Rory can't believe his eyes.
Turin, a wonderful city that kept its way up till today. The city; restless and burned. People walk around with sticks, destroying the monuments, yelling, insulting everyone they see. The soldiers try to prevent as much devastation as possible. Rory steps up to the one that holds onto his shield tightly.
"What is going on?" he moves his head around.
"They just don't stop. This has been like it for the past days since the announcement! Alphonse has to do something," a man grabs Rory's clothes and shakes him up. "Please help us!"
Rory walks up to his group as he pushes away the man. They all stand and watch. Teresa bites on her nails, and Wang's face is filled with paleness. Nalani's arms are crossed, and her eyes are wide open.
"What are we supposed to do now?" Nalani's voice shakes.
"What if we try to talk to them? Shouldn't that work?" asks Wang as he swallows.
"No. They've been like this for the past days. There is no way you can solve this with comforting letters," explains Santino calmly.
"There is one solution!" says Rory to get attention. "We just have to shut them up completely."
"Wait. Do you mean we should—all of them?" Teresa's eyes shorten to him.
"Yeah. That's pretty much what I mean. Look around you," his index finger shows up ahead. "What is there to safe now? All of them are crazy!"
"You remember why Alphonse build the machines? People are scared of the unknown. What if we just try to scare them instead? Shouldn't that work?" says Wang to receive an answer.
"Good idea," says Santino.
They walk towards Rory's machine, leaving him a slight bit behind.
"I thought my idea was pretty good," he says, wrinkling his mouth.
He boots up the machine and flies towards the center. The fearsome riots do not move an inch. They stand still in their place, demanding in a loud voice a change for them. They won't let him pass, lift up their wooden sticks, and start to speak in unison.
Freedom in our mind,
merit for all kinds.
We fear no man and no machine,
no more divine left in between.
To make us leave the world we in,
the man confine,
the people inside.
For who we are and what he took,
made us define the freedom we stood.
To segregate us from the rest,
he chose to bind us as a protest.
For us all to believe his words,
the perfect world we do not dare,
upon us all to make us sherds.
"What are they talking about?" he asks as he looks closer to the screen.
"They are singing the song of freedom," adds Teresa.
"Of what? When did that happen?"
"I don't know, don't look at me!" says Wang spreading his palms out.
"Where am I supposed to go now?" he spits with anger.
"Just stay in the air," suggests Wang.
Rory looks at him. "You know what? I am not going to try and talk this through, nor am I going to put them on the court for this," he turns down the control pad, the machine falls heavily on his feet, crushing the people underneath.
Teresa looks at him in fear and whispers to Nalani. "What is going on with him?" she asks.
"I don't know." She whispers back to her.
Rory turns on the speaker to talk to the people.
"Please stop this madness at once. There are different ways to handle the situation if you would give us—"
The people don't stop yelling at him and throw their sticks and junk at the machine, continuing to speak in their unison.
A young woman steps up, opening her arms to defend the Nadir.
"People, stop!" she yells as they stop for a minute, then lowering her voice. "You're doing the wrong here. Alphonse didn't do this to hurt us. He did it to help us!" She spreads her arm out. "And now? These people are going to be fighting for us! Not just for you or for you. For all of us!"
"Who is she?" asks Rory.
"I don't know. But, she's right," says Santino.
"Please," she says, holding her hand towards the incensed people.
"Let's all work together for a better future. Where we don't have to rely on opening wars to get what we deserve!"
The people stop for a slight second and move as a man approaches the woman. "You dare to protect those who harm us? Don't you realize what they are doing?"
"I do," she says. "That's why we have to work this through! We need to—"
Her words are taken by the knife inside her chest. Her uniform fills with blood as her body falls. He rips his own off to show he is no follower anymore and offers his torn pieces to the machine as a provocation.
"You have repressed us long enough! Mindless people have no right to life. Stop the manipulation!" he shouts at the last sentence to get the cheer from his crowd.
Rory's eye twitches. "He killed the woman. He just killed her."
"We can't pursue them no more. We have to take other measurements," explains Santino calmly.
Teresa and Nalani look at each other, hugging. They know what will happen now; they know there is no other way.
Rory takes out his weapon, and he pushes the button. Changing his shape to a scythe.
With this, he swings aimlessly it to the crowd, taking every life within his range. The ground shakes and opens a small crate. The fearsome people walk into the weapon, melting by the plasmatic heat—some remains left in the crate, Rory repeatedly hits upon.
