Fragment/5
The continuous sounds of dripping echoed across the mostly empty room.
Ragged breathing, almost near that of a man dying of asphyxiation was heard as the heart monitors and other medical devices beeped to keep two, near-catatonic grown men from reaching their final breaths.
Yet the duties they shared were still important even in the end.
Even as their pale skin turned close to deathly necrotic...
Their noses, tear ducts, and even mouths drooled with blood as it continued to trickle…
And finally, their sharp, painful breaths seemed to grow ever worse with each second that passed by. Their collective strengths now hanging by a thread as sweat and the smell of other bodily stenches started to fill the room in excessive amounts.
None of it registered to Contessa as she strode into the room in calculated, traced steps. A rarity given the situation nowadays, but there were still a few paths that opened up to her. This one in general allowed her to a voluntarily chosen path for the one objective that inevitably made up her entire persona.
Walking closer to perhaps one of the few core reasons how Cauldron became so successful in the first place, she took out a small towel and walked closer to Clairvoyant who was coughing blood within the apparatus that kept him breathing.
Slowly, but carefully she wiped the young man's forehead and neck even as the stark white towel slowly became yellowish and dark brown due to all of the excess bodily fluids trickling down on those parts. Bits of the man's hair were falling off as some littered the floor while some strands were caught in Contessa's towel. Bald spots littered the top of his head, many with bleeding gashes over them as Contessa finished up with him.
The most common feature of his, one that most of the Cauldron leadership knew, were those distinct, expanses of almost necrotic, ashtray-looking eyes. They were now just blackened, patches of flesh that smelled terribly as trickles of blackened blood slowly cascaded down his cheeks, and even over the apparatus keeping him breathing.
Contessa, with a face remaining impassive then took out a syringe carrying a green fluid within its contents and carefully injected it within the base of Clairvoyant's neck. Due to the severe pain the man was in, there were no reflexive actions to the pain as she successfully allowed its contents to enter the system without issue. Clairvoyant quickly calmed down as his breath started to normalize.
She then moved to Doormaker, who in this case was in worse condition as the young man was not even moving. His ragged breaths were merely the only sound that indicated he was still alive, along with the heart detector and other medical apparatuses in the room.
His head was now just a plethora of nearly necrotic and sickly flesh, flecks of his skin were nearly absent from major parts of his head and body but the blank and still responding look of his reddened eyes was still active. The portals were already activated, after all, the beacons now in full power.
Their poor Doormaker was at death's door, but he persisted.
Contessa slowly cleaned the man off as well and she injected him with the same fluid from the other syringe she brought.
She then carefully looked at the two one last time as she pulled out a small device from her pocket and placed it between the two. Without another word, she started walking towards the automated doors of this specific room and stopped.
This was not part of the path, but she turned around altogether and tipped her head at the two as if procuring a final goodbye of sorts. She left a second later as those doors closed themselves.
Measures steps once more graced her path as her mind started drifting on voluntary, personal thoughts again about the last proper conversation she had with another person. The entire tone of her demeanor shifted, even as Path to Victory guided her to the last step.
Arriving at her destination, she looked at Doctor Mother who was now preparing the console as she stared in intervals at the changing screens that littered the control module of the Cauldron Complex. The woman seemed engrossed in her work as she turned another few dials again before taking a set of keys from her pocket and using them for the final knob in a ten-key contingency that was thought to be unlikely to be used.
Nevertheless, as she turned that final key audibly, the woman turned her head slightly to the side to acknowledge Contessa's presence in the room.
"It's ready. Numberman's in Los Angeles monitoring the beacons and the flow of exodus towards our New Eden. I would have asked him to take your place instead but with the way the battle's gone with Legend, I'm afraid we can't risk you."
Doctor Mother then turned towards Contessa as she crossed both her arms. Leaning on the console's base behind her as the images on the multiple screens shifted.
Contessa remained silent as the two looked at each other.
Eventually, a sigh was heard from the good Doctor as she frowned at her.
"The only reason I'm going through with this is the fact that you of all people condoned it. I don't really give a shit anymore if it's because of your own will or if it's because of the Path, but… you're the reason why our entire venture succeeded and exists in the first place, so I played ball."
She then shifted her position as Contessa's Path anticipated her to do.
