And that is the end.
I hope you learned something, reading all of these little tidbits of information.
Though humans have rarely shown the capabilities to understand such things, I thought that, for those who yet possess the power of mind to comprehend these concepts, I should try to convey what it is that I have learned.
Everything is going to end, and it won't be what you thought.
The 'lovers' won't share a passionate kiss before the credits role, and no one is going to walk off into the sunset with their heads held high.
Because this is not a love story; this is the beginning of the history of the new world.
I will change it, and anyone that gets in the way of the world I have imagined, will have to die.
The world would have been perfectly quiet were it not for the dripping water coming from the showerhead.
Reeve and Diva had chosen separate rooms for changing, even though they themselves were unsure why. They had bought a bunch of clothes and such the previous day, and Reeve had brought them up to their room as promised. It was almost funny, then, when they walked to the doorway of the bathroom, Diva from within the bathroom itself, and Reeve from the bedroom, and saw that the other was wearing the same outfit they had been wearing the night before. Their bodies hadn't really sweat at all when they were dancing, due to it hardly being taxing on their inhuman-capabilities, but it was still strange that they had both chosen their "dress" outfits.
"Heh, makes it sound like I really did get a dress at that store." He mused in his head.
It was strange, though; when he tried to talk to Diva, he couldn't keep the same carefree expression or mindset. Maybe it was because he'd lost it after leaving the grave, but if not, it would have most certainly have been because she no longer looked happy.
"What is it, Diva?" He asked her, stepping closer.
"I wanted to look nice for today." She explained, perhaps not understanding what he'd been asking about. No… she knew exactly what he'd meant.
"What do you mean?"
"We're going to another 'party' today, aren't we?"
Any attempts at trying to appear happy anymore faded from his expression and demeanor and he found himself not looking directly at her anymore.
"I was going to go to the 'party' myself actually."
"You said that we would always be together."
"I said that I would never abandon you; that doesn't mean we'll be near each other every waking moment."
She looked down at the floor.
"Why can't we just leave? Why can we not just run away somewhere and live together there? Without all of these things weighing us down?"
It was with some sadness that Reeve realized just how much the girl had matured. On the surface it may still be hard or even impossible to see for most people, but she had. And it made him feel even more sadness realizing that it was because of what he'd put her through.
"The answer to your question is simple; because I don't run away from anything."
Her shoulders drooped a bit.
"You could die, please don't be so stubborn."
"What do we have then, Diva?"
She looked up at him, unsure of what he meant.
"Once you get past happiness and love and everything, what are we? How do we distinguish ourselves from the rest of the world? It's our characteristics that mark us as different; they are what make us unique. If I did not refuse to give them up even a bit, then I wouldn't be the person you know. It is because of my 'stubbornness' that I am capable of continuing to be the person that I want to be, and the person that you know."
Diva took a step towards him.
"But you don't have to change who you are just because we leave this behind us!"
"Yes, I would." He remarked, not giving any indication that he was so much as considering the idea, and once more her spirit seemed to fall.
"By running away from my problems whenever they were too undesirable I would be doing nothing but changing the way I am; I do not run, I retreat so that I can win. And I do not escape, I go somewhere else so that I can plan how to get what I want."
It felt almost like a minute before Diva spoke up.
"…not even for me?"
His expression did not change, but he felt his heart quiver.
"Why do we have to run away, Diva? Why should the two of us be forced to change the way we can live our lives, just because the outside world shuns us?"
"But it isn't shunning you!" She spoke, her voice only slightly raised, but with a tone of desperation in it.
"Don't you understand, Reeve? The world isn't shunning you! It's swallowing you up! It's poisoning you!"
He sighed.
"Nothing overwhelms me, Diva; you should know that better than anyone. I never give up. If the world is trying to change me, then I'm just going to have to change the world first."
She swallowed hard, looking as if she was about to cry.
Reeve turned towards the doorway to the hall.
"If you want to come, I won't stop you. But understand that I'm not going to hold back anything just because you're near me; I will change our world. And nothing will get in my way; not the Red Shield, not Maxim Kirill, nor Saya Otonashi. And if she tries to get in my way…" He began while walking towards the doorway.
"I'll 'thank' her for her help so far by being charitable enough to bury her next to Nathan."
Diva wiped away her tears, whether they were real ones or just invisible tears coming from her heart, and followed after him.
"I will never leave you, Reeve; you've never left me."
