Looking through his drawers, desperately searching to find just one more pill, one more little white tablet of relief, Nick can feel the cloud of darkness is closing in on him. He’s tempted to run, to make one last dash, but he knows it’s too late for that. All he can do is pretend to be okay, hold it together for a little longer and pray that the storm will pass him one more time.
“What are you doing here?” Nick says, feigning apathy as Day walks into his room.
“I need help. Legion found Aaron. We need to protect him.”
“No,” Nick says. “You know who he is. And you know why he has to die.”
“He isn’t that person, I’ve known him my whole life. I can tell. He’s himself again.”
“For six hundred years, he spread the doctrine of the light. He hunted and killed your friends. You know what he did to Legion.”
“I know, but he’s different,” Day says.
“Don’t let your love blind you. The person you loved died when he embraced Petrus’s light. He even tried to kill you, didn’t he? Who was it who finally took down the Sword last time?”
“You know what happened.”
“I know the story. Everyone knows the story. But I don’t know what really happened,” Nick says.
Day pauses for a second, reluctant to play this game, but he needs the angel’s help. “I killed him,” he says.
“You did what you had to do. You gave your body to stop him, to make him newborn again. We have to stop him.”
“I’m the one who fought him in the end. And I can tell you he’s not that person anymore.”
“Isn’t he?” Nick asks. “I’ve watched him turn to the light completely. He let it in and embraced it faster than anyone I’ve ever seen. It’s only a matter of time until he starts killing for it again, purging this world of impurities. I don’t know about you, but I like some of those impurities. Fuck, you are one of those impurities. How long until your boy tries to cleanse you?” Nick asks.
“He deserves a chance. He should get a chance to be better.”
“Maybe one day, but not now. Petrus is too active. He wants the boy. Kill him yourself. Make him newborn again. Just delay things. Maybe in twenty years things will be safer. Maybe Petrus will be gone.”
“And maybe Legion will find him first next time. And then Aaron’s soul will be cast out forever.”
Nick doesn’t reply, but Day can see it in his eyes.
Day strikes the angel with his fist, wringing his knuckles against Nick’s smug chin.
“That’s the plan isn’t it?” Day says. “You want Legion to kill Aaron. You’re bound to train him and you want to be free.”
“I’m not doing it just for me. I’ll still be bound to Petrus. He’s holding me hostage. But I don’t have to let him win. If he gets control of the Sword again, it’ll be devastating. Are you so selfish that you would let that happen?”
“I’m not going to let it happen, but I’m not going to lose Aaron either.”
“You’re a fool and a hypocrite. You claim to serve bios, but you only serve yourself.”
“Bios is life. And what is more important to life than love?”
“Living.”
Day is silent.
“Let him die,” Nick says.
A moment passes. It all makes sense to Day now. “It was you wasn’t it? You sent Aaron to look for the Sword of God so that Legion would find him.”
Nick is hesitant, but he knows he has to play his hand now. He can’t let the Sword survive. “I couldn’t tell Legion where Aaron was or else Petrus would kill me.”
“Are you so stupid that you think you could’ve tricked Aaron into revealing himself if Petrus didn’t want you to? I’m not sure you know him well enough, but he’s really more of a ‘smite first, ask questions later’ kind of guy.”
“I know Petrus well. I was one of the fools who brought him to this world. We created five gateways so that Petrus could manifest himself in this world without having to use a human body. My core was used for his second incarnation. That’s how he captured my soul.”
“Five cores?” Day asks. The stakes are becoming clear.
“Two were used, two were destroyed. One has remained hidden. So much power is converging here. He has something planned.”
“And you’re playing right into it. If you were really defying Petrus, you’d be dead.”
“Or maybe I’m alive because he knows you’ll stop Legion,” Nick says. “Petrus has a plan. He can see things far clearer than we can. He knows what we’re going to do. The only way to beat him is to do something he can’t imagine. You need to do the unthinkable. You need to kill the person you love. You need to kill Aaron.”