Denial, Anger, and details
Chapter 5
Jack repeats the conversation on his head over and over again until he had analyzed every detail, every word Chase had said, and he found the answer in plain view.
He remembered what Chase asked him. The impossible request didn't seem to make any more sense now than it did then.
'I need you to kill me.' Chase had said it
so easily like he was talking about the weather.
'If you were to try to kill me, Spicer. How would you?'
The human had smiled when his great brain had found the answer like it wasn't obvious.
'I wouldn't.'
He couldn't kill Chase Young. And not only because of how he feels about the warlord.
No, there were more prominent faults to take care of, and Chase pointed them to Jack the same day he made his unfeasible request.
The three most significant obstacles the young man had to take care of if he wanted his plan to had a chance were; 1, to weaken Chase Young. 2, to get rid of all allies. And 3, to find someone to do his dirty work.
Jack made a plan, and then Jack made jack.
So, Jack sent his clone to die, and consequently seemingly leave the game.
Then he would play the game with the advance of anonymity.
Now he has 25 hours to kill Chase Young.
The moment the clone, jack, die his plan was set in motion.
Clay tried to close the eyes of the still warm body when Chase stopped him. The earth monk had held the body tighter chasing the last essences of the previous genius. He wanted to say something, something to allow all the anger and sadness he felt to be exposed. But Chase was gone with the corpse before he could find the words.
Omi cried loudly, and Kimiko and Raimundo tried to comfort him.
Wuya was lost looking into a puddle of blood, her dress stained and ripped.
After years of fighting against the Heylin, Clay felt like it was the first time he had seen evil.
Three hours and twenty-five minutes after the death of jack spicer.
The corpse didn't move, didn't blink, and it didn't bleed anymore.
But Chase still sat patiently waiting. He waits for something that wasn't coming.
The warlord could not yet believe that jack was death and that he wore his dried blood on his hands.
The man looks at his right hand dirtied by his fanboy's blood, and he feels like his hand wasn't his. Like his hand would never kill jack spicer.
A tiger enters the room.
She is the physician who would prepare the body for the funeral.
She changes to her human form and says nothing: no words of comfort or curses of hate. She only offers silent, and Chase soon becomes wary of her presence. It is evident that he needs more time looking at what he has done, to confront the facts. Years and years of outliving people had taught him to never sink into denial, and he can't leave until he has accepted that jack spicer is dead.
jack won't ever talk again. Everything, every idea that formed once or would have been formed is lost.
What one feels after denial?
The death of mortals is something Chase has grown used to. He saw death as an inconvenience; people leaving a party too early without saying goodbye; nothing but a rude departure.
jack expended his last minutes crying. Those tears were like freckles, always present on the young man's face. jack expended his last minutes fighting for air and crying.
It has been centuries since death disturbs Chase like that.
The woman says nothing, her breathing slow and constant, and her standing stoic, she won't move or leave -not at least that she is ordered to, and Chase doesn't want to talk.
The corpse still had his eyes open, and Chase searches for an inch of everything he always found in Spicer's eyes. But those feelings are gone and dead, like the man lying on the bed.
jack died crying, gasping for air, and looking at Chase. His pupils fully blown trying to take all the light the world has to offer, and all that jack wanted it was to look at Chase.
Chase stands, and without looking at the woman, he leaves the room.
Jack died looking at him.
Three more large cats wait to enter the room.
One of the warriors looks down and tries to shield his nose from the smell.
"That's disrespectful," A tiger says as he can almost feel phantom fingers caressing his fur.
"I'm sorry...but does it normally smells…" A warrior tries to ask the others, but the silent, angry mourning dare him to keep talking.
He is the only one that notices the subtle smell; it's almost masked by the essence of death.
As the body decomposes rapidly, a virus that the clone had been carrying becomes active, and the four people in the room will become the first vectors to spread it like a plague.
Five hours after Chase Young killed jack spicer.