The wind blew across the wasteland. It was almost as if the scene had come out of a western; dust blew across the sand, over towards an infinite sea of lifeless desert. However, instead of sand there was ash, and instead of an endless desert there were some areas which were mounds of rubble and cinders, while others were long stretches of concrete with debris scattered across them; it was what remained of an annihilated it used to be so pleasant around here.
The stale, cold wind suddenly increased in intensity and caused mounds of ash to be blown about the area as large cargo planes used the damaged roads and streets as impromptu runways. It wasn't something you could usually do unless you were an expert pilot and even then you certainly never wanted to attempt it. Luckily each and every one of these pilots were very good, and were all paid well enough to stop caring about how dangerous it was.
Even harsher noises sounded out as the landing gear of each craft made contact with the roads and squealed as they fought to slow down the transport planes. As they continued to fight for traction, helicopters approached from the opposite direction and went over the planes. The two modes of aerial transportation crisscrossed and as the minutes continued, both landed and ceased movement as the engines and rotor blades died down.
For a few moments it was quiet, and then the bay and side doors opened on the respective crafts, with the passengers of the helicopters exiting first and moving out of them with military precision and speed. They wore helmets, but only lightweight, black combat gear due to the nature of their enemy, and formed up in several rows as soldiers within the crafts themselves swiveled gatling guns within to aim towards the planes whose doors had just finished opening and more soldiers marched out from within their stomachs. Their appearances were even more uniform than those that had jumped down from the helicopters for the most part; they wore virtually no armor and their bare arms were exposed, while the rest of them were clad in light, unrestrictive clothing.
The first force, the human one, held guns which were full automatic and were loaded with crimson-tipped bullets which contained Saya's blood. They held gas grenades which, while explosive, dispersed blood into the air which could go through the skin of chiropterans. The gatling guns had blood in them as well, and even their combat knives had been forged with a mixture of steel and blood.
The chiropteran force was more melee oriented for the most part, with the bulk of the force being made up of corpse corps. Some soldiers were armed with razor sharp blades, while other, aerial units could fire crimson spikes down onto the ranks of the humans, while on-foot mass-produced chevalier were capable of both melee and long-ranged attacks, but lacked aerial capabilities.
Two craft remained unopened until now; one of them was a plane, while the other was a helicopter. And as the doors to both opened in their own ways the key figures for both armies showed themselves and stepped down onto the ground. From the helicopter, seven sets of footsteps set down onto the ruined concrete, while from the plane, only three sets walked down the ramp which had been made by the lowered door and down onto the ground.
Of all the people who left the helicopter and moved to stand in front of the helicopter, six of them held solemn expressions, they were Saya, Haji, Solomon, David, Kai and Luis. Those who had never been encountered before were well-known due to their previous activity in the Red Shield organization, and some who had yet remained in it. The final person bore a grin confident enough to suggest its transition to a smirk, but it was worn in knowledge of the fact that he was capable enough to bear such a thing and not simply be full of hot air. In the end, all that meant was that Maxim Kirill was well-deserving of his leadership position in a military organization, if a bit more ruthless than it required.
The three opposing people who emerged at the head of the chiropteran army were Reeve, Diva, and James. None of them bore a grin, though the reasons for their expressions varied from person to person. Though both groups looked at each other, eye contact was only made between four of them in total, and that was between Reeve and Maxim, and Diva and Saya. The emotions shared between them were very different as well; while Reeve's and Maxim's gazes reflected hatred and admonishment, Diva's and Saya's shared a mutual feeling of regret. Eventually they all blinked, and Maxim spoke.
"This is your 'new world order' boy? I was expecting something bigger."
"Always with the taunts, hm? How tiresome. We're both here; why don't you stop being a coward and fight for a change?"
The man shrugged and pulled his hand out of a pocket.
"As you wish." He spoke before quickly drawing up a pistol and shooting several times at the young chevalier, who blocked with his left hand, causing the normally-lethal blood-tipped bullets to flatten harmlessly and fall to the ground.
The sounds of gunshots had faded off with the strong wind, carrying away the last evidence that Reeve had almost just died.
"Such a snake-like move; it fits your personality well." Reeve spoke, his voice beginning to tremble ever so slightly in anger as he drew his arm down and closed his eyes.
"It's time your venomous hide got skinned you bastard." He spoke, his voice muffled due to it being spoken from the bottom of his throat. Yet it traveled across the large space regardless, and signaled that things were about to escalate.
