Keith 1.1
"Why does it have to be you? Why does it always have to be you?"
Keith looked at his husband with an expression filled with guilt. Their baby coos in his arms as he stands and walks slowly towards his partner, the love of his life. Eyes downcast, tears pooling in their shared gazes as their little boy tries to reach for them both.
"I…" Keith licks his quivering lips, unsure of what to say in this situation as he looks at his little boy. His small, delicate, and innocent fingers touched his shirt. His eyes filled with joyous wonder and love that he was starting to have doubts in his mind again…
But as he sighed and held his baby tighter, to which the boy uttered a small chuckle, he bitterly smiled and looked at his husband. Heads held slightly high, determination coursing through his veins, and a pained but familiar smile rose through all of the sadness.
Through all of the desperation.
"…because I have to." He says with finality. His husband scoffs, arms crossed as a tear runs down his face. His eyes were now red with pain and sadness as Keith silently watched.
"I always trusted you. I believed in you because I knew that you would always come back to me. To us. To our baby. But if what you said is true… and if the world is truly going to end... you can't just say that everything's going to be okay."
"… it's not and not an hour goes by where I think that what I'm doing is right." He admitted as his husband looked at him with shock. The surprise of the most wonderful man in his life saying and admitting such a thing made him stand still.
"I'm no hero. I've carried a lie with my dearest friends for God knows how long at this point. With every mistake, every sacrifice, and… with every foregone action… I'm as much a villain to each and every single one of you just because of the inevitable fear of our collective demise." Keith looks at his child and painfully strokes his forehead as the baby smiles brightly.
"And that same fear I carry now, with the guilt of a thousand lifetimes just because I was too late to tell the world the truth." Keith looks at his husband and smiles bitterly. "I've been selfish, and I now carry the burden of a billion mothers and fathers who can no longer see the smiles on their children's faces. Who can no longer carry their babies in their arms wishing for a bright tomorrow."
Keith sighs as he steps forward to his loved one, reaching his arm and squeezing his husband's shoulder as both their heads touch. Their baby beneath them coos as he looks on in curiosity.
"I've failed everyone… standing here doing nothing, but that doesn't mean that I can't do anything still to pay for all the mistakes I've committed."
They both close their eyes and hold each other close.
"I don't want forgiveness… or absolution for everything I've done… but, if I can do something, anything, just to give everyone a chance, then I'll take it."
"Y-you've already done enough." He hears him say as Keith bitterly smiles.
"You'll both be safe… and I can rest easy if other people feel the same." He said as his husband finally sobbed into his chest. His tears stain his shirt as Keith tears up.
"F-Fuck you, Keith."
Keith smiles painfully at those words as he tightly embraces his husband while their baby laughs. Unaware of what's happening. Unaware of the future that would come.
Unaware that this is perhaps the last time he would ever see his father.
The beloved starlight of his life.
"I don't want you to go."
They separate, both their eyes filled with tears as he smiles, for one last time.
He then looks at his little boy in his arms and sees that he wishes to give him something.
Keith sees his son open his tiny hands revealing a small, lovely star from his pajamas.
He then places the star in his palm and kisses his little boy.
Holding within his palm one of the last few burning cinders of hope for the bleak future ahead.
A hope that he wishes to kindle forward amidst it all.
"You can't be serious…" he says to the mysterious girl that he had met more than a day ago.
The young girl merely stares at him with guilt, sorrow, and pure honesty as the beautiful field of flowers they both sit on sway by to the slight and cool breeze.
"I'm afraid that is simply the truth. A fact that will persist no matter how much we deny it."
"I thought you chose me because you think I would kindle that hope. That I can find a way to resolve all of this without the need of bloodshed… but it's…" he stops as a realization beckons him while he looks at the girl before him. "…there was never any hope of stopping it anyway."
"No. There is not."
"Then why… why am I here?" Keith asks, no, begs as he looks at the girl with all the emotion his mind and body can muster. "Why did you even bother telling me that night knowing that there was nothing stopping this? That nothing could be done, regardless."