Wuya listens carefully to the message. She asked to replay the video, and the robots obey.
The Witch sits on a comfortable chair while doc-bots take care of her injuries. Food had been brought to her, but she is not eating.
"I'm dead, and I would like to think that I'm okay with it. Like I lasted a good time. But it doesn't matter how did I die; I'm not okay with it." The jack on the video explains again.
"I'm sure I wanted to live, but I guess that part is in the past… but I'll still get my revenge. I had made personalized plans for my possible killer or killers. Just tell me who did it!" The young man smiles.
The woman considers playing the message again. Instead, she turns to one of the robots.
"Get me a drink." The robot leaves and Wuya repeat her command. "Again."
"I'm dead, and I would like to think that I'm okay it with it. Like I lasted it a good time. But doesn't matter how did I die, I'm not okay with it." The jack on the video explains again.
The robot brings a tall glass of orange soda.
And Wuya glares at it.
"Do you think I'm a kid?!"
"I'm sure I wanted to live, but I guess that part is in the past… but I'll still get my revenge. I had made a personalized plan for my possible killer or killers. Just tell me who did it!" The young man smiles.
The witch looks at the screen, and the robot takes advantage of her distraction to run and find another drink.
Wuya looks at the frozen picture.
'Chase Young'
Wuya can't bring herself to answer the question.
She knows that this jack, the one talking on the screen is a recording. She shouldn't care for him. But she does.
The witch for first time tries to save her pupil from pain.
To care for him now is far more useless than ever.
jack doesn't have any talent for magic.
jack didn't have any talent for magic.
He is. He was a mechanic.
He is a great engineer.
Wuya feels her eyes burn. It makes her laugh. She didn't know she could still cry.
He was a genius.
And he was alive.
Not anymore.
Like her grieve had reached a new threshold the witch holds her chest as it might break.
Like it could be easily broken by claws.
"Chase Young" Wuya whispers but the machine can't hear her with her broken voice.
jack was alive just today.
Wuya was going to betray him but not kill him. Jack would have forgiven her or forget about it; it should have been okay.
She didn't shoot.
jack stood in front of her, and all her instincts scream at her to shoot, to defend herself, to fight back to shoot, to shoot. But Wuya didn't. She made sure she didn't shoot.
Yet, jack's blood started pouring.
"Chase Young killed you jack. Carved open your stomach!"
The robot returns with a small glass of whiskey, and the bottle on the side.
"I didn't want him to do it." A new video start. "I didn't want anyone to do it! But I really didn't want to die at his hands… I hope it was worth it."
"Fuck him!" Wuya says into the glass and stops to look at the screen. That jack looks so alive. "And fuck you! Why did you have to fight? Why did you trust him!"
Wuya lifts her glass and drinks the liquid that burns her throat. It feels good; the burn realizes her pain just a little.
"Don't get drunk Wuya!" The video asks her, and Wuya almost spits the rest of her drink.
"I don't like you when you are drunk. And we, sorry, you don't have much time to put my plan into action." The albino smiles and moves excited as the camera moves with him to show blueprints.
Wuya cleans her face and puts her glass down.
She can avenge jack.
She can't kill Chase, but she can make him suffer.
"There are twenty hours left!"
A paper copy is brought to Wuya, who looks over the thick binder.
"When did you sit down and thought this through?" The witch asks as she starts reading, but the screen doesn't answer. The woman guesses that wasn't a pre-recorded question.
The more she reads, the more surprise she becomes, Jack's plan has a chance, but it also has many mistakes and unaccounted variables.
"You are gonna get me kill!" The witch says as she looks over the general details the so-called genius overlooked.
"Maybe, but you'll come back." The man on the screen answers.
"So, you did add some extra phrases." The woman says and tries to think of something to say or ask. But she keeps her mouth shut instead, not ready to had a make-believe conversation with a computer.