"You've been allowed to hide in your little facilities long enough… it's time to die…" He opened his eyes which glowed different colors, both of which glared at the human man with a ferocity not even the most animalistic of chiropterans could match. It was at this time that his voice rose into a shout.
"You disgusting piece of filth! This day won't be over until you've been torn into nothing but scraps and fed to the lowliest chiropteran I can find!"
"Saying such things makes you sound weak."
Reeve growled at the response.
"Like I give a damn." He spoke, the monstrous chiropterans from within the cargo planes erupting from their shipping containers and lunging over the rows of mass-produced chevaliers, uttering horrific sounds at the man who was the subject to their king's wrath. As they did, Reeve felt the handles of both his sword and Nathan's.
"I'm going to thrust these straight through that smirking face of yours." He thought. Reeve took a deep breath, and then he gave a roar which no longer sounded anything remotely human. And with that, the eyes of all the other chiropterans present, including the true chevaliers and even the queens, began to glow.
The monstrous forms of the ape- like chiropterans surged forth and the battle had officially begun as the continuous crack of gunfire joined the horrific roars. The huge bodies absorbed hundreds of bullets and began to crystallize before they'd even run a few yards, while amongst them James' transformed body appeared and dozens of bullets ricocheted off of his armored form as he charged with the remaining monstrous chiropterans and the true soldiers of the army began their advance on both the ground and in the sky. As the general of the one army joined the front lines, Solomon, Haji, and Saya all charged out towards their enemies as well, while Kai, David and Luis remained behind the line of soldiers to provide backup fire.
It was all Reeve could do to keep himself still as he watched the huge battle unfold in front of him, and saw the bastard smirking on the other side of it, obviously not feeling even remotely threatened by the lethal force of chiropterans. His entire body trembled in anger, but more specifically his left hand did. A slender one slid its fingers in-between his own and he felt his body relax, if only a little, at Diva's touch. They couldn't smile at each other anymore, not now. But it did calm him down somewhat and allowed the young chevalier to contain his rage as the soldiers continued firing their lethal weapons, joined by the Gatling gun crews from within the helicopters.
The deaths of the dim-witted chiropterans were meaningless; their purpose was to act as a meat shield, absorbing gunfire and not allowing it to harm the more intelligent ones. Cold, perhaps, but then again, in war there was no morality, just what killed the enemy and what did not; all that mattered was ultimate victory, regardless of the losses.
Amongst the sounds of crystallizing chiropteran bodies and the erupting fire from automatic weapons, he saw a soldier draw back and grasp something behind his back.
"Oh?" He thought as the same nameless soldier pulled a grenade from his waist and pulled the pin on it before tossing it in the direction of the battle. Coincidentally, it went over the approaching horde of chiropterans, towards Reeve and Diva. His left hand drew up from Diva's and he brought it back before the monstrous thing thrust forward and struck the grenade on a straight path through the battle and into the skull of the thrower. Even over the sounds of battle, Reeve could hear the distinctive sound of his skull being broken by the impact, only to be blown to pieces by the point blank explosion of the grenade, damaging a number of other soldiers as well.
"An opening!" James' altered voice spoke as he aimed a massive arm forward, signaling for a squadron of melee units to lunge into the gap in defenses so as to cause further disruptions as crimson spikes fired into the ranks of humans. The lethal barrage did just as much if not more damage to them as the volley of gunfire had to the chiropterans. The battle seemed to switch sides as the chiropterans began to dole out some casualties, however, the chiropterans on the other side of the battle had become a factor in the equation as well as the chevaliers fought alongside their chosen queen, who killed one chiropteran after another. Reeve realized that those three were the crucial factors in the battle, as they were the only ones able to fight effectively in close quarters.
As the chiropterans drew closer and closer, the soldiers abandoned their primary weapons and switched over to handguns and knives. It would allow them to be more maneuverable, but their main hope had lie in the initial barrage. Once it came down to a match of physical abilities, blood-infused weapons or not, chiropterans were just plain superior.
Reeve closed his eyes and listened to the sounds of the battle; gunshots, blades slicing into flesh, the crunching of bones, the screams of the dying; they all mixed together and coalesced into what resembled a chaotic symphony. Some might find it horrific, others saddening, still others might find it sickly beautiful. Yet to the leader of the chiropteran army, it bore no significance until he noticed what he had been waiting for. The only sound of any consequence, or rather the lack of the sound, was when the noise of gunshots finally ceased for good. His eyes opened once again as the humans' "instant kill" capabilities ceased and he stepped forward, towards the battle. As he did so, however, a hand grabbed his like before, and he looked back at Diva. The girl looked worried, but his own gaze betrayed no fear.
