The Colour Purple Chapter 178: the Fifth Heavenly Gift, a king of fighters fanfic

The Colour Purple... The King of Fighters '95

This (chapter) fanfiction was originally written circa: [XX.96] (Thank you)

"Which Character are you?"

Note to self: Legacy chapter numbering (32- - -), does not match.

ORIGINAL CHAPTER

…I was a lost boy when I met you.

I saw the END of the WORLD, boy. And there was only one thing I could do.

"Please. Save my friend, Clark Steel." Save my friend, and save this world.

In the end, all men wanted to be SAVED from this pain. I took you in and I often wonder what will happen when, after decades pass, how you will END this story.

I am happy, that destiny had gifted us this chance meeting, Mister Clark Steel.

…

In 1990! It was a beautiful time.

"You don't realize where YOU are now, do you?" Clark asked. "Or DO you?"

I am SO HAPPY, Clark.

…

Amidst the sound of fully automatic fire.

The weather was horrible, HOT and DISGUSTING. Amidst the sound of fully automatic fire of, admittedly cheap weapons, AK-47s and other garbage – the German man walked calmly down that dusty road. As if he was walking down an ordinary road, lined on each side with quaint and pretty storefronts. There was one thing he understood… Yet, he understood NOTHING.

The BOY did not realize it at the time, but he was prone to mumble uncontrollably. For a small child who often kept to himself and maintained multiple conversations in his head, there were instances that he was not aware, but he spoke out loud. Like TOURETTE SYNDROME – he was prone to involuntary bursts of speech, beyond his control. Medicine often wonders if this phenomena was a mental illness or… "YOU are mistaken, old man." He said out loud while walking down that path of death. OR was it something else? But GOD knew.

…and mankind could only wonder if it was another of his [GIFT] instead. "It is not just 4 heavenly gifts. There is…" There is a 5th GIFT. He continued to walk down that path to meet the German man half way.

On March 24,1972 – The movie, The Godfather was released.

1972. The Unrecognized Country of Rhodesia.

…

1990. Ghost, Home Alone & Pretty Woman were the 3 top grossing films of 1990.

Clark sat below Heidern helpless but arrogantly the blonde haired boy SNEERED in the DARKNESS, pointing his index finger forward and upwards in a GUN shape. No mater what you do now, because of the steps you took to get here, there is no longer any escape. A CLEAR AND EASY TO UNDERSTAND, CHECKMATE.

Piercing the darkness - A THIRD GHOST'S foot DROVE itself into the ground with a ferocity that wanted to embed itself 6 feet underground, and with its toes clawed HARD into the earth, Newton predicted that the bio-nuclear force had only one place to escape – UPWARDS!

I miss you so much. I missed that time. Because despite the pain, it was, now, that I think about it, a time that was relatively easy to understand. Sweet and salty foods we ate while PRETENDING that our lives were so horrible. Let's go BACK there… When we were LOST.

Kare-tachi ga, ii combi desu ne? "Those boys make a good combo, don't they?" The Knight's Japanese wife said with a smile, curling her arm around her husband's. Yes, yes they do. It was a nice time, it was an easier to understand time, and sometimes, when I feel sad and lonely I wonder to myself – where exactly did I stray, and where did I go wrong? I miss that time. Had I made a different choice, back then, would things have turned out differently? And instead, would we now be laughing together – with each other – as if nothing ever happened? And we could still be friends, playing fighting games and laughing about the suffering we went through when we were young. BUT. But that is all in the past, now, and all that is OVER now. Heidern.

But, that would not be today. This story can let me pretend none of that ever happened.

In 1990. In Johannesburg. THANK YOU, my dear friend.

…

The BEAST – part 38.

1987, April 22. In Heidern's house.

{There is nothing left here. They've taken everything away. As HE had promised.}

The knocking stopped. Heidern hunched forward, doubling over folding by the waist that had snapped in two, and in his final breath, all he could see were the palms of his hands when his face fell flat between his legs.

Did you come here, to take me away from this pain?

Yes.

Free me from this regret?

"Yes."

"Ah… thank you…" I've been waiting, for so very long. Heidern mumbled. "Who are you?"

"An old friend." The voice replied from the other side.

