I ran around a corner, continuing down the highway. I had been traveling for ten minutes now, and there was no sign of Infinite. Which had brought both a sense of relief and paranoia.
Until now.
My body locked up. My eyes went wide. He stood on the ledge of the highway, not bothered by the height or lack of a railing. Infinite pushed up his mask with two fingers before crossing his arms.
"More ants to crush," he muttered to himself. "I wonder if this wold can offer me a real challenge before the end."
Infinite's gaze shifted to the clouds below. "And as if to answer, the world sends me this." He knew I was there already, without even needing to turn around. He sensed me.
Infinite turns around. "A trembling child."
Was he insulting or speaking his thoughts? Since I've had to survive off little food so many times in my life, I was not a healthy weight, much smaller than I should be. It has gotten better, but you can still see my ribcage and spinal column at certain angles.
I had the urge to run. But I couldn't move, fear rooted me in my place. I was tired from running halfway across the city. A part of me knew that if I ran away, I wouldn't get far. Infinite would find me and put an end to my cowardice on the spot.
I blinked, only for a second. Infinite was right by my side, whispering in my ear. I recoiled but didn't move, stiff. I didn't know if he was keeping me held in place by some type of magic or if it was my complete and utter terror that made my body stick to the place I stood.
"Are you going to fight and die here? Or run away in fear again?" he inquires. Infinite's voice sent shivers down my spine. Did he mean all those months ago? Or a short while ago in the city?
The faces of my friends that he killed flashed in my mind for a moment, only when I blinked. Does he remember what he did to them? To me?!
I take a step back, and then another. Fear took over any exhaustion I felt. Infinite tilts his head, ever so slightly. Mockery or curiosity? He sniggers under his breath, knowing I was terrified. Infinite's hands became fists, ready to finish me off for good this time.
Questions filled my head. Do I stay? Do I run?
I've run enough. If I run, Infinite will see me as a bigger coward than I am. If I fight, I may die. But that's an issue we deal with every second of everyday, that is what war is.
If I'm going to die, I'm going to die fighting!
Sonic's voice echoed in my head. "She's tougher than you guys think."
"If you ever need someone to talk to, I'm always here, okay?" Amy assured, smiling kindly.
"You're the only one I feel like I can have a normal conversation with," Leviathan admits. Crossing his arms, shaking head at the ground. Where was he now?
"I'll be with you to the end of the line, sister!" Neon hugs me, bright blue eyes shimmering with joy. But then the next second they are closed, blood runs down her forehead.
All these people in my life... They help me gather courage deep within me. My hands became fists, I shifted into a fighting stance. One hand was ready to unclip my assault rifle from my belt.
"Very well," Infinite smiled. "I will teach you fear, and then pain." He points a sharp finger at me, then crushed his hand into a fist. "And then... well, at least the fear and pain will end."
Infinite levitates into the air, arms crossed, the lightning bolt over his left eye pulsing red as the Phantom Ruby's stripes moved. Knives of fear dig into my heart. I haven't been this scared in a long time. He is going to kill me. I knew this for a fact.
I'm just going to be another body to bury, lost to war, another on Infinite's kill list.
No, I can't think like this. If I'm going to die, I must give the others a fighting chance. Wound Infinite do something to affect his powers. Anything.
Infinite outstretched his arms. Colours negative again for a moment. I was floating, just a few feet above the ground. There was nothing to grab. The stupid Metropolitan highways don't have any railing system that separated the lanes of the road that I could grab onto, or at least they don't now. This left me as a floating idiot. A floating who was about to die.
My head whips around. I outstretching my arm, firing my grapple. It latched onto a railing. It pulls me towards it, I grab the bar. There was a large, door-less frame that lead into a building nearby. I reach for the doorframe, pulling myself inside. If I am going to have any chance of facing Infinite, I can't have the risk of plummeting to my death added to my disadvantages list. The distortion and mechanical glitches filled my ears. My body flopped onto the floor.
"You must be straggler who got left behind," Infinite sighing. He is going to mock me the whole time, isn't he? "The strong will always vanquish the weak. You only have your frailty to blame."
Red cubes surrounded Infinite, appearing out of this air. They swarmed me. It caught me off guard, I was only able to dodge a few before one of them hit me. It knocked me off my feet, though it didn't hurt. The world around me turned into shades of red. More of the cubes were summoned, they clustered together, forming several cannons.
"What you're seeing isn't real" Knuckles voice echoed in my head. That almost half an hour ago. Why weren't they talking now? Did the Phantom Ruby screw up the comm channels again? I reminded myself to stay calm. Everything's an illusion. Those replicas, an illusion. Just a bunch of soulless fakes.
The cannons aimed at me, I dodged them, flipping and twisting. They may be fake, but the round spheres that are used as ammo still hurt. This continued for a few seconds, then the red hue on the world faded away. What was that?
I grab my assault rifle from my belt, aiming up at Infinite. I pull the trigger, letting out small bursts of bullets. Infinite easily deflected them all, forming a wall of cubes in front of him. The bullets nearly hit me when they ricocheted off his barrier.
"Fool," he growled. "What did you expect the outcome to be?"
I didn't know, I was desperate. It was obvious too, wasn't it?
I reloaded, sending bullets his way as I barely dodge his attacks. I got sent to the red reality twice during my heart racing, sweat inducing fight for survival.
This continued for several minutes, I was getting tired. I aim my rifle up at the monster again, the trigger clicked. Empty. I had used my last magazine. The chances of surviving just shrunk almost nothing at that moment. I chucked the gun at Infinite, who shifted out of the way, stifling a laugh. My hand reaches for my holster. I held up my handgun and fired. Not one of them hurt Infinite.