"I'll be back soon." He told her.
Reeve didn't wait for the girl's acknowledgement or permission as he pulled away from her grip and drew both swords from their sheaths. His jaw tightened and he lunged up into the air above the battle, drawing attention from yet another grenade-equipped soldier through the same manner of explosive at him as before. Reeve bisected the device twice, once with each sword, and traveled past it as the thing detonated behind him, giving the man enough momentum to propel himself away from the cloud of dispersed blood. Before the soldier could so much as ready himself, Reeve had landed and cut him in two. Not a second went by before he'd liberated another man of first a limb, and then his life.
His gaze drew up towards his sole target; he was the reason this entire battle was taking place. The grinning man, who stood amongst the loyal members of Saya's little "troupe" hadn't changed his demeanor since the beginning of the battle, despite the fact that his side was now losing. The arrogant man probably still thought he could win, or likely had some cheap little trick up his sleeve.
"It's of no consequence if you don't survive long enough to implement your little plan."
Reeve thought as he charged the man like a bull towards a newly-painted red barn. As he ran for the murderous bastard, however, something got in his way, and he noticed what looked like mass-produced chevaliers wearing crimson clothing and armed with swords with a red sheen to them get in his way.
"The prototypes he stole before." Reeve acknowledged in his mind, not slowing his pace in the least as he drew closer to Maxim's bodyguard ensemble. Nathan's sword clashed with the one held by his closest opponent, while his own struck the two blades to offset the proxy chevalier's balance enough for a solid kick to send the thing to the ground as two more closed on him, one on either side. He blocked each of their swords with one of his own, and as they put more muscle into forcing his guard down, he fell back and away from them, allowing their blades to continue forward and slash into the other as he reestablished his root on the ground long enough to leap forward again and lop their heads off. As he saw their bodies fall to the ground he felt another enemy coming up behind him, and kicked away the blade that he knew would be coming as he twisted his body around and cut through the proxy at the shoulder and at the waist, downing yet another imitation chevalier.
"You're bound to run out of these things eventually, you weak trash." He thought while turning towards Maxim once again.
His katana impaled itself through the proxy which he'd kicked down before Nathan's blade severed the thing's head from the rest of his body. And as he withdrew his sword from the ground Reeve glared up at the man once more. As before, though, he noticed no change in expression and realized why as he felt two sharp objects heading for him from behind. He turned around in a flash and blocked both with his swords, noting the shining blue color of the blade which Nathan's sword clashed with, and the dull red and black look of the claw which struggled with the other. His attackers, Solomon and Haji, tried to push the man off-balance but he held his own.
"Well, imagine meeting you two here." He spoke, his tone momentarily lacking seriousness as he drew back and then pushed both of them away, his eyes glowing once again.
"We will not let you destroy the world." Haji stated, his tone as flat as always.
"Destroy the world, huh? The ignorance of you 'good guys' never ceases to astonish."
Before he spoke again, Reeve was standing behind the dark-haired man, and spoke sharply.
"I'm not destroying the world; I'm saving it."
His opponent attempted to turn around and deflect his attack, but his swords sliced two paths through the man's chest regardless, and though they did not cut him into pieces like they had the others, the chevalier was weakened enough for Reeve to ram him to the ground, taking him out of the fight long enough to switch his attention over to Solomon.
"So, how've you been? Get very far with Saya yet?" Reeve asked, ignoring both courtesy and sensitivity, due to his lack of caring regarding the situation.
"That was not why I joined her."
"Oh? I thought you always had enough ink in your pen, enough snicker bars in the vending machines, enough toilet paper in the bathrooms…" He spoke, mocking the man.
"You are fully aware that my reason for joining Saya is much deeper than simply being unhappy with the way things were working."
"Regardless, you don't think it'll really matter, do you? A handful of humans pretending to be as strong as chiropterans will never be able to defeat them; they're outclassed. If they can train soldiers to fire guns faster than we can create more chiropterans… well… then we'll just have to kill them while we still have a few left won't we?"
Haji rose once more and the two formed up on Reeve. Once again they leapt towards him as he did the same, and the sharp objects which they fought with clashed in the air, causing sparks to fly as the struggled once more. Reeve leaned in closer, less than a foot away from both of them, and then his arrogant demeanor disappeared.
