Very disappointed! I NEED reviews for survival! Okay, maybe not really, but I'd like them. I put out another poem called Walking Over the Dead and it's about Zigguraut Tower. In the past three chapters I put one more gap between paragraphs that phased into a different setting. I think from this chapter on I might put a symbol or something between the gaps to cause less confusion. Anyway . . .

ONWARDS!

Metropolis: Fallen Light

Chapter 4. Fallen Superiority

Kenna had departed from Halo a few hours ago, but now he felt kind of guilty.

Why do I always have to make her mad? he thought, walking along the dirty, grimy sidewalks of Back-Alley VII.

"It's that damn Marduk," he muttered under his breath. "She's just always thinking about him, what about me, Karen, and Fern and the boys, huh?" He looked ahead from staring at the sidewalk. People were crowding inside of little pubs and resting spots and around their doors. Kenna felt . . . Alone in Back-Alley . . . Alone without company . . . Alone without her.

He shook his head roughly.

"Nah . . . It's over. What am I thinking? This is just business."

He stopped in front of a near-empty bar and looked over at the dark doorway, the doors held open by a block of wood. He started walking through those dark and open doors and saw very few people there. The bartender, making squeaking noises as he wiped the glasses dry, and then a few people sitting in booths smoking, sleeping, or reading the newspaper.

Kenna glanced around and then timidly and cautiously, as though one of the people were to lash out at him, and started toward the bar. He reached into his pocket, brought out a couple of bills; he threw them on the bar and looked at the tender.

"Half-glass beer, original, doesn't matter what brand." The tender nodded, set the cup upside down on the end of the bar, and set to making the drink. Kenna had made sure he sat to where his back was away from the door, but so he was away from those people- he sat on the far left bend of the bar.

When the tender emerged with his drink about two minutes later, Kenna stared at it and took a couple of gulps.

The bartender went back to wiping glasses.

It became kind of peaceful on the outside, but inside Kenna's mind nothing was peaceful. Why did he have this bad feeling whenever the Marduk was around Halo? Was it because he was a Marduk and they were political enemies? Or was it just jealousy . . . over . . . Kenna shook his head again, this time hard enough to attract the attention of the tender.

"Somethin' wrong?" he said gruffly, as if daring Kenna to say the beer was bad.

"N- no," Kenna said, almost timidly. His eyes slid away from the bartender to look out the large glass window. The streets were far more empty than any part of Back-Alley had ever been, that's for sure. This was saying something, as a vast majority of Metropolitan-s lived in the many sections of Back-Alley.

Kenna finished off the last of his beer and hopped of the barstool and walked out the door, in a more relaxed manner.

Back-Alley sections IV, V, VI, and VII were the only sections of twelve Back-Alleys that had a non-domed covering, meaning they were exposed to the sky. The only thing Kenna didn't like was he was so used to being able to rely on the sun instead of artificial lighting; it annoyed him how much the roofs were cramped to the point hardly any light could leak through.

Kenna didn't spend much time worrying about this, though, as he came to the main Upper-city Metropolis. Ahead and around the corner he heard voices.

"But what's the real point of making the robots then destroying them? It's like a never-ending battle with no solution."

"Well . . . You've got to admit, it kind of fits in with Metropolis."

Unfortunately, Kenna recognized them.

"But, Rock, it's like a loop. You create them, they do humans' jobs, humans hate them for it, humans order you to destroy them, you order humans to create more, and so on and on forever! Where does it stop?"

"When they're all gone?"

It sounded more like a question than an official answer. Halo laughed.

"Weren't you listening to a word I said?"

Kenna peeked around the corner and saw Rock's back turned toward him. Halo must have been standing in front of him. He narrowed his eyes to just about seemingly shut. Just seeing Rock there made some deep-down feelings boil up in Kenna: jealousy for Halo, anger for his thoughts of killing the mere robots, and hatred for being anti-robotical . . . Kenna was, after all, at least part robot.

He sped around the corner and prepared himself for the jump. Rock turned at the last second and was belted backwards, full force, in the stomach. They smashed through empty crates and crates full of fruits and vegetables. Rock tried pushing Kenna off, but for some reason he was way too strong. They rolled out into the street, where people moved, staring, out of their way. They struggled against each other, rolling further down, back again, and then rolling some more.

Halo's pleas to Kenna to stop and for Rock to get off were only faintly heard by the fierce man and the furious boy.

