony feeling the poison from the iron spiked ball in her gut spread throughout her. She uses this moment to finish her revenge.

With one single movement, Celia takes her vector and ruptures Jericho's heart, tearing away his life with one one final action before the pain of the spiked iron ball overcomes her again. Jericho saw through clouding vision as his chest explodes in a fountain of blood and gore, his body relaxing now. Slowly, he fell backwards as he sees the spray of red fly above him, he feels his chest relaxing and his mind slowly down. He dies as his body hits the ground, coating the grassy soil around him with his own red gore.

Celia pushed herself up, the pain abating but her body still aching. Concentrating she brings out a vector and pulls out that spiked iron ball which is causing her the most suffering. She is blooded and torn, but alive. The other Diclonius race down towards her, cheering her victory of this human who would so dare defy her. She does not listen to their celebration though, her attention is stuck to the dead man in the grey cloak sprawled out across the green earth. She looks into his grey eyes which unfeeling, emotionless and finally empty. Starring into the sky and seeing nothing, his chest ripped open and his heart destroyed.

"It was too much for him even he has his limits." The Voice spoke, breaking the silence of her thoughts. "He missed our vital organs and only hit our gut with that weapon. I'll say it hurt like hell though, I'm glad he missed."

"No…" Celia said to herself. "He didn't miss."

The city was surprisingly silent now. One can hear the sirens wailing in the background, but as for Kamakura city, it desolate. The few people who are alive are now scavenging for food, water and any form of shelter they can in this hell they now live in. The children are crying, the dying are moaning. Yet for what seems to be the first time, the bloodshed has stopped.

"Celia?" No longer able to feel her Diclonius energy, Nana and Lucy arrive at the scene of whatever battle took place. Nana of course was shuddering which had little to do with the cold wind blowing through the dusky day. Even Lucy couldn't help but repress a shiver down her spine as she looked around the destruction. This was the place, for both of them that had caused them so much horrid angst. This is where they had been tortured and beaten and left for all kinds of inhumane experiences. It was the kind of place that neither of them ever wanted to be in.

"I don't see her." Lucy answered to Nana's call eyeing the dead body of Jericho in the corner. She looked around and noticed that while she could see blood and bodies at the entrance to the doorway of the facility, the grey coated man was the only human that was currently dead on the outside. Taking notice, she saw the Tungsten guns and that one contraption which held the poisonous spiked iron ball. These weapons she was familiar with, having been hit by them before. She looked back at the grey coated man, looking into his grey dead eyes.

"What do you think happened here?" Nana asked as she turned her head away. The amount of so much blood was horrible, it would be a while before she could get back to sleep tonight. The answer she received was cold and it made her flinch.

"What do you think happened! Celia killed them! That…girl took the Diclonius with her and had all these people slaughtered!"

"What?" cried Nana in disbelief shaking her head as well. "She would never do that! How could you say something like that!"

"Oh wake up!" Lucy yelled back at her causing the 18 year old girl to step back. "Stop being so naïve Nana! That power we felt over there, it was her and you know it. She killed those soldiers, she killed that man over there! Judging from what happened she was fighting that grey coated man over there and he just happened to get some good blows in on her! She did this!"

"That's a lie!" Nana screamed, tears flowing down her face. Yet despite her contradiction even she couldn't help but believe that Lucy was telling the truth. No matter how much she wanted to deny it, Nana had felt her energy. She had felt Celia's Diclonius energy from over there. No matter how much she wanted to deny every waking moment of it, Nana almost knew that Celia had caused this bloodbath. A person she had once thought friend, who seemed so nice and caring.

"Vectors? They're used to help people."

"Help?" Nana thought to herself. "How is this helping anyone?"

Lucy's vectors were beginning to form around her, the dirt kicking up. "I should have killed her when I first saw her." Lucy growled. "She betrayed us, that piece of…" She was beginning to lose focus until a vector was placed on her shoulder by her pink haired companion.

"Please Lucy-san…" Nana said, giving the formal Japanese suffix which only hinted of just how much despair she felt right now. "Let's find Kouta."

Lucy had to agree with Nana on this now. She hoped Kouta had made it somewhere safe, God knows what would happen if something happened to him. The man she loved more than anything in the entire world. They left…

They left that placed of damnation and hellish thoughts. Institute Z was once again…no more.