"Get Saya to one of the planes' holds." He instructed them, causing both chevaliers to become confused.
"There isn't enough time to tell you why; just make sure that anyone important is on a plane within a minute."
He gave them no further instructions as Reeve dropped his swords and stepped past the two chevalier, close-lining them and taking hold of his swords again all in the span of a few seconds. As the loyal men fell to the ground he once more approached Maxim, and drew back his swords to rend the man to pieces. As the blades swung, however, he felt one get struck and depart from his grip, and heard the thing whistling through the air as it spun and spun, flying off behind him as he brought back the one which he still held, the katana. In front of Reeve stood a red-eyed girl with a bloody katana, patches of it colored in what looked like dirtied crystal; it was the blood of the chiropterans which she had slain.
"It would seem you weren't as unstoppable as you might have thought, huh kid?"
Reeve scowled as he observed the girl in front of him and her friends and family which stood on either side of him, reloading their weapons.
"In the end; nothing more than a naïve boy."
The hand which had held Nathan's sword, his right one, trembled.
"You really thought I would put all of my faith into a full-on battle?" He asked the man, seeming to shake his confidence.
"Your mistake was assuming I was just another emo kid that hated the world. The problem with that…" Reeve spoke as the corners of the battlefield suddenly began to blink red lights and loud electronic beeps sounded out into the air.
"Is that you're very, very wrong."
Just as Maxim began to scowl, Reeve felt the corners of his mouth twitch upwards. He turned about and leapt over the battlefield to land back by the plane in which he had arrived.
"In less than two minutes this entire area will be first blown to pieces and then incinerated with napalm. Following that, a nuclear module will be brought here and detonated to clear out the last evidence of this battle and everything that took part in it." He spoke, his voice somehow echoing across the battlefield and terrorizing the few humans who were capable of paying attention to the sound of his voice.
"Enjoy your next… one hundred and thirteen seconds." He spoke, walking up the "ramp" of the plane and telling the pilots to prepare for takeoff again. As he walked up towards the bay of the plane he noticed Reeve's sword impaled in a stack of crates that were held within it. Reeve gazed at the blade, which even now still somehow managed to shine. Reeve withdrew the sword from the crates and placed it against his forehead, feeling the warmth of the metal as the seconds clicked down and he knew Saya's chevaliers were transporting herself and those who were important to her towards the planes of Reeve's company, which had kept their engines on for the entirety of the battle due to his full intent to use them to get away from the explosion.
"Well you terrible bastard…" He spoke, looking over at Maxim as the man rushed to prep a helicopter for takeoff.
"Sayonara!" He shouted, glaring as he threw the blade all across the battlefield and into the cockpit of the helicopter in which Maxim resided, pinning one of the man's hands to the console of the thing and striking down into the engine, removing both his capability to leave the helicopter as well as his ability to start it up.
"It's a distant second to cutting off his limbs, one by one, but I guess it'll have to do." He thought to himself as he walked all the way into the bay of the plane, followed by Diva. As they both walked towards the cabin of the plane, they heard three sets of footsteps land in the very same craft, and turned back towards the source of the sounds. As expected, Saya, Haji and Solomon stood in the large cargo plane with them, all looking like they were still ready to fight. However, as a monstrous form with glowing red eyes appeared behind them and snatched the two chevaliers from the plane, Saya was left to fight alone while James charged the men into another plane to battle them there.
"Good job, soldier." He thought regarding the man's reliability as the bay door began to close. Saya seemed a bit shaken at the knowledge that she now was going to have to fight alone, but nevertheless brought her sword up in front of her to guard as the plane began to move away from the battlefield.
The seconds counted down and he thought of nothing but the bleeding man struggling to free himself from the helicopter, trapped within it by the very blade of the person whom he had trapped in death within this war to begin with. It wasn't suitably graphic, or painful, but it was certainly appropriate.
Saya stood, maintaining her balance as both Reeve and Diva did theirs while the plane began to travel up into the air. It started to carry them away from the battle and the rest of its participants as Reeve's watch beeped a few times and finally was met with the sounds of an enormous explosion. The turbulence from it shook the plane, causing Saya to stumble somewhat, as the land below and behind them was wracked with damage, soon to be first burned and then obliterated completely by the incoming bombers.
The girl with the glowing red eyes wielding her katana regained her balance and faced off with the king and queen of the new world as their "carriage" carried them off into the sky.