Finally Rock got Kenna off guard and was able to stand up, wet from the rain and little bit of snow left on the ground, and pointed his gun at Kenna, who was panting.

"Rock, no!" Halo ran to Rock and put a hand on his hand to lower his gun. "Don't." Rock had a split lip and a shallow cut under his left eye. Kenna had thrown off his coat and Rock noticed how both arms were metal- Kenna was part robot.

"Explains how you held on so tight," Rock said, still rather angry. He put the gun back in his holster. "Not fair to cheat." He gave a shallow yet brutal-looking smirk. Both Kenna and Halo knew what that little smirk meant; Rock was off to tell Duke Red how a local group of stir-ups wanted enslaved robots freed because one was part robot.

"You wouldn't dare," Kenna hissed.

"You're right, I'm not. That would be cheating, wouldn't it?"

"Is that all this is to you, a game!?"

"No. It's much more than that . . . It's a game, all right . . . A game of war." Rock gave his hollow, self-amused laugh and turned to begin walking off, then he noticed Halo. Her eyes were brimming with tears, shame, and guilt.

Tears, shame, and guilt . . . All in two profound emeralds . . .

Rock chuckled and looked away from her, then began to walk toward the gateway. Few people still stared, yet most had gone away to do whatever business they had to tend to.

*~*~*

"You were rather childish."

"ITAI!"

"Well, you shoudn't have done it! Just because you have stronger . . . er . . . arms than he does, doesn't mean he can't beat you in a fight."

"I KNOW THAT!"

"Quit yelling, you baby. All he did was scrape you against dried stone."

Halo was rather firmly applying pressure to Kenna's badly scraped back with a cloth soaked in alcohol.

"You don't have to push so hard."

"Oh, be quiet!"

"Well, you don't!"

Halo picked up the thin, empty tin pan she had used to carry cloths and whacked him over the head with it. He flinched and jerked slightly, making her drag the cloth over his scrapes.

"NOW SHUT UP!"

"What's going on?"

Karen emerged in the doorway.

"Your stupid brother is being a baby."

"Am not."

"Are too."

"Ah, you're doing it again!"

"Am not."

"Are too!"

Kenna was about to retort [again] but Halo closed her eyes.

"Drop it. I'm not going to argue, bec-" She stopped, not wanting to cause [another] argument because she had said she knew she was right.

"Well, what happened to him?" Karen said with a laugh.

"He got caught in- or rather caused- a scuffle with Rock, the head Marduk."

"Ohh. Kenna!"

"That's not the bad part. He saw me . . . Now he'll go tell Duke Red-" Kenna was cut off as Halo dropped the pan and the cloths.

"No he won't!"

"How would you know?"

"Rock said he wouldn't. He's not one to lie."

"And again, how would you know?"

"How would you not?"

This time it was Kenna who decided to drop the subject. Halo finished wrapping the bandages around his chest to cover that one rather large area before another word was said.

"Halo . . . Why do you like Rock?"

*~*~*

"Rock! What on earth-?"

Rock slammed the front manor door as he walked through it. Till stared in amazement and shock as he un-buckled his holster and threw it down, then began to march up the stairs; he did all this without stopping.

When he finally came to his room, he opened the door and slammed it as though infuriated at something, but when he threw himself face-first into his pillow, there was a very decipherable smirk on his face, one that might suggest he had some kind of devious plan twisting and turning through his mind.

*~*~*

With tired eyes she stared at the far wall. Tired eyes, emeralds pooling in her tired face, the left one surrounded by a bruise. Tired eyes that leaked silent tears down her cheek or across her chin and onto the off-white pillow.

After a moment she stood and walked silently to the window. Leaning against the frame she stared off into the distant light of another building. She brought her fingers up to the left side of her face and gently brushed the purple-blue marking[s] with her fingers.

Kenna had hit her.

Halo tried to think back to the heated conversation between them. It had started off okay, but it had been pushed a little too far.

*Flashback . . . *

"Halo . . . Why do you like Rock?"

Halo's eyes widened in shock and surprise.

"Why are you asking me? What's it to you?"

"I just wanna know."

Halo lowered her eyes to the cloth she still held in her hands. Why was Kenna asking her this? It wasn't that she liked Rock, she just felt comfortable around him . . .

Or is that just what I think? she thought to herself.

"I'm just asking a simple question."

"I'm just asking why you really care? Are you jealous or something?"