(87) [IT] is called a 'near death experience'. Survivors who experience events wherein the mind and body truly believe that death is imminent – like when falling from great heights, when coming face to face with a wild beast or just before an automotive collision, victims often report the same phenomenon. As if "my entire life flashed before my eyes". Often these memories, still frames are not seen in sequential order, they are short images that span a lifetime but appear as a collected collage sewn together in a chaotic quilt seen in an instant. The moving pictures trapped moving in each small individual square as the camera of the world zoomed back up until the moving pictures were now indiscernible colours in a pretty picture. Until we could no longer recognize them anymore. All was left was a single, colourful blanket that BLINDED us. What can be called A COMPOSITE FATE – a single photograph which is the amalgamation of multiple images elements which are blended together a complete, seamless image with one overall MEANING, STORY or MESSAGE. Multiple still videos combined to make one combined picture when viewed from heaven.

Ad Mortis Experientiam.

"Will you finally END this story?" Heidern asked. The man, after repeating this scene over and over and over in his mind. Words copied and pasted many times over – permutations and combinations, Heidern repeated the SCENE again, and again and AGAIN in his mind – like a near death experience – the old man combed through his mind – frames flipping and switching rapidly trying desperately to find an escape… hoping the maybe, finally, one day it would come to a different solution – an Ultimate Final Solution that would set him FREE from this chain of misery.

Heidern stood up slowly, crooked and shattered, hobbled pitifully to the door. As best as he could but he was a broken old man now, at the twilight of his life, yet a cruel fate did not even give Heidern the courtesy of granting himself the ability to release him from all this rancid agony.

The familiar voice did not reply immediately, but instead sighed weakly. "I'm sorry, but no." he said. "Heidern, please let me in." The voice pleaded from the other side of the wooden door.

Unable to be free. SO he HATED GOD. He grew to hate HIM, and this WORLD he created. So then, he wished…

Heidern's breathing, from a slow drone began to increase in pace, wheezing, coughing, and in between the bloody gurgling he gave in and started to laugh. Laugh… harder, stronger – suddenly cackling beyond his control. "Ha… Ha…. Ha ha heh… ha…"

The screeching, monstrous wail, a howl and wreee pierced his ears and his brain rising into a demonic crescendo. Just as Heidern was about to lose it all, hanging by a string, a brittle glass string penduluming over darkness, Heidern sat up as the mounting pressure drove sharp claws into his head – then….

He wished that this world would end. And if he had to disappear, let it ALL disappear, so the memory of what he had done to his wife and his daughter would be rendered irrelevant.

LET the ENTIRE WORLD disappear! I will be willing to END the world for you, God.

HEIDERN snarled and sneered with a wry smile.

With each step, he heard it, a familiar voice. Heidern took a step forward, and instead of regret he felt the blood rush up his leg and into his heart, making it pump feverishly. With another stride yet again, Heidern was 50 years old and in the same number of seconds passing, he had regained another 10 years.

"I won't leave you alone, mein freund." He said. "Just open this door. Please…"

He did NOT care. The ULTIMATE FINAL SOLUTION! This is the only way!

Open this door. Heidern breathed in, and into his lungs a cool wind made the cruel ache and decay disappear. With each step from a slouched hunch Heidern slowly stood upright, slowly and steadily. Bit by bit, the flesh and sinew slowly began to, like from a homo erectus to modern homo sapiens in an instant, his body began to slowly REBUILD itself – bit by bit. He was now 30 years old. The slight traces of silver hair on his head disappeared. Rendering REGRET irrelevant.

This is the reason.

This is the reason why old men have no qualms in destroying the entire world at the expense of the future. Not for hunger, not for greed, for something young people will never understand. DESTROY IT ALL. At the expense of future generations the politicians are willing to sacrifice everything. Suddenly Wilhelm came to a clarity as the cool breath filled his lungs.

Transcendence. A heavenly gift.

As Heidern wiped the blood and saliva, the tears from his cheeks, so too he began to slowly forget, of that the things, the things that he had done, and what he was forced to do. The madness washed away the blood, and it was as if he forced himself to forget all the pain he experienced in this life.

Heidern finally stood perfectly upright and looked down at the doorknob.