"Dear Keith… you are here because that spark of hope exists within your soul." The girl said as she smiled at him. "You were chosen by me because the dimming spark that is left within your world can be started anew."
"What do you mean?"
"Do you… remember the memories I've shared with you?" she asks, her voice contemplative.
Keith recalls a small, weak girl looking upwards to the sky within a musty stable as she hopes for a bright tomorrow underneath all of her hate and feelings. She smiles as she carries that warm spark within herself as she turns to sleep despite the pain.
"Your people need not share the fate of my doomed world, many of you still deserve to see the light in your futures. The warmth of each other's embrace, and a family to which you can call home."
The girl then moves forward to him and clasps both his hands into hers as their gazes meet.
"I never had any such luxuries the entire time I was alive, but much as I believe my world deserved its fate along with many others, I believe that you and your people still have a chance to see that bright tomorrow and happiness that you all yearn."
Keith saw the pure intention in her eyes as she smiled. The honesty… and the pure belief that made him feel wholly unworthy of.
"A good friend once believed in me despite all of my shortcomings… and not a day goes by do I forget how much their strength and determination to carry the dreams and futures of his world bloomed despite all the adversity and sacrifices. They believed in hope. They believed despite the imperfect nature of his own world."
She then squeezed his hands in encouragement. "They believed that despite everything that's lost, that everything and everyone has a right to their own stories. Their own happy endings."
"That everybody has a chance to be better." She finished as she smiled at him.
Keith nodded back as the weight in his chest doubled.
The responsibility cast within him, knowing that despite all of his mistakes, she still continued to believe in the true hero that he was starting to think no longer existed within him.
Despite all of his guilt, he now acknowledged what role he needed to play in the end.
"Dear Keith, we cannot change what is already cast in stone. Yet we can save what little spark there is left, and I intend to bless you with all the might I can hopefully conjure to make it a reality."
He then sees her wrapping a cream-colored scarf that seemingly appeared out of nowhere into his hands. The scarf then glowed as Keith watched.
"To honor the beloved friends that I have encountered and believed in me, I relinquish you this token born out of the dear friend that saw me as more than I what I originally am. May the spirit of such a belief guide you to your new world. May it hold the same spark that many in your people carry… and may the light of the Sword of Promised Victory's radiance be your cinder to carry your people's future forward."
The bright light and sense of comfort ebbs within him as he takes a deep, relaxing breath as a renewed sense of energy now exists within him. He looks at the scarf and notices that the star his son gave to him is now etched permanently into the scarf. Giving it a new meaning in his eyes as he looked back at the girl. The new understanding of what the plan was now started to dawn on him.
"Do we really have a chance even despite it all?" he asked with concern despite the prior elation in each other's feelings.
The girl frowns for a bit before her expression of determination returns. "Nothing's impossible. The odds will be stacked in your favor, immensely. For once you open the ark that welcomes your people to your new Eden, the powers that be will notice it and while we have a slim chance there is only so much in what we can both do for your people."
"… and whoever notices it first will simply doom what chance we have that exists," Keith adds as he frowns, holding the scarf in his hands, yet despite the fear he looks at her and nods.
"I know what I have to do… it'll cost everything, but if it means my people will have a chance, then I won't hesitate on staking my life for it." He said as she smiled again despite her expression having tinges of worry and concern.
"I hope such an outcome does not pass, but I will be with you to the end." She states as he smiles.
The flowers around them sway much more prominently as if the mood and time of their conversation now shifted into something more pronounced… and weighty.
"May I ask before we finish, on the nature of this new… Eden."
"On what part do you wish to ask of it?"
Keith turns his gaze to the peaceful 'world' around them as he takes a deep breath.
"How safe is it, from everything?"
The girl's face morphs into a slew of nostalgia and contemplation. One born from a familiar story told albeit in a different sense by a Magus of Flowers in their journey towards Avalon. Where she ascended into the role pre-destined to her.