In the last five minutes I've fought with him, I haven't landed a single damn hit. I needed a strategy.
So, like an idiot, I jump up towards Infinite. Foot first. Infinite moved out of the way of my boot, grabbing my ankle with one hand. What he didn't see was the grenade in my hand, I tossed it at him once he threw me away.
I heard an explosion when I hit the floor of the empty room. A growl followed. I couldn't tell if it was pain or annoyance. I looked up, getting to my feet, gun in hand. Infinite floated a few feet from where he was, smoke clearing. I steadied my hand with my other arm, aimed and pulled the trigger.
The sidearm let out a bang. The bullet merely grazed Infinite's arm, he twisted his body to avoid a fatal shot. Blood still leaked down Infinite's right limb. Infinite looked at me, more pissed off than hurt.
"Pathetic," he spat. "I forgot how desperately the feeble cling to life."
Feeble. That word had many meanings, thin, cowardly, ineffective, frail. But there was always the one definition that feeble meant: weak. If I was as "weak" as Infinite thought I was, then I would have died long ago. Either from what I've been through or by my own hand.
Infinite's body started shaking while he floated midair. All a sudden, his back arched at an unnatural angle, the Phantom Ruby glowed brighter than I have ever seen it. He was covered in a red, then purple light for a moment.
He looked down at me with new eyes. Infinite pushes up his mask, floating higher. He outstretched his arms, balls of energy glowing red in his hands. Infinite throws them at me. I jumped up to avoid the first, which harmlessly hit the ground. I leaped again when the second came, jumping to the side.
"Seems like behind that cowardice is a spark of defiance," he compliments. "And those eyes... I feel like we've met before."
No, before he murdered my comrades, I never knew anyone who could possibly be like him. I mean, I've seen a few jackal's before, but I doubt that he could have been any one of them. Infinite sounded like he was talking about before the war, I had no idea why that sense filled me. But I tell myself that he must be talking about all those months ago.
Infinite hurled another ball of glitching mass at me. My eyes widened before it landed at my feet, it sent me up into the air. Another came, I launched my zipwire at the ground. The grapple pulled me down before the energy could hit my head.
I gasped for air. My bandana not making it any easier. I tugged it down, taking steady breaths, trying to relax my racing heart. I glared up at Infinite, teeth bared, growling.
He killed my friends. I must not give up. Sweat ran down the side of my face.
"You... I remember you," Infinite says, placing two fingers on his forehead, pushing up his mask again. "You've faced me before. You ran away then in fear for your survival. You lived then, yet you throw it all away now. I'm curious what motivated you."
I leaned on my knee as I got up. I don't know what he was talking about. He continuously sounds like he's implying something else, like we've run into one another before this war began and I made it my life mission to avenge my Squad. If I did know Infinite, he has changed too much for me to recognize him. I can only think of one possible person who he could have been. But the memories were blurry. I had spent so much time trying to forget, some started to fade away after ignoring them for so long.
There was a glimmer in the corner of my eye. My Ruby. I quickly snatched it up, not taking my eyes off Infinite in fear that he will teleport or something worse.
Infinite glows again. Cannons manifested out of the air, levitating in a line on both Infinite's right and left side. They aimed at me. They were shaped differently from the others that shot me in the red dimension, these were filled with explosive shells... I could tell, these models are used by some militaries.
"However, this will be our final good-bye."
Is this how I'm going to die?
The giant guns fired. I blocked my face with arms, not wanting to see the giant shells tear into me. A warmth creeped up my arm, into my frame, flooding my system. Energy. A power boost through my body and into my bloodstream.
I opened my eyes when death never came. I removed my arms just in time to see the bombshells glitch and faded slightly, enough so that I could see through them. They went through me, I felt a weird force try to tug me back, like a spirit passing through me. The shells exploded behind me, leaving me untouched.
What? How...? Is this a dream? Am I not real?! Is this all some game? My eyes were staring wide at the black area where the detonation happened. Questions flooding my brain.
Or did I die a long time ago? No, I feel pain. I'm able to be hurt. What the hell is happening?!
"What?!" Infinite questions just as confused as I was. I instantly whip around to face him.
Infinite brought his fist to his chin, thinking. Looking at the ground, searching his mind for answers. "How is this possible? It can't be... How did you?"
He looked back at me. Hands held out to me. The cannons fired again. I jumped as high as I could, avoiding the bombs. But Infinite expected this. His mask was close to my face. His sharp toed shoe met my stomach in an aerial roundhouse kick. I was knocked back, slamming into the floor, my Ruby still in my fist. The medication Knuckles gave me was starting wear off, pain was impossible to not feel.
If my mind wasn't preoccupied with so many other things, I may have questioned how familiar that kick was.
"No matter. They only have two days left," Infinite taunts. His one yellow eye staring down at me. "Let them contemplate the inevitable."
I groaned in pain as I tried to get up. Only to collapse. I was too weak. No more energy to spare. But I needed to keep fighting! I must.
"We will meet again soon, (Y/N)," he says, turning and slowly floating away. Leaving me powerless on the floor.
What?! How does he know my name?! What he said then, was one of the most disturbing things he has ever done. He knew who I was. I tried to get up again, pressing my trembling hands down on the floor, not wanting to allow Infinite to just fly away.
My eyelids were heavy. My arms were shaking. I drop back down on my stomach, making pain shoot up into my body with a gasp.
My own name kept echoing in my head. Infinite's voice repeated it, over and over. Never ending. It didn't stop until the darkness muted his voice and numbed my senses.