…and all the pain he had inflicted onto others. Because none of that mattered now.

"…a longing for purpose. And all that is required is a suitable enemy." Oswald said.

A deep breath.

Oswald's middle finger pushed the bridge of his spectacles up his nose.

I said I am sorry, I AM SORRY FOR WHAT I DID TO YOU. I have lived a long enough life wallowing in pain and self pity, and if they do not accept it – then that is all I can do. SANDRA. All I can do is hope, that this apology reaches you too… in heaven.

Heidern gripped the doorknob and twisted it – with a click, the immense pressure erupted from the spaces around the doorframe – the hot steam rushed into the ROOM as the world desperately shifted into equilibrium. Momentarily shaking Heidern in place, forcing him to look away and washing away that heavy weight, and when he breathed out, his skin was now more supple, his muscles tight, and his heart lighter. Wilhelm Heidern, as the wish of all old men, he was once again 20 years old.

To go beyond the experience of humanity. This is transcendence. Man's greatest desire.

When Heidern walked through that open door he was greeted with a familiar smell and a familiar sensation. He was here again. Just as he wished – to escape the real world.

1944. In this little German town of Pforzheim.

Heidern stunned, and trapped in a sense of shock. A rapid fright, his chest began to beat so hard and so fast he thought he was about to have a heart attack. A sense of elation overwhelmed Wilhelm, when his body began to realize yet his mind could not comprehend what happened. Just a moment ago it was 1987. Yet now, it was 1944 all over again.

Reliving all the regrets we had experienced in the past, but it's alright.

Heidern's vision looked outwards to the horizon before dropping down to his hands. His hands shook violently, trembling in elation. Because finally.

The chains and burden of decades had been washed away with cool cleansing clarity in but an instant. Heidern, Wilhelm Heidern, the greatest of the Deutsches Jungvolk – was 13 years old again.

Young boys wonder why the world is such a horrible place. But soon. Human nature and politics become very clear and very easy to understand.

A 59 year old man suddenly became 13 years old again! Just to experience this one moment, even just one time, this one fleeting moment, OLD MEN would willingly cooperate with the devil, and DESTROY the world MANY times over.

The sound of rapid machine gun fire, and screaming, dying people. The sounds of wailing and crying children polluting the air. Heidern began to cry, tears streaming down his face because after all this after all that, this was the only thing he understood.

Heidern wiped away his tears with the bottom of his palm, dragging it over the edge of his eye as he turned his head.

REMEMBER YOU.

"Hey! Bruv."

Heidern looked up to see a familiar face. A face he had waited to see for very long.

"Hey." A blonde haired British boy welcomed him back to this familiar place, a kingdom of their own making where they could escape together, and no adult could take away from them. "Hey!" He said, "Hey com'mon."

REMEMBER ME.

At the end of the world, we were there boy. At the end of the world there was only one thing your commander and I could do…

…

The large ULTIMATE WEAPON floated up in heaven, its flat panels, like fins swimming in the ocean of space – with every slight twist it redirected its vision towards it – refining its pinpoint accuracy with every passing moment, towards the one THING it wanted to DESTROY.

Prim and proper, all wearing identical formal military dress, a row of a dozen Chinese women tapped on their keyboards feverishly, the camera rushing across their faces one by one. The glare of the monitor reflecting in each of their eyes. "Huodie mubiao." Target acquired, a middle aged woman said out loud.

…

1972.

"You are just a dog. I took you in! NEVER forget that,"

"CLARK!" his dark skinned commander yelled behind him. "KILL HIM! FUCKING SHOOT HIM! KILL HIM!"

Wilhelm Heidern was 41 years old and as he walked forward he had no care for the bullets that flew around him. Even as others screamed and wailed in the atmosphere, as men and boys squealed as they died, he could not help but walk forward, until, until he, WILHELM HEIDERN, could walk no further when the barrel of an AK-47 rifle, its muzzle trembled in front of him.

"CLARK! If you don't kill him, I'll KILL YOUR FAMILY! YOU HEARM…" (75)

Heidern breathed out calmly out his nose.

"You."

Suddenly, Heidern came face to face, with a small boy who was ready to kill him.