She then looked at Keith and spoke…
"Its safety is one that I will stake my entire existence on… but compared to its namesake, I believe much is left to be desired."
"This… this is the world that will be humanity's salvation?" Doctor Mother's voice echoes as Keith looks at his comrades. The pointed tone filled with surprise and disappointment made him frown as he squeezed reflexively on the scarf now wrapped in his right hand.
It was the hopes and dreams of his son's who represented the people of Earth Bet, and the shining trust and understanding of a girl that had staked it all on giving them a chance. The responsibility now cast on his shoulders was immense yet despite how much the girl had explained this far, lonesome world nearly beyond their reach in terms of description, seeing it first-hand was truly a sight to behold…
"This looks nearly as barren as the many uninhabited Earths we have surveyed under the Enemy's reach. Worse, seeing the things that are littered here, one might ask if this was truly as safe as our mysterious parahuman says."
…and a sight to ponder on.
Keith sighed as he too seemed to have second thoughts after seeing this place. True to the good doctor's word, what welcomed them was exactly what the girl said, the name of Eden being essentially an irony in the most literal of ways.
There was no such garden of everlasting beauty that trumped even that of the place the girl existed in. No great animals were roaming the land that he could see from this distance, and what fauna there was, was relegated to a sparse amount of vegetation, not enough to call it barren, but it worried him with how desolate most of the stretches of land seemed to be in his eyes.
The air was relatively clean yet the way this version of Earth seemed to still heal from a relatively recent apocalyptic event got him worried. The sky was still covered for the most part by gray clouds and what sunlight did reach the surface turned the entire environment into a dim, almost pale color of nearly everything where the light touched.
He did not even care to mention yet about the giant remains of 'ships' or what used to be extremely advanced technology littered and scattered across the largest mountain that they could see. Structures that looked awfully artificial in nature with their different colors and striking design of a once probably prominent piece of machinery were brought low as what vegetation there was seemed to now encroach on their surfaces. Even then, that was not the strangest part, for evidence of a great battle to end all battles had singed this world altogether until none of the combatants were left alive in the process.
What land was left against evidence of various strangely old resembling civilizations were strewn across as far as their eyes could see. If anything based on the devastation and the way the vegetation encroached on these sad monuments of the past, it seemed like a good deal of decades had passed with this world still healing from the injuries of an apocalypse so immense that it made Keith realize along with his comrades that this might be what their own world would look like at the end of it all…
Should they not do anything to save what was left.
This world was both a reminder of the cost should they fail, and a clear indication of how dire the inevitable fate of Earth Bet was alongside all of the worlds held under the Enemy's grasp.
He once again turned around to survey the entire area that this landmass was stationed in and saw that to the furthest east, where he could see beaches and the sea, there was a large white humanoid hand sticking out of the water. Its immense size and proportions from the distance where he was, indicated how colossal it truly scaled compared to the human height.
This truly was a slowly healing world left nearly empty from a scourge of battles that rendered it nearly lifeless. What evidence was left of these battles told of a far invader from the stars wishing to render the surface of the planet destroyed for no purpose other than the total annihilation of the host planet's species. What details the girl told him nearly made him feel reminded of a nearly similar invader that had plagued his world and many others toward an inevitable, similar fate.
He sighed heavily as he took in everything and as he started to hear his comrades bicker and argue behind him, he looked towards the remains of a nearby dead tree and noticed that a ray of sunlight, clearer and livelier than anything else around them had shined on it as if the clouds had parted way for its welcome.
Like a blessing from the heavens, a singular point of light and eerie hope seemed to shine a spotlight amidst the sea of loneliness and hopeless silence.
