Background music suggestion: Vincent Diamante: Drifting off, Flower original video game soundtrack (preferably looped :))
Chapter 13: Illusions
No more tears
I have cried for yesterday
Silence haunts me now
There is no more to say
Every day
There's a war inside my head
I have had enough
I wish that I was dead
-Bloodbound: Brothers of War
...
Ian was driving. It was their car, the 2003 Ford Fiesta, "the brown piggy", as Jo liked to call it. He didn't remember how long he had been driving but he was sure there still was a long way to go. The skies were blood red and the desert vast, the dark sand around them endless.
Jo was sitting in silence. Ian felt tired, and thirsty. There was something...Something strange he couldn't quite explain.
"Can you cool the car down any more?" he asked.
"It's already at maximum," Jo said.
They continued driving. Ian put the radio on. He was switching through the channels but the music made his head ache. After he turned off the radio the lyrics were still repeating in his head.
Chao ab Ordo…
...
"Ian?"
The red haired woman sitting next to him in the car was obviously talking to him. He decided to say nothing. The objective was clear. He stopped the car and before he knew it had been done. He was looking at her body now. He had emptied a full clip. And he thought of the utter shock in her eyes...It probably meant nothing. He exited the car and opened the door on the passenger side, then dragged the body to the side of the road. Vultures would take care of it. He returned inside the car.
He was sure there still was a long way to go.
...
Finally night fell.
He was driving in the darkness now. He didn't know how long he had driven but eventually the car stopped. He was out of gas. No wonder.
As he stood now next to the car there was a cool desert breeze and he remembered...There had been someone travelling with him. He could no longer remember who it had been though. He didn't think more of it as he noticed something, a light of a fire perhaps, not far away. He began to walk towards it.
It was Sarge, Blackhand and Blowfish. They were sitting around the fire, under the stars.
"Hi Legion. Been waiting for you," Sarge said gesturing him to sit down.
"Hi," Ian greeted them sitting down on the sand.
"How's it going?" Blackhand asked.
"Same shit. All over again," he answered.
"It will never end," Blowfish shrugged.
They sat in silence, watching the fire burn.
...
Ian woke up. The others were gone. It was just him under the hot sun, lying on the burning sand that was like ash. He could almost taste it.
And it was then he remembered.
Jo was dead.
He remembered her body on the side of the road and felt like choking.
He had done it.
He wanted to scream. He couldn't.
He wanted to cry. He couldn't.
But he knew if he wanted it enough, he could...die.
Loser.
He closed his eyes.
This would be the final thought.
...
A sound sliced the air.
A chord, D minor. Played with an electric guitar. Not amplified.
It faded out and for a second he thought he had imagined it but then there was another one.
A minor.
He concentrated and listened. A chord progression followed. It was F – C – Gm – Dm C G – Gm.
He knew now...
Jo.
He opened his eyes and there she was approaching him very far in the distance. He would have recognized her miles away. The way she walked, the way she held herself. And his heart sank.
I don't deserve her. I never did.
But there she still was...walking towards him, and a part of him wished he could still melt into the sand but another part...was just waiting.
In either case he couldn't move.
He saw now that she had a guitar, a red ESP, hanging from a strap around her neck. She wasn't actually playing it as she walked but he could still hear her theme. For it was her theme, he knew it...And as she walked closer he noticed she was wearing the same t-shirt as the day he kissed her the first time.
Jo was not far away anymore...She could have probably heard if he would have been able to shout. And now...he was so happy to see her face closer…For she was looking right at him, smiling. And it was then he noticed something appeared. From behind her back.
Wings.
He just stared at her as they unfolded, the wings that were definitely not of a cute fluffy angel. No. These were the wings of a warrior angel. Dark, on fire...Ian couldn't help thinking she would have made an epic album cover. And the theme continued. He knew this would be the second verse. F – C – D# - Dm – G – A# - D. Because of course it would always end with hope.
And it was only now he noticed that all that time she had held something in her hand.
A guitar from its neck. And now she was right next to him, looking down at him.
"Hi."
She looked back at her wings, smiling.
"They're a bit much."
Ian knew needed to say something but she made a gesture stopping him.
"Before you say anything I want to make one thing clear."
He just stared at her.
"You're not Necro. Or even Legion. You're Ian Smith and it's far from over. So get up. I want to hear Ian's theme."
What did she mean?
She was now extending her free hand towards him. He took it and soon he was up, still feeling confused.
"Go ahead."
She handed him the guitar and he took it a bit unsure. But then he began examining it. It was a shining black new BC Rich Warlock, definitely crafted in the States, a deluxe model. The one he had always dreamed of. Somehow it felt so familiar to hold it, like he was meant to hold it.
He turned the gain up and played a single note.
The distortion was perfect.
For a moment he thought what to play but then he realized he already knew.
His theme would have to be...a soldier's theme.
...
The final note was still hanging in the air.
"Good," Jo nodded in approval and approached him.
"Ian."
"Jo?"
She touched his face now.
"You didn't choose this war. What you chose was not to run away from it."
And as she kissed him, everything just dissolved into white, bright light.
...