"Master." A Wu-bot calls as he offers her a black dress. It was pretty, the fabric cover with tiny gems that shine with the light, the tail long, the sharp cut, a little too tight for mourning, and cleavage pass the line of inappropriate for a funeral.
"You choose it, not me!" Wuya says as she takes the dress.
"Oh, you'll love that dress. Is pretty, hot and classy, and somehow you'll make it trashy!" The video answers and Wuya closes her eyes to not look at the screen and pretend for a moment that Jack is speaking to her in person.
But there is no one alive in the room beside her. And someone has to pay for that.
She prepares to undress, not caring for the machines.
A Wu-bot explains that the dress and fur would be protection from an attack.
It repeats the plan to her, especially the part that depends on her alone.
"Now is a good time to send the messenger." A robot says as it helps its new master to hide small weapons on her persona.
"The monks would never get the message, Hannibal would interfere before it can reach the monks. And I don't want him crashing the funeral." Wuya says, but the robots were insistence. She would have overruled it, but she didn't want to alter Jack's plan -it was his very last request.
"Fine just don't fail or get capture!" The witch finally allows the message to be sent.
The robots explain the plan over and over again, every so often the recording of Jack would say something and Wuya would turn to make sure that it had been the computer, not the albino.
To robots kept repeating the plan.
"It's time!" Jack says, and Wuya turns to look at him, he smiles happily from the screen. She looks at the little clock on the corner of the screen -it was a countdown; twelve hours and thirty-two minutes and counting.
She hasn't felt the time.
Twelve hours after the clone has died, and three hours after the first warrior has fallen sick.
No one had come to the training grounds, and Chase had broken every dummy he owns. Part of him wanted to understand that his warriors were ...affected by jack's death, but he only wanted to ignore what had happened only a little longer.
"Master." A voice called Chase, and it was like someone had ripped his chest open.
"Noah." Chase tastes the name like he had just learned it's true meaning.
"Master. A second warrior has fallen sick, and many are showing sudden health complains…" The tiger says.
"You were supposed to watch him." Chase accuses, and the animal looks at the floor, guilt pouring from him like he personally carved jack's heart out, but he didn't.
"I was supposed to watch him." The tiger agrees and sees his master move closer.
"You were supposed to watch him! Because Jack always finds himself in danger. So I ordered you to watch him!" Chase says as anger grows within him until he doesn't longer feel guilty.
"I was supposed to watch him. But master promised to Spicer no danger would come." Noah knew he spoke out of turn, and he wasn't surprised when his Master attacked him.
Chase moves forward, and a clawed fist hits the floor breaking the tile, he turns and kicks his warrior as he places the blame on the cat.
The warrior might have die if Chase was attacking with intent, but the man was attacking without a goal. He didn't know what would he gain from this fight, but he craved destruction that he could control. Noah concentrates on dodging all the attacks and moves out of the training room. Chase follows leaving a path of destruction behind him. The man catches the animal and pins him down under his foot, but Chase isn't sure what to say or do.
Noah was Jack's favorite, killing him won't make anything better.
Chase looks at the warrior trying to decide what to do when he feels an intruder.
"Wuya…" Chase's anger finds a new target, and he steps over the warrior on the floor. He whispers a spell and his clothes and armor readjust before he can face the witch, he doesn't stop when he hears the mechanical 'humm' that accompanied her.
The witch stands tall, and without guilt, she wears a flashy black dress and a small black fur over her shoulders, her feet are bare like usual, but bracelets adorned her ankles. Over one hundred robots silently float behind her.
"...you are wearing your armor?" The witch asks, and Chase ignores her raspy voice and puffy eyes. Because all the pretty jewels and the scandalous dress did not distract Chase from the fact that Wuya cried her eyes dry.
Chase doesn't answer, and the witch steps forward, the guards growl at her as warnings to stay in place.
"I came for ...something." Wuya says and Chase glares at her, but she continues before she can be stopped by the man "To take to Jack's mother. Someone has to tell her, is what Jack…. It should be easier to tell her what has happened if she can have something."