The once-dead tree that was surrounded by dead soil and nearly no vegetation started to move and change as they all watched in shock. The once pale, nearly white decayed bark had turned dark and healthy brown once more. Stalwart and verdant leaves that shined against the sunlight sprouted into a mane that cast a friendly, comfortable shadow across its surroundings. The branches and the entire tree itself grew to a size of nearly four meters and the once-dead soil around allowed the growth of healthy, beautiful grass and some familiar flowers surrounding its roots.
The sudden display of nature as if welcoming back the humans that it once lost perplexed and marveled the entire retinue that was present…
…and in the middle of it all, just a few meters away from Keith as the friendly shadow of the tree was the sudden appearance of a very ornate glowing staff with ribbons of light purple, nearly pink, strands of cloth swaying against a sudden breeze that appeared out of nowhere.
The object, serving its role like a beacon as it was cast on the ground, stuck to a rock made everybody stare in surprise and intrigue. Not only did it cast a new stance within their minds of this world that the girl had told him about, but it also gave out an aura of hope that washed their bodies and minds in full.
Most of all, to Keith who heard the chirps of small, unfamiliar birds now resting on the staff and tree's branches. Life seemed to gather there, what life that was left towards an apparent oasis that had sprung out of nothing.
Keith then felt a buzz of energy emanating from the scarf in his arm. He looked at it and saw the star of his son blink brightly for a few seconds before fading away. He smiled briefly as he looked at his comrades.
"Remarkable." Dragon's voice said through the small drone that was on Contessa's shoulder.
Even Contessa, the ever-present enigma in Keith's eyes looked intrigued and amazed at the sight, despite everything that she has ever experienced thus far.
"I'm still not convinced of the validity of this Earth's… safety. Even if this is the work of your contact Legend, I am not sure if we can consider this safe. Especially with the surroundings around us that tell a different story. One that I'm not sure I wish to entertain."
"She's right Keith… we already have Scion, we already have this Oberon in our front door. If this world was also contaminated by forces and unknown entities that have left this place the state it's in, then I'm not sure if we can afford another threat lingering on our doorstep." David who was silent the entire time said with a good amount of sensible concern in his words.
One that Keith mostly agreed with.
"It's not even just that… my sensors, limited as they are in this drone indicate that this version of Earth has had these great machines, perhaps weapons of war far advanced than even the most sophisticated of Tinkertech examples, be destroyed in a manner that would have been impossible to our current age and understanding in Bet. Yet here they are, as corpses of a war that effectively destroyed both sides of the conflict. Such an enemy or adversary would have been extreme in the sense of its destructive capability that despite being left for dead, it also made sure what defenders or survivors were left were similarly purged." Dragon explained, nearly non-stop as she continued to marvel and understand the data that she was getting.
"Worse, if what I'm seeing is also true, evidence points to a theory that a civilization perhaps dated or had diverged greatly from our own history shared between Aleph and Bet were wiped out without nary a trace of their once prominent lives left on these soils," Dragon added as Keith watched the drone look around, possibly scanning their surroundings. "Even the colossal white hand sticking out of the far sea due east has faint traces of unknown radiation and cosmic energies still emanating from its surface. If you and Cauldron had not informed me of the matter pertaining to the Enemy, I would have assumed this Earth had been struck by an avatar on a similar scale as Scion, yet as much as they had effectively killed off this one or rendered it inert, whoever once lived on this world shared the same fate as its adversary."
"That's not even accounting for how foolhardy this plan was if this is what your contact wishes to achieve." Doctor Mother said as she crossed both her arms looking at their surroundings and looking at him afterwards. "And don't get me started on her naming this world, 'Eden'. That girl is very much aware of our work and the things we do… and if this is her attempt at instigating a joke, then I believe it's a poor attempt marred with the possible death of humanity."
Keith wished to say something, but David beat him to it. His friend, the flawed individual that he was, was much calmer and clearer compared to how he was recently. He finally took the shape of the original David that he once was, even if slightly weary and depressed with how he spoke of his thoughts.