Then, he looks to his left and starts to destroy the buildings leaving the city in frustration, despair, and lifelessness. Some people crawl around the ground. Their suffering is great.
He doesn't spare their lives.
The city burns; in just mere seconds, the Nadir destroys everything in its range.
Rory walks out of his machine with his gun in his hands. A man, whose cut in half, pulls on his leg.
"Please help me," he says with a breath of effort.
"Ehw. What?" he says as his forehead wrinkles and kicks the man away.
"Everyone seems to be dead," Nalani covers her mouth.
Teresa has to hold back her tears. They killed what they've promised to protect. "I don't understand why would you do that?"
Rory turns to her, the blood of the man he killed stains in his head. "Because that's what we do. We killed those to protect ours."
"That's not protection," Teresa walks to Rory and grabs him on his suit with tears. "That's destruction."
He pushes her away and holds the gun to her head, making her freeze. "If you ever dare to doubt my actions one more time, I'll have to pull the trigger on you."
"Stop it, Rory!" says Nalani, who steps in front of Teresa. "She's just spilling the truth."
"No, she doesn't. Look around you, what do you see?" he swings his gun to the shattered place.
She swallows. "Nothing but—"
"Nothing but dead people because of the resistance. If they would stop manipulating our people, then nothing would have happened like this."
"I wouldn't—"
Rory interrupts Santino. "This war, these protests, why do they start? Because they want this to happen," his eyebrows arched, still. "Alphonse chose us to make a change. To get back what's ours," his finger points at the burned corpses inside the pit. "These people died because otherwise, they would have killed us!"
Everyone is silently watching the burning city around them; they know he has a point. Teresa just can't seem to understand what the meaning of war is. She didn't know what to do either. She just wanted people to stop hating each other.
"We should go," suggests Santino.
They move back to France, to Alphonse.
Rory takes off his helmet and spits on the ground. He doesn't seem to care anymore. Alphonse hurries outside. He still doesn't know what happened.
"Can someone enlighten me on what happened down there?" he asks.
The people look at each other with pitiful looks; they blame themselves for what happened.
"It's complicated," Nalani shakes her head. "They started attacking, and we—"
Rory over talks her. "We did what we had to do. They killed our innocent people. The resistance takes over more and more. We have to stop this!"
He looks at the speechless Alphonse, leaving him with the rest all alone outside as he walks back in.
They might have killed many other innocent ones. Drastically measurements have to be taken into account when it comes to war. Delusional people, relentlessly forgetting what it means to be one. Craving for the unending greed of humankind. Stopping those suffering people is justice.
It's salvation.
They save the people from their harm to let those live who need us.
Nalani and Teresa look at each other.
They didn't forget what Antares stands for and what he is doing for the people.
They didn't forget any of those kind gestures.
No, but they can't seem to accept that sacrifices need to be done, for a peaceful together.
War is a bad thing, and it shouldn't be happening at all.
However, without fighting, you can't stop it.
At night, Alphonse sits in his office, passing the day. Is this really what he wanted? Is this the reason he created the war machines? To kill hundreds of people in a split second? It's not his fault, obviously. It's the resistance.
Stargazer's fault.
"Didn't I tell you to not put your shoes on my desk, Richard?"
"Sorry. I forgot that you are a snob," he scoffs.
"This has nothing to do with it. I just like to have it clean," he says, looking into his eyes.
"I need to talk to you about something."
He stops his thoughts. "What is it?"
"Well, about today. Why is it so different if you take someone's life while being in a machine? For some reason, I felt nothing. It felt like I wasn't doing any of it," he shrugs.
"I don't know. It might be just you. Usually, it's the other way around. That someone feels more when piloting a construction and killing someone with it. Because it's a decision, you're making."
"But wait. Isn't that the same if you kill someone with your hands?" he asks.
"No, not really. If you take someone's life with your hands, the blood will never fade. But if you take someone's with a machine. The blood will not be on your hand, "he points at Rory's hands, making him look at them. "It will be on the machine. Because of that, people feel different. They pilot something that kills people. They are aware of what they are capable of doing."
"I don't understand the logic. Like why are you feeling more if you don't have marks on you?" his eyes shorten.
Alphonse smiles at him. "You just answered your own question. Take an example of someone who killed someone in a car crash. It wasn't him, it was the car. However, the human inside is responsible for the actions, leaving him a constant reminder of his doings."
Rory looks like he finally understands what Alphonse was going on about. Though it will probably never change for him anyway, his hands already filled with guiltiness, unable to see what they look like.