The small boy, Clark pointed his rifle up at the German man. Yet, despite this – THE FINAL ULTIMATE SOLUTION – Heidern seemed to not care at all. Is this it?

The story had changed – and a new sequence of words came out of Heidern's mouth.

{I HAVE GOD'S GIFT. I can change the past.} Heidern thought. The 5th.

In 1972, a man walked down a disgusting town only to find himself face to face at the end of his journey with a small BOY who pointed his rifle in his face. Are you? Are you the one? Who will see me to the END of this? Heidern, a grown man had come face to face with the possibility that this small child could KILL HIM instantly.

"STOP! STOP, DON'T YOU COME HERE!" an 8 year old Clark screamed.

"Ah." AH. He sighed. Locking gazes with the small boy. They say we come from nothing. And from nothing we will return.

TRANSCENDENCE! This is one of the heavenly gifts.

…

A! Heidern felt a heavy feeling DROP into his chest, shocking is heart, a slight nauseous feeling overwhelmed him, as if, for a moment, he felt out of place. This peculiar feeling could somewhat be described as 'déjà vu'. A feeling of immense familiarity of an event – as if you had already experienced the present situation.

While philosophers have surmised many explanations for this phenomenon, this time it was easy to explain. An old man simply closed his eyes in 1990 and delivered a message, and while taken out of sequence, with the gift of God's providence.

…

Heidern looked down at the young boy refusing to let him go. The sequence of time REVERSED for some unknown reason 18 YEARS. He knelt down slowly and with his left hand calmly held the muzzle of his rifle and put it squarely over his heart. LISTEN. "Boy."

Heidern put the muzzle of that rifle over his heart and whispered… I am so happy. All those regretful things that weighed heavily over our shoulders, seemed so meaningless now.

FROM 1990, to 1972 INSTANTLY. Wilhelm had no issue with dying.

One of GOD'S greatest gifts is the TRANSCENDENCE. While old men wallow in regret and their only wish before they died was to reverse time and make amends with every mistake they had made and every person they had wronged. This was GOD'S gift.

The strange and peculiar phenomenon was as if Heidern was able to forcefully reach back 18 years in order to deliver an important message to a boy 18 years in the past. That was the power of the HEAVENLY GIFT.

By this time, I had already decided what the meaning of the ULTIMATE FINAL SOLUTION was. And all that was left was to find a boy that would help take him one step closer to his absolution.

I am so happy.

"…That we me met each other."

YOU'RE JUST A DOG! DO YOU HEAR ME, CLAaarr….

DON'T LISTEN TO HIM. "Clark Steel…" Heidern leaned forward by Clark's ear and whispered. In some ways. Heidern pulled the muzzle of that rifle hard into his heart… Do not be ashamed, boy. Heidern smiled. We were young once, then we grew old, we were shining, we were fools gold. He said, in words we would not understand until 18 years later. Do not be AFRAID, Clark Steel…

In September 1, 1990, John Woo's The Killer was released in the United States.

…BUT ALL THAT DOES NOT MATTER NOW.

As soon as you understand, the sooner you will accept that – ALL debts have to be repaid.

"Do you understand me, boy?" Heidern asked.

In a fright, the small boy, Clark, tugged on his rifle, but that man refused to let go. He pulled trying to twist the muzzle from his enemy's grip, not knowing what else to do. Questions, decisions, conflict invading the child's mind all at once he did not know what do. Then.

Clark froze, and he stared back at Heidern, the boy's pupils now completely dilated and blank. Heidern was confused. Heidern straightened up, curling his shoulders backwards. He was in a dream of his own design, but even he could not shake a strange feeling that told him something was happening that was beyond his control.

The boy's shoulders suddenly fell flaccid and his body relaxed, instantaneously becoming limp. Clark dropped his head down as if dislocated at the neck and remained there for a second or two, then it moved as if an electric shock surged through him. The boy tilted his head up slowly and slightly without moving his shoulders as he rolled his pupils up, so that Heidern could barely see his lethargic glare as their eyes met.

"YOU are mistaken, old man." He said out loud while walking down that path of death. OR was it something else? But GOD knew.

This was NOT how Heidern remembered it. The story had changed.