"If we do survive this, Contessa… or at least if humanity survives from this… how sure are we that this just stops at Scion, or Oberon? I'm starting to ask myself the prospect of what this means for us pitiful humans when the next threat arises, or maybe this little show will prompt the attention of other entities, seeing our distinct uniqueness compared to the other worlds they've conquered…"
She then looks away and releases a small wheeze of a breath into the air due to frustration.
"Makes you think if this entire venture meant anything at all. Or perhaps this is just the ramblings of an old woman who's had enough already." Doctor Mother admitted that she finally gave up all the thoughts regarding their situation entirely.
"We don't… but humanity has always persevered before," Contessa said, out of the script from her Path but she voluntarily did so as Doctor Mother perked up from her words.
Deliberately, she started walking towards Doctor Mother before she could speak back and placed a small handgun into her hand. Pressing it into the older woman's hands as Contessa closed them carefully and purposefully as they exchanged glances.
"W-What… what are you doing? What is this?"
Contessa's face curled into a small neutral smile as Doctor Mother looked confused by the cryptic action.
"I have run an active Path that will hopefully safeguard our objective." Contessa then presses the Doctor's fingers into the gun. "This… is what will confirm our victory, or at the very least increase our odds."
"In what way, Contessa?" the older woman asked with full intensity on her expression.
"I have already enacted the relevant countermeasures and plots in order to finalize everything. What you need to do is secure it from falling into the Enemy's hands."
Doctor Mother looked at the handgun and towards Contessa.
A swirl of thoughts and realizations suddenly made her understand what the woman was asking her to do. Her face turned into an instant swarm of worry and concern as Contessa stepped away. Doctor Mother, almost tried to pull her back possessively as Contessa maintained that neutral smile.
"No… no… I don't." disbelief flooded her emotions as she stared at her. "Why? You told us, clearly and exactly that your Agent is no longer functioning as it's supposed to and now you're telling me that you ran a Path that will safeguard our cause?"
"We are not on Earth Bet, Doctor. Even so, the function of this path remains the same, it has accounted for the variables as our last contingency. While not as precise as I once was, the fact remains that it is the most optimal one. One that we all agreed to follow to the bitter end, even if it costs us our own lives." She stated with finality as Doctor Mother looked unsure and horrified.
"I don't understand… you're… you're far too important. Why… why go down this direction? Why support it now, knowing that you could have done more?"
"I should ask you the same, Doctor. Why do you doubt the Path now, knowing that it is a decision I have followed with my own, voluntary admission?"
"That's precisely why I'm asking it damn it! You're… you're our one last hope and this is-
"This is the ending that I voluntarily wished to take. It was not the ending I yearned for, but the results remained the same. Our objective's completion far outstrips my own, and I wish to uphold it, even at the end."
"I… I don't know if I can do it." Doctor Mother said, almost shocked at her own words as the woman looked at Contessa. The gun in her hands was starting to shake as doubt over her own self started to enter her rather, logical, and precise worldview.
It briefly opened a small, but revealing crack of the humanity that was once lost in the woman, now seeping back into the fray.
In this case, attachment.
"Why?" Doctor Mother asked, defeated.
"I have outgrown my usefulness."
"Is this because of guilt? Of remorse?" Doctor Mother's face then turned into a small snarl. "Of doing the right thing?"
"No," Contessa said as Doctor Mother froze. "None of that. It is by my own choice, and one given by the Path. The same action we have done for the preservation of mankind. Nothing has changed. Even if the variables are off balance, the result remains the same."
"There… has to be…" Doctor Mother clicked her tongue as she held the gun properly. "Damn it."
"We were built on the foundations of enacting the hardest sacrifices and decisions. This is no different than anything we have ever done across the years."
Doctor Mother found herself stopping as she looked at the gun.
"When?" she finally asked.
"It is near." Contessa cryptically said as she looked away almost into a trance.
Doctor Mother was about to ask a question until the entire complex shook.
The older woman pressed a button on the console and saw the image of a Golden Man in one of the screens. Terror seeped into her as Contessa remained with that neutral smile.
It was almost time.
-09:27
AN: I intended this to be part of David's chapter, but realized that I had to focus more on his POV to make it shine as a final blaze before the sun sets.
And Oh my God, I'm really close to the end with this fic, I'm so… happy and excited to see it all come to fruition with the David and final Oberon chapter.
Hope to have it here soon.