A new wave of emotions that Chase believed was death within rip through his chest, but any emotion is soon masked with anger.
"That bitch? Wait a few months to see how long it takes her to notice." Chase says and ignores the witch's glare.
"Take me to him!" The witch commands and the room goes silent. Any other occasion the warlord would have laughed at the witch delusions of powers, for her to think that she can command anything from him, but Chase stays silence.
"You took him from me," Wuya whispers like if she were to say those words louder, she might break.
Chase closes his eyes and nods, he turns and hears the bare feet of the witch follow him.
Wuya follows in silence surprise that Chase had not only allow her inside his palace without searching her for weapons but wouldn't leave any further orders of how to deal with the robots. The Heylin witch breaths deeply and tries to keep emotions out of her face; Jack was right -Chase is distracted by the death of the fanboy. Wuya was worried when the plan asked her to use an emotional angle to enter the palace and keep Chase misled while the robots attack… She was surprised that the plan had worked so far but fearful that their luck would soon run out.
"Here." Chase stops in front of a room, a guest room -Wuya had used it before, and she can't help but feel sick of the idea that a corpse is laying on the bed.
They open the door and the smell escapes from the room, like trying to hurry to cover the whole palace with the unique essence of death.
The corpse lays on the bed, under new bedcover and dress with new cloths; black with red details, something Jack would approve.
Wuya repeats the plan on her mind, she must keep Chase distract it for 15 minutes, she knows she can, but she had somehow forgotten that she could have to share the room with the body of her former friend. Her very last friend.
"He almost looks handsome…" The witch says without thinking.
"He looks awful," Chase says with a small smile like he can think how would Jack react to his words. "I always thought he looked like the morning death, but it wasn't until recently that I notice how much life are -were in his eyes," Chase says and lets the witch stare at him; he knows he had never honestly expressed a liking towards Spicer. But the boy followed him and visited him, and before Chase could stop him, the warlord had become accustomed to his weekly visits. And he would wait without meaning to for Jack to come and talk of things Chase might have never consider, and talk of his thoughts -his thoughts were like puzzle pieces that the boy always struggle to put together until he could form an idea.
"He had so much life inside of him; it annoyed me," Wuya says, and she knows that Chase would share the feeling.
"He had so much to say all the time. I once let him talk to see when would he grow tired. I don't know the answer -and never will, since I fell asleep before he was done talking." Chase continues as he remembers when he asked Jack to explained how did satellites work.
"I tried that too! But I had to hit him after two hours. I just couldn't do it!" Wuya says as she tries to remember what was Jack talking about, Robots or space or Chase but she can't remember.
"I want him back." Chase says, and he surprises himself. The small sentence holds so much he didn't want to accept. He had grieved so many people; he knows how painful it can be to miss someone.
But it feels like he has never correctly considered it or maybe he forgot. Perhaps he misunderstood how much it hurt. Because it hasn't been a day and Chase would offer the witch anything she asks just to talk to jack for the rest of the day.
But jack was gone…
The witch looks away from the corpse to look at the warlord, and for the first time, she sees Chase Young hurt by something beyond his control.
She stays silent.
The plan didn't foresee this or how tenting it sounds.
Wuya moves closer to the corpse and after whispering some words to asked permission she places one hand over the covered wounded and the other hand in the corpse's head. She searches for a soul, but the body is cold and empty.
Slowly she turns to tell Chase what she knows he is at least to some degree is aware of.
The door opens at brutally, and lioness roars words Wuya can't understand, but she is sure of their meaning. So she runs before the message can be delivered. She is barely able to jump out of the room and run a few feets away when she feels a gloved hand on her forearm.
"Now! Now is when you decided to attack!" Chase says as he readies to kill the witch just like he should have killed her in the showdown instead of spicer.
Everything is white noise, and Chase can't feel his anger burnt him.
"Is called revenge!" The witch hisses. Chase runs one step behind and a hoard of Jack-bots attack.