Even much far GREATER than the 4th Gift. The Reincarnation. "There is a 5th HEAVENLY GIFT, old man." From a pre-pubescent voice, Clark's words SUDDENLY became DEEP and SNARLED, as if he aged 18 years in an instant. {Even if you think you are blessed by GOD, did you think that YOU would be granted this GIFT alone?}

The small BOY, pushed the muzzle of his rifle forwards.

"You're NOT the only one," That GOD grants his gifts to…

Clark so far in the future slowly drifted into SLEEP. Extending beyond the limits of ordinary experience: This is the 5th heaven GIFT.

I will NOT let you die. Old man.

"No…" The boy said softly. As if to respond in kind. "You don't realize it yet do you?"

…

In 1990, the world ended, for me.

The blonde haired man tilted his head up slowly and slightly without moving his shoulders as he rolled his pupils up, so that Heidern could barely see his lethargic glare as their eyes met. "No." He said.

Chapter 178: the Fifth Heavenly Gift

[TRANSCENDENCE] – The fifth Heavenly gift. If you insist on using it, then it is only fair that God extends and allows this privilege for me to.

I REFUSE your assertions, old man.

"You don't realize where you are now, do you?" Clark asked. "Or do you?"

In 1990. In an underground laboratory. In South Africa. In Johannesburg. I am SO sick and tired of repeating it. What do you want? Just stop, I have had enough of it.

What do you want?!

Clark sneered, then his smile cracked at the very end.

What do you want? Clark Steel!

Clark laughed again. {I don't want peace,} he grinned. Clark's lips, with extreme care, mouthed each syllable, sneering each word as his dimples pulled inwards tightly, silently.

Two eyes, glowing in the artificial darkness floated up from Clark's left shoulder.

I DON'T WANT PEACE!

Kare-tachi ga, ii combi desu ne? Sou desu yo ne!

INTERGALACTIC!

PLANETARY!

His foot DROVE itself into the ground with a ferocity that wanted to embed itself 6 feet underground, and with his toes clawed HARD into the earth, Newton predicted that his bio-nuclear force had only one place to escape – UPWARDS!

AN UNBLOCKABLE ATTACK! FROM. THE STRONGEST MAN ALIVE!

Rendered to small pinpoints, Heidern's pupils shrank infinitely small. He realized it in his head, but his body did not understand it YET!

"Galactica…" Clark said out loud, plainly. Pointing his index finger out, in a GUN shape.

Clark lifted his opposite hand and with his fingers wrapped around it was a blood soaked notebook. Presented to you, as penance, and as an offering of equal exchange. This is what you wanted, isn't it?

"GALACTICA PHANTOM!"

I don't want peace.

I want problems, always!

"GA-LAAAAACTICAAAA!" RALF SHOUTED as he erupted from the darkness.

"GALACTICA PHANTOM!"

"DOKYAA!" Four knuckles embedded itself DEEP into Heidern's jawbone. The stunning stock – the warping destruction made the world blur as Ralf's FIST made itself melt into his enemy's skull. IT'S A BREAK OUT, FIRE!

In the DARK, there are NO strangers.

RALF JONES! IT'S A burning FIRE!

All four of his knuckles with the heat of molten magma immediately FUSED into the Beast's jawbone. IT resisted, clenching tight – instantly his face immediately reverted into a monochrome black and white with a crack, sideways, Heidern's skeleton was photographed in an x-ray image when the attack made contact.

Trembling and tensing, to defy it, Heidern's skull and jaw SPLAYED wide in rage.

BUT, Ralf's fist, from his elbow roared like a rocket propelled with a hundred million megatons VERTICAL UPWARDS melted steel – BURST up SLAMMING Heidern's mouth shut, cracking the monster's teeth against each other.

HE WILL NAIL IT TO THE SKY!

PANDEMIA!

Following through as it was unable to be stopped the PUNCH rocketed upwards, and in its wake Ralf Jones' FINAL attack destroyed the monster.

In the end, you released your WISH to the universe. AND here we answered.

Dear Friends.

SO that there would be no regrets.

Even as the world ends. We will FIGHT you. AGAIN, AGAIN and AGAIN. Up until the day the world grows tired of revolving.

…because… isn't this the obligation of friends?