"One more thing, different subject. Are you sure these two girls are good for us? I mean, they constantly seem to disagree over everything."
Alphonse leans back into his chair and smiles. "I know what they are capable of once you pull their trigger. Don't worry. They won't let you down, trust me."
Wang seems to be absent today.
It's his parents' death day—killed by the resistance.
He got a bouquet of lilac flowers, his mother's favorite ones.
"Hey, mom," he says, looking to the gravestone. "I brought you some flowers. Your favorites. I hope you like them as much as I do." A hand comforts him from behind. Wang startles for a second. He turns his head to see the smiling Santino.
"Hey, don't need to be scared. It's just me."
"Yeah, sorry."
He steps up and looks at the graveyard with the names written on them: Guang and Meili Luo, the first veteran pilots who lost their lives.
"You must be still grieving over the death, huh?"
"Yeah. I miss them. I miss their advice. I miss just about anything. That's why I'll avenge them," the silence unfolds as the wind rises through their hair.
"But don't you think avenging won't bring them back?" Santino looks at him.
"Yes. But, it would lighten my heart if I know the ones who killed my parents are dead. It's justice. That's justice for me."
"Seems like every person has a different perspective and a different interpretation over the word," says Santino smirking.
Wang turns his head in confusion. "What do you mean?"
"You see," he replies. "Some people say justice is about moral rights. Basically, the equitableness over the cause. Some people say that avenging someone is not justice because you do the same to him what they've done to the others," he shares looks with Wang. "However, giving him the fair treatment, going into prison for his actions or anything, is justice, on the other hand. I guess it depends fairly on the person."
"You've got the point there. But I feel like it's something I have to do. Something to make me feel better, you know?"
Santino looks at him. "Yeah, I know what you mean," he puts his hand on his shoulder, looking into his eyes. "You're a great young man, don't throw your morals away."
He walks away, leaving him with the question by himself.
"Don't throw your morals away—" he talks to the gravestone.
As unique as they are, so are the words and their respective definition and interpretation throughout their versatility. One thing they should not forget, the meaning the word was made for.
"Do you think Rory did the right thing?" asks Teresa as she looks up at the sky.
"I don't know. But, are we supposed to judge his actions or our actions? Technically speaking, we could have done something else instead of letting him do whatever he wants to," says Nalani.
"I think I didn't do him right then. I shouldn't have blamed him for everything. Guess I need to apologize."
"I think he can get over it. He's a tough guy."
They start laughing together.
"Have you ever thought of what will happen if we lose the war?"
Nalani stops walking, looking at her with confused eyes. "What?" she says.
"Like what if we lose the war. Is everything going to die by their hands, or are they letting us live?"
"I don't know, Teresa. Why are you asking?"
"Because I was wondering how our enemies are thinking. Why are they fighting us for what are they fighting? And moreover how they judge us," she shrugs.
"All we need to know is that they are our enemies and that we have to defeat them."
"I guess you're right. It's a bit silly of me to think so far ahead," Teresa looks down. "Thinking I could understand them in a way."
"No, it's fine. But Alphonse knows what's right. He is the one leading us to freedom after all," says Nalani.
Teresa is the only one who always thinks of the enemies. Who they are, why they fight, and so on. Sometimes she drifts off for days in thoughts of trying to understand why they do what they do. She is not aware of what's really happening on the outside. How badly the people are treated. Alphonse tells them how wrong and lousy Stargazer is. That, whatever they do, they do to harm the others. Never has anyone ever thought of it differently, in a way to see the whole and not just parts. But after today, it seems like he's right. The resistance kills innocent people, people that wanted to live, but they are judged over them.
Rory doesn't seem like a person who has many thoughts in his head.
However, his night routine says different. He can't sleep, always lost in thoughts over his ambitions. If this is a worthless fight or if they even stand a chance. He always says that the resistance has no chance against them, but is it true? He has never been a pilot before, never had these kinds of silly doubts following him in his nightmares.
Whenever he has problems like this, he usually asks his best friend, Maxim, what he's supposed to do. He always found ways to help him clear his mind and help him be human. Now he is on his own, not knowing where to go. Whatever Alphonse says must be what he has to do. It's right because he is his father.
He raised Maxim just like that, despite not having any influence on him.
His thoughts lead him back to the woman who stood up against the resistance. Was this really the doing of the rebellions? Or did the people riot by themselves? He sighs to the shining moon, lighten his room. He doesn't know. All he knows he has to follow Alphonse and do what he must to prevent more people from dying.
He hates the resistance for everything.