"Is what he wanted it!" Wuya says before activating her helipad which was hidden with the fur over her shoulders and backs away.
Wuya barely escapes Chase's grip with a broken ulna, but she pays little attention to her wound as she hurries to put distance between her and Chase.
The warlord calls to his army, but only a few warriors come; less than twenty and they all look like they had already been beaten.
Wuya leaves the palace followed by the robots that were not destroyed and Chase aiming for the witch's head.
Once outside Wuya smiles, there are not cats waiting -Jack had held his word, and the robots had somehow taken out the immortal warriors. And there was a fleet of robots, more than she thought Jack owned, waiting midair for orders from their new master.
"Attack stupid pieces of cheap metal!" Wuya screams, and she sees projectiles flying towards Chase.
The robots didn't longer bother to attack the cats, the virus that their former Master introduced had taken care of most of them, letting them concentrated on Chase.
The weapons had a much higher quality than Jack's usuals attacks, but they shouldn't be able to hurt Chase. The damage they cause was pretty small, but there was enough ammunition to worry the dragon.
Chase noticed the lack of energy from his warrior. He started feeling how most of his warriors were 'pulling' power from their master to stay alive. Chase keeps his immortal warriors alive for eternity by tying their life to his, so technically they shared a small portion of Chase life. It had never affected the warlord, even when he needs to use his energy to heal wounded warriors but he had never had to heal all of them at the same time.
"Tired?" The witch asks from a safe distance floating behind her fleet, a robot is taking care of her wound, and she orders and moves her minions to attack Chase.
"When I killed you, I'll make sure you stay dead!" Chase says and jumps over one of the machines; he was surprised when the rest of the robots move away to not allow him to use them as a stair to reach the witch. The man transforms into his dragon form and uses the element of the wind to reach Wuya.
The witch flies away and keeps out of distance.
The more Chase uses magic, the more tire he grows and regardless of how much magic he lets his warriors take none seem to get better.
"Fight me you broken shit!" Chase says, and he can imagine Jack saying does words, he spent a lot of time with Jack.
The warlord feels breathless and tired, every memory of Spicer weights him, and now he can feel disease contaminating his power.
"No thank you!" Wuya says from afar.
And then Chase noticed. It wasn't Wuya's fighting style; it was Jack's.
He remembers the witch saying that she was avenging Spicer, and Chase assumed that the plan -the robots, the bio-attacks, and the air fleet were all Spicer's plan. But the witch actively changing her fighting style.
Only Jack truly knew how much that would confused Chase, who has study everyone's fighting styles and strategies.
"Do what you want," Chase says and jumps towards the ground. At the right moment, since he can feel himself grow dizzy.
"You are not fun~," The witch says, but she starts to panic when she sees Chase walk away.
The warlord knows how to destroy a plan aim for specific responses, and that is by becoming unresponsive -apathetic.
Wuya doesn't stand a chance against him hand to hand. The fleet won't do well inside Chase's palace since they would lose the advance of being out of reach, and the cats won't get weaker trying to fight if Chase orders them to rest.
The whole plan was entirely center on Chase's making specific choices that would weaken him, and if he doesn't make those choices, then the plan is utterly useless.
"Wow, the great Chase Young running from a fight!" Wuya calls but Chase ignores her.
"What would Jack had said if he could see you behaving like a coward!" Wuya screams, but Chase ignores her.
'He would have known that this is resistance, not defeat.' Chase thinks for a moment. Jack knew him well, to had made a plan so well put that Chase almost fell for it.
The man wishes he could tell Jack that he was impressed. And then taunt him with all the details Jack missed. Chase wishes he could go to his throne room and find Jack sitting on the steps like a loyal dog. Or go to bed and wait there until noon once Jack has returned with news and diagrams of his latest invention.
It was odd; to cherish and regret every second spend with a bright mortal.