"Keith, I'm not the most rational nor stable person… I-I admit to that. But you have to see here and now, that this little schtick is stupid. We haven't gotten to the logistics or how best we can make it work for us to migrate a billion people to this world. We don't have the time, nor the resources to pull such a significant act and just expect for it to work smoothly. Even if we're just accounting for what's left of the Greater North American continent, I don't see it working to our advantage."
The valid points similarly made him frown as he clutched the scarf wrapped around his arm.
He turned to Contessa who remained silent as well as Dragon's drone who according to David was working in a short, tenuous relationship with his comrades just for the sake of doing anything against the current, dire crisis.
Yet despite all of the valid statements, Keith remained resolute.
Strangely, Contessa was watching him as if waiting for his words to convince the rest of them. A thing that he was not too sure to react with.
"When our little pact was founded, every one of us sitting at that table agreed on one singular thing. We all gambled our lives, our moralities, even our own souls trying to achieve that goal despite the odds through a sliver of a chance with the only tool and instrument we had…"
Keith then looked at Contessa who had an expression filled with conflict. "… and now we're here standing together in a world far removed from our own understanding asking if the chance, the path laid before us is the right thing? Knowing that the means we used to gamble the safety of humanity is already lost?"
Keith moved his gaze back to Doctor Mother and his friend. Numberman, who had been silent ever since they had first arrived could merely stare. "We have a chance, an actual feasible chance without the questionable guarantees of an instrument that belonged to the Enemy and now we're asking its validity when we were so desperate to find a means of victory in the first place?"
Doctor Mother sighed. "Legend. I will not argue with you of the merits between that little girl's power over Contessa's own. I'm afraid we all understand the loss of Contessa's ability as well as the many resources burned and now in jeopardy due to that new threat springing out of nowhere. But if you're asking us to just blatantly trust the words of a stranger, however desperate we are, of the safety of the one damn thing that has kept us working all these years…" her heated tone that was climbing up to a crescendo then dissipated.
"…then we're all simply back to square one." She then took another step forward as the expression on her face grew heavy.
"You're asking us to put our hopes on blind faith. Blind faith over something we have no idea nor greater understanding of… again." Keith looked at her and understood her words. "That's why I'm asking you now… tell us, explain to us, how… how is this any different with the blind faith we've already thrust our souls to in the first place?"
Keith was nearly speechless at the shocking amount of concern and bits of emotion on the woman's face. It was… strange seeing her like this, in all the time he'd known of her, not once did this woman seem concerned or even emotionally driven with their foolish cause until now.
It said a lot about where they were currently, for despite how much there were unknown variables held by Contessa's Path to Victory, most, if not all of them were confident and trusted the system that they worked damn near religiously to a very extreme extent.
Now? Thrust into a situation where they were essentially walking through the darkness, unprepared, and without a full understanding of which grounds they were standing on…
They were all literally cast alone in the dark, vulnerable, and lost as they once were in the very beginning. Even with the number of contingencies, plans, and gambles to try and illuminate their path once more, it all crashed and burned on a threat that essentially made them useless on all fronts.
This is why despite his overall negative view over the actions of his own and his comrades, he understood why they were all staring at him and questioning this new path that was offered to them without exchange or reparation.
"… I don't want this to further turn into a debate given the present danger. But I have full faith in the blessing and choice that's been given to us. We have another path, one dangerous and arduous compared to anything we have ever considered or thought about yet, but I'm certain Artoria's intentions are true and if we wish to do anything, anything at all to salvage the goal that we all strived for, then I believe trusting this despite everything is our one last hope."
Many of them looked unconvinced and Keith was not shocked about it. Yet this truly was their last choice amongst an ocean of ideas.
"We forget that even if we were to convince everyone to migrate here, Doormaker and Clairvoyant are still erratic in their attempts at connecting to Bet. It's damn near a miracle that they were even able to bridge us here in the first place." Numberman said.