The hotel is deserted excepted for the Diclonius standing in the hallways and inside the rooms. It had been turned into something like a fortress with Diclonius patrolling each area. The bodies of the previous inhabitants, attached and non-attached are thrown out the window. One door is guarded with extreme seriousness, The Queen herself lying in the bed there. Eyes closed, and head throbbing with pain, her gut burning and her other bullet wounds shaking. Rest was one thing Celia really wanted after such a day as this one. By the next day, at least by the afternoon her wounds would be healed up enough for her to fight. Diclonius', especially that of The Queen had superior healing abilities though their bodies were just as easily damaged as any other human body. Right now the poison was still leaking throughout her body and more than once she had to throw up in the toilet. She had washed off her blood, puking in the shower as well and the soft pillow behind her head was comfortable.

"What did you mean by "He didn't miss."

She shook her head uncomfortably. She was not in the mood to speak or even think right now. The Voice was acting like it's usual annoying self now. Did it not realize how much pain she was in right now?

"Answer me!"

Sighing, she turned her head on the pillow, her stomach twisted and she forced herself to swallow her own vomit. At this point she couldn't get out of bed and she certainly didn't want that deleterious vomit smell in the room. "That man…Jericho." She thought trying to think of his name. She really didn't feel like talking right now. "Even from far away he was able to aim for my head and heart. He could certainly have shot me in my heart at that range."

"Are you saying he showed you mercy?"

"I don't think so, I think he just wanted to die."

"I could be mistaken Queen, but are you feeling some regret from killing that human? This is most unbecoming of The Queen of the Diclonius, something which I refuse to accept." The Voice replied angrily.

"I didn't kill him because he was human."

"What? Get it through your thick head you stupid girl, those horns were just bone mutations. The bastard even said it himself!"

"I killed him because it was my choice, not because you told me to do it. I hate humans but I will no longer kill them because you told me to do it."

"What are you getting at girl?" The Voice spoke viciously, causing her head to throb where the broken horn was. "What are you doing?" It said alarmed as Celia pulled up a vector and put it near the broken horn. "What in the hell are you doing?"

"I will listen to you no more, I will do things my way." She said with defiance, pressing the fingers of the vector around the base of the shattered horn. "I will make my own choices from now on."

"WHY YOU LITTLE BITCH!" The Voice screams and is cut off completely as with one final break, the shattered horn falls to the beds edge. Blood gushes from the wound, the horn completely ripped off from its root. She can't hear The Voice anymore not a sound not even a scream of pain. She doesn't cry herself even though the pain is maddening. Curling back into the bed, she grabs the pillow beside her and holds it near her chest like a stuffed animal.

It is then that she realizes how alone she truly is, and in that moment of perfect despair she has made her choice. She cries, she lets the tears fall down and plaster the bed sheets with her sadness. She clutched the pillow like a lost child, she cried for her mother and father. She cries now…like a poor child who can't understand the world. She is lost…

Lost in wretchedness.

Lost in dejection.

She closed her tear-filled eyes and rolled herself into a ball and fell asleep, mumbling "mommy" and "daddy" and holding that pillow to her breasts as she cried herself to sleep.

Author's notes: Probably the longest chapter I've ever done and the second to go over the 2,000 word count. I must say this one and the chapter before were quiet emotional to do. I even listened to some sad music while writing these last few chapters. Ignoring of course grammatical errors, I think its probably one of my best chapters yet.

2nd note. There were actually three different scenes involving Celia and Jericho. The first one was scrapped just because it made Jericho go from a BAMF (Bad As Mother Fucker for those who don't know) to basically a Super BAMF. It consisted of him actually getting his heart ripped out and walking up to Celia and getting ready to shoot her before dying suddenly. I felt though that since he's already defying most physics by seeing Vectors and dodging and fighting them this would have been too much.

The second idea was to have Jericho yell at Celia about the whole "Choice" ordeal and then say something along the lines of "I no longer want to be a part of this war." Turn the gun on himself and commit suicide. I debated it but in the end I chose the scene you read in the story. I have no qualm in what I wrote and I'm happy with it.