“Faith,” she says. “There’s that word.”
He scrunches his brow with concern. “Extinction is a new beginning. It is our only hope at finding salvation.”
On shaky feet, Rae stands. “I don’t want to live forever. I want to live, and then I want to die. In that order.”
A simple smile creases the thin skin of his face. “You don’t get to live. Nor do you get to die.”
“I’m stuck,” she mutters. “I’m a shadow.
I’ve always been a shadow. By plugging in, I thought I was making a decision I could finally own.”
“You believed ending the New Republic meant ultimate autonomy,” he says.
She looks down. The realization comes with a bitter taste. “I was wrong. I’ve never made a single decision in my life,” she says.
“You are the one,” he whispers. “The end of Alpha. The beginning of Omega. The end of all this violence and misery. The last detonation that will bring us together again. The survivors can build a new world. One where you can live in peace.”
“And my alphas–what will happen to them?” she asks, voice rising with shaking intensity. “My children? What the fuck will happen to them?”
The fragile devil takes the tank with the child away from her, hooks it back up to the altar, and the artificial light returns. “We should go. There is a lot to think about,” he mutters.
Tears cling to Rae’s eyelids. She has sacrificed repeatedly to keep love. Alls he wanted was a constant state of connection that enlightens the heart. And what did she get?
The chance to become some messiah?
As she follows him back to their room, she bows her head and listens to the silence outside of their footsteps. A barely audible hum comes from the other side of the wall. Is it the energy source he was talking about?
No–It’s something else. It’s the sound of life still breathing.
They continue walking.
Once more, the fragile devil shackles her. He tosses the keys around a nail in the wall.
Pushed to her limit, she hits the ground and screams. “Is this your idea of a cruel joke?”
A part of her wishes it was. But it’s not. She was born to a world that wanted to break her. This shit is par for the course.
From birth, they gave her a death sentence. She never had a chance at winning this.
The devil lights a candle near the ouroboros statue. He stares, mesmerized.
“What is it?” she asks.
He remains silent and motionless.
“I asked you a question. What is the statue?” she asks. “It looks like a gravestone.”
He turns back to her. “Tomorrow, I will ready the synthesis tank. You will degenerate there under my supervision and care. When the extinction comes, I want to be the first one to feel it. The power of the Alpha-Omega.”
“You’re insane,” she cries.
His hand lands around her wrist. Squeezing, he says, “Fate is no shallow madman. Fate is the code of the cosmos. There is no escape.”
There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn.
She lowers her voice. Fighting isn’t worth the loss of energy. “Please, let me see my family again. One more time. Please.”
The fragile devil keeps a candle lit for one moment. His eyes shine bright red with golden sparkles reflecting from the statue. “We lose them to time,” he says. “Think of me as a preacher. I will help you get through the terror of death. It will be painless.”