"And that's not accounting for the consequences once we open those floodgates. As your contact has said, they will both notice it, Legend. Not only because of the strange existence this world has over its position in the boundary but because the unknown regions that this world is situated in could possibly doom many other Earths that we haven't accounted for. Many other worlds that are untouched as this, as your contact promises." Doctor Mother stated as the risk that Legend understood started to seep him back to worry.
"We have no bearing what such clash between those two parties in Bet would incur. We're not even sure if this world can survive should the Enemy unleash its power over the worlds it's latched on to in the incoming chaos." Dragon added but the Drone simply looked at him and her tone changed. "… yet at the same time when I look at that staff protruding from the ground, I detect a small but noticeable frequency that effectively emanates from the crystal that's glowing on its top."
"Like a beacon. To light the way of lost sailors at sea… a beacon that the Clairvoyant and Doormaker latched onto to allow us passage." Contessa finished much to the shock of everyone present.
Keith inwardly smiled, feeling the ray of energy from the scarf in his hands emanate further.
"This world… Contessa, are you implying that it's through this wavelength, this energy that allowed Doormaker and Clairvoyant to open a Door to this Earth?" Doctor Mother asked.
Contessa looked at her and her silence was already an answer.
"Then I understand why the risk of both hostile entities taking notice of this is great. Just bridging us into this unknown, unaccounted Earth is going to turn heads." Dragon said in an epiphany.
"It's why this world is undocumented… it's why… the buzz in my head when my power is in play is muted. Almost faint. It's as if I was a normal man again, deprived of the foreign sensation in my head nearly completely." Numberman, or Kurt in this instance said as if a puzzle piece in his head that he was quietly asking to himself ever since they arrived was unraveled.
Keith never noticed at first due to all the stress and heavy focus, but he did start to understand that while the burgeoning glow of the scarf in his arm continued to emanate energy, it was not through the energy produced by his own Agent that was giving him power. He then looked at David and saw why his dear friend had retained some of the clarity in his head again.
"Why haven't we encountered this before?" Doctor Mother asked, surprised and perplexed. "Yet… I still ask Legend, of the safety this alien Earth holds for humanity?"
"Artoria never gave me full details, but she guarantees with her heart and soul that this is a world that's had its share of calamities, it's an injured world mired by conflict and washed anew into a clean slate. Not enough to be erased completely, but enough that the world can still function again if given another chance. It's not Eden based on its ability to be a paradise, but Eden in the sense of starting anew and rebuilding from the ground up… like the world after the Flood."
"Fancy, flowery words based on metaphors is not a guarantee in my eyes." She argued.
"Yes, it is not, and while she assures me that it is safe and far from the prying eyes of both our enemies, it is a world that humanity needs to earn in full meaning. Not only as a second chance but to re-ignite the injured world from the brink of death." Keith said, remembering the words the girl had told him.
"Then you're aware of what you're asking of us, Keith?" David said as he pulled off his hood, meeting him in the eyes. The sad but accepted fate within them made Keith sigh inwardly.
The gravity of what he was asking, was too great and he chose his words carefully.
"Yes. I'm afraid each of us here now is tasked with a burden that may cost us our lives." He stated sadly as David frowned. Even Dragon hummed from her perch on Contessa's shoulder.
"Can we even create a big enough distraction to tear both eyes away from the exodus?" the AI asked. Worry in her tone. "With what's left of the North American continent, not to mention Scion being as unpredictable as he is with the effects of the blackout, can we… c-can we even make a difference to get people to safety? Can we even last that long in the first place to buy everybody time?"
Keith then unraveled the scarf in his arms as a bright light enveloped his form.
As the bright light dissipated, in his hands was a long and largely magnificent sword-staff carried by the girl when they first met. Its light glowed with such immense light and aura that the clouds above somehow parted and allowed sunlight to pass in the open area they were in.
Even he was in awe at the weapon that was now being wielded in his hands…
Yet he remembers the cost of wielding it, as said by Artoria herself.