"I just don't think he's safe to be around, that's all."

"You picked the fight with him! That doesn't make you any better!"

Halo looked at him. He was lying, it was written plainly all over him.

"You don't like him because he's a Marduk, right? You're afraid something will happen to you if I'm around him too much . . . Afraid we'll get to close and get us all for his government, right? Kenna, it's not like that. We're just friends. And if you're jealous you should just say so! No one's gonna care."

Halo looked over at Karen, who shrugged and left the room.

"That's not it at all!"

"Don't argue with me! I know you too well, Kenna."

"You don't know shit about me!"

Halo was taken aback by his retort. This was only partly true, though. Halo had known him a long time and had dated him long enough to know plenty about his greedy side.

"I don't want you hanging around that damned Marduk! It's too dangerous!"

"How's it dangerous, huh? He won't shoot a human, humans aren't his problem! He's only an anti-robot. That's part of his government!"

"He's not against normal people, but us he'll kill, I assure you!"

"But how can you know?"

"Haven't you listened to ANYTHING?!" Kenna was enraged and Halo was beginning to cower in his wake. He advanced on her, still yelling. "We support robots, he doesn't! If it keeps from running a coup or empowering our form of government and carrying more supporters, he will come after us, him and his whole damned Marduk army!"

"You just-"

That's when he did it. Kenna brought the back of his left hand across the left side of her face. He fell to her knees, looking up at him with one hand clasped over her cheek and eye. He stared at her menacingly and stormed into the next room, slamming the door behind him.

*End flashback . . .*

The door opened behind her but Halo didn't have to turn to know who it was. She flinched slightly when he closed the door. To tell the truth, she was slightly afraid of being in the same room with him alone.

She felt him wrap his arms around her waist and she tensed at his very touch, trying to pull away from him.

"Come on, don't be like that," he said seductively in her ear. "You know I didn't mean to-"

"Yes you did. Stupid bastard, just go away."

He tightened his grip on her. If only she could turn around and slap him.

"What do you want?"

"To say I'm sorry."

"But you're NOT sorry, Kenna. You're not sorry."

"Can you forgive me?"

"No. I won't, I refuse. I won't accept your pathetic apology either." If only she could go and see Rock . . .

"Come on, Halo." He increased his grip further and nuzzled into her hair. He pulled her into him and she tried again to pull away, but he was too powerful. "Come on . . ."

There goes that damn seductive voice again. Halo couldn't resist him. He was pulling her with him . . . Back onto the bed. He turned her around and ground his mouth against his, forcing hers open. She tried to wrench herself away from his tight grasp, but to no avail.

"Let go of me," she said weakly. Then, murmuring, "Rock . . ."

*~*~*

The snow was completely gone when Rock stepped into the park for a rest. He walked weakly to sit on the bench. Or at least he would have, if someone wasn't already occupying it.

He walked over to her and peered down at her, her eyes closed.

"Halo?" he said. She slowly opened her eyes and looked up at him, her eyes seemingly full of sorrow.

"Rock . . . I've been wondering if you would come around here or not."

"You mean you've been waiting for me?"

Halo nodded.

"How long for?"

"Two hours . . . Maybe. I lost track."

Rock's face seemed sort of concerned for her, seeing the bruise by her left eye and one that seemed freshly formed by her mouth.

"What happened to you?" Rock kneeled down and put a hand to her larger bruise.

"Oh, that? I . . . um . . . I fell. I tripped a step coming down from the tower yesterday."

Rock didn't believe her but didn't say anything.

"What are you doing around here?" Rock asked, standing to sit next to her.

"I . . . Rock, I wanted to get away . . . From him."

"Him? You mean Kenna."

Halo nodded again and stared up at the clear sky. Despite the plan Rock had so clearly devised inside his mind, he couldn't help but feel genuine concern for his friend.

"I know he hit you. It's written all over you that he did it. But that's not all that's happened. Tell me. Tell me, Halo." His eyes were stern, full of concern and worry.

"Rock . . ." She looked at him with those shady green eyes that were now brimming with a fresh flow of tears. "Hold me."

Author's Notes: Okay, there it is. Chapter 4. Fast, I know. ^.^ I'm on to chapter 5 now, Fallen Metropolis, but first I must say . . . Please review, not because I just want you to, but because I want you to tell me how my own character (Halo) is moving along in/out of her Mary-Sue stage . . . Pretty please?