Chase knows that Wuya would have to change the plan, and she -being Wuya, she'll choose a direct attack, and fail.
Jack would laugh at her.
She'll plan something with big explosions and large minions that are too easy to defeat.
The warlord walks inside his palace to find robots moving around. Each of them had a large cross on their chest; doc-bots. Chase knows they don't have fighting capabilities and ignores them.
The man moves to his closer warrior and touches her side. She irradiates warm through her thick fur, her eyes are closed, and she doesn't seem aware that her master is next to her. The fever seems to be present in most of the cats.
"Are you suppose to fix this?" Chase asks one of the doc-bots, but the metal creature only runs away.
"Mmm," Chase stands and tries to understand Jack's plan and the presence of doc-bots. Jack knew Chase would win, and he had prepared the robots to help the cats after the fight was over. It seems like a possible option -Jack liked the cats and most likely would feel guilty of putting them through so much pain.
Or maybe Jack thought he would be alive but hurt in this scenery, and the doc-bots are here to find their master and save him.
Chase caresses the side of the lioness. It is too late if they came to save their master -he had been dead for almost a whole day. And Chase misses him.
Chase stands and moves towards a robot, the machine tries to run but is easily corner. If Chase is right then, they must hold the antidote. His claws open the robot's chest, and the noise the circuits made when are rip apart sounds a lot like whining. It makes him think of Spicer.
The warlord wonders for a moment how would he ever hear whining and not think of Spicer.
Or crying.
Or hear the oddest news, the newest machines, stupid machinery, stupid ideas, ideas that will change the world, or the world that will forget Jack.
The robot continues to 'cry.'
There are glass tubes with a pinkish transparent liquid inside, one of them is the hand of the robot that looks like an injection made into a gun. Chase forces the trigger and sees the pink liquid out of the needle. He nods and forces the robot next to the lioness, the warrior whines at the needle performing her flesh and the dense liquid push through her shoulder. The liquid burns her, but in only a few minutes she feels better.
Chase waits until his warrior wakes up before moving to the next warrior. The needle falls automatically, and a new one takes its place. Chase repeats the process five times before he hears Wuya entering the palace.
"Melisa," Chase calls a puna, the second warrior to recover but the one seems to be doing the best. She chances forms to human and tries to ignore the blunt pain across her body. She stands and takes the robot from her master and continues what his task.
Chase stands and leaves his warriors behind.
He is still weak, but the witch doesn't bother him, her only chance against him was the plan that Jack had made and the fact that it took Chase by surprise. Now she had lost both of her advances. If she was smart enough, then she might leave and think of a real strategy.
Killing her shouldn't be hard, but for some reason, Chase is not walking towards her. He knows where she is, but he is not going to meet her.
Chase stops in front of his guest room, the one where the corpse is.
He hears movement and hurries to open the door, only to find more robots cleaning the room and bagging the body.
"What do you think you are doing?" Chase asks, but he attacks before the machines could answer. He destroys but one robot in the room, and the machine trembles in fear. Chase stops and stares at the metal creature and wonders why did Spicer install fear on a machine.
The robot moves forward, and stands in front of its former master.
"I guess you'll miss him too," Chase says before destroying the last robot.
The man walks over the debris, and he can almost hear Spicer whine over his dear robots. He walks until he stands over Spicer, his face seems to had magically gained some life, but the smell of death reminds Chase of the crude reality. There are machines or apparatus covering the corpse, and the bag had a temperature low enough to freeze the corpse. There is another bag and Chase can sense the organic material, but he doesn't even want to think what those robots were planning to do with it. Chase guesses that the robots were trying to preserve the body better. He looks over the young man as long as he can before deciding that Spicer is gone. Chase finishes zipping the black thick bag and tries to think of something to say, but all he can think is that how useless would be to say something now.
But he still wants to say good-bye, before deciding if he should or not, an explosion steals his attention.
"Wuya," Chase says. feeling too emotionally exhausted to continue their battle, but he leaves