"I cannot fully manifest in your world to the extent of me aiding you directly. This… this is why you were chosen, not just as my sword, nor as my messenger, but as the conduit of hope and power that your spark of life kindles." She smiles as she closes her eyes to him.
"However, powerful as the light of this weapon yields, it incurs a heavy toll."
"What toll?" he asked.
"You cannot wield this power indefinitely, dear Keith. Much as it pains me to say this, as bright as a ray of hope this is in fighting back the Vile King and those who threaten humanity, its bright light and power will also burn the user's own light into cinders once used extensively."
He became silent as he heard those words. Then Keith notices Artoria bow her head as heavy guilt and sadness weigh her shoulders.
"I am sorry. I… I could have done more. Had I warned you earlier. Had I done much more. B-but there is only so much I can do. I am already deprived of so much for bending the rules and still, I still feel as if I could have done much more." She then clasps his hands one last time as the world around them starts to fade away…
"Yet I do not regret my actions in assisting you this far… your people still deserve to have their tale continue on… and I merely ask, to keep that spark of hope lingering further even at the end, even if faint I will respond. Even if everything is at its darkest, I will make sure that we both see this to the end."
Keith touched the handle of the weapon and felt both the energy of the weapon course through his veins, as well as the energy of his own power rushing through it like a torrent of the best of both worlds.
He then looked at his comrades with a determined expression.
"We can buy enough time that matters. If we consolidate all our efforts… all that's left within our ability to fight, then we can do enough to make it all count in the end." He said with an uneasy tone of his voice yet laced with a degree of confidence despite it all.
"Do you understand, that if we go down this road, there is no turning back." Doctor Mother warned. "If that weapon does indeed buy us enough time along with the rest of what we can muster, if we can feasibly convince the others, then win or lose, the outcome will be ugly."
"That also accounts for us merely saving who we can in Earth Bet. None of the other worlds will share that chance now given to us. If the chaos reaches a level that Aleph and the rest are similarly destroyed, then what we can muster in the exodus is all that we can feasibly save." Dragon bitterly said in contemplation. Keith similarly frowned at that fact as he thought about it.
The ramifications and near-total linear ignorance of the rest of humanity in other worlds were not something he had thought of. It painted a bitter picture of their already flawed, and near-hopeless plan.
"It's either that or total extinction, unfortunately…" Kurt said.
"Yes, and can you live with those facts, Legend, knowing that this is the path you wish to ask us to tread on?" Doctor Mother asked.
He was about to say something until he felt a hand on his shoulder that belonged to David.
"We've lived our entire lives to this point being devoid of decisions that actually work best for the benefit of mankind. What does it matter what path we take, Contessa's or his, both end the same way. We're already past the point in convincing ourselves that we're doing this for the greater good…"
David then sighed and smiled faintly at him before he continued.
"…but I know for a fact that as we stand our ground on the final battle, we may as well do our jobs properly, knowing that this could probably be our last chance. Not to redeem ourselves… nor to absolve our crimes off the face of the Earth, but to honor what we all stood for at the start."
Keith nodded weakly at him as the man nodded back.
"What Hero once stood for."
Memories of their fallen friend came back to both of them.
The overall silence and the air that changed between them already told Keith of their answer. Even if the words David said were not as exact as he would have said it due to the irony of it all, it served as a wake-up call for Cauldron to enact its original objective in the first place.
"I admit, I don't like this, nor am I confident of our chances." Doctor Mother said, being the only dissenting voice left between the acceptance they all shared, but she too was tired. The woman then turned to Contessa and looked at her. "Where do you stand, Contessa?"
The silent woman merely looked at everybody and spoke, "We can only move forward with the choices we have already spoken for within ourselves. If Legend speaks of victory albeit slim, then we must pursue it, as we've always done before."
Contessa then looked at Keith and her expression focused quite a bit.
"We have gotten this far; we might as well end that journey in what way we can hopefully achieve."
AN: I hope this doesn't backfire on their already failed venture in the first place. *Shrugs