New Elysium: Breakout

Effect Part 52

Once again thank you taivaan_sininen for the inner workings of the mind of Null and Lars! 

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"Null, Null can you hear me?"

She opened her eyes to the sight of two starlit skies. One in the obsidian eyes of the man bent over her, and the other behind him. She blinked a few times, feeling disoriented and confused.

"Lars?"

"Who else, dummy?" he asked with a smirk.

She bolted upright, almost knocking her head against his, and threw her arms around him.

"I was so worried for you!" she whispered.

"You had me worried too, Null..." he replied with a stifled laugh and hugged the breath out of her – a feeling she would never get tired of, in this strange and impossible space.

"You almost trashed this place completely," he remarked.

"Sorry about that..." she said meekly, looking around.

There were fragments of what looked like shattered black glass strewn all around them across the white sand, but otherwise, the space seemed to have returned to normality again. The fog had disappeared, it was nighttime now, and close by, the waves were rustling softly.

"But... where is Angel?"

Lars didn't reply, he just pointed behind his back where she spotted the boy, a few meters away in the sand. She watched him slowly rise to all fours, panting heavily. Parts of his substance were missing, his limbs seemed to flicker in and out of existence once in a while. As he raised his head to look at them, his black eyes seemed like bottomless wells, filled with nothing but hatred.

It wasn't over yet.

"Perhaps we can still-"

"No, Lars," she cut him off, shaking her head and moving to place herself between Lars and Angel. "This is enough. I won't let him do this any longer. He had his chance. He had a choice, and he chose to hurt you. I will not forgive him."

Lars frowned, but they both knew that there was no other option left. She had to destroy him, or he would destroy them. Null got to her feet and stepped forward to face him, but Lars' gripped her hand and held her back for one moment.

"Be careful..." he whispered and squeezed her hand before he let go.

Angel was furious, but he seemed unable to repair the damage she had done to him already. His flickering appearance tumbled a few steps forward to meet her. He opened his mouth to say something, but she cut him off.

"You wanted to know what it means to feel and to be alive. This is the last lesson you will learn about it. It is also the most important one: Everything has an end."

She took a deep breath to prepare herself for what she was about to do. At her feet, the shadows began to dance again, flitting across the white sand around her and ascending until they surrounded her like a flock of dark birds, pitch black even in the silver light of the stars above.

The expression on Angel's face turned from anger to a confused frown.

"Wha- what is this? Another memory?"

"Yes, Angel," she said coldly. "I haven't shown you all of my pain before. This... this is the memory of my death."

~ ~ ~

"Hey. Hey! Pirate Queen!"

Nova knelt on the floor, shaking the lifeless body in his arms. Ember and Heisenberg ignored him as they were at the door trying to break through.  Bodies strewed through the hallway as they were met with shots from Heisenberg anytime someone tried to stop their entrance.  The reaper unit earned his moniker handily dispatching the crew.