Life Will Change

Chapter 84: The Will to Fight

Some of the events of the following scene are switched around for this story. But don't worry, the end results are still the same.

Begin

~Normal POV

Darkness. That was all Akira could see. It took him a moment to realize that he shouldn't be seeing anything... He felt his eyelids open. This darkness, the damp, enclosed feeling... He looked around and his suspicions were correct: He was back in the Velvet Room. He could see Igor and the twins were here like normal. He got up off his cot carefully; his head pounding with the reality of what happened.

"I'm... alive?" He muttered, softly. He looked at the familiar cell door and approached it as usual. Maybe they could explain what was going on. Wasn't he supposed to be dead?

Igor greeted him with his familiar unnerving grin. "In the end, your rehabilitation was not carried through. It appears I have overestimated you..."

Akira was barely listening. His head was still aching trying to figure this situation out... If he was here, then he wasn't dead, right? And if he wasn't dead then... Maybe everyone else was still alive too! His heart leapt with joy at the mere thought. Maybe this fight wasn't over after all... All he had to do was get out here, gather everyone up, and they could go get revenge on that phony God! The mission wasn't over yet.

"Where are my teammates?!" Akira snapped.

Right as he asked he regretted it; he should have remembered that Igor was too cryptic to answer him properly. Igor only chuckled in response.

"You incompetent prisoner!" Caroline shouted, whacking the ground with her baton.

"The assistance that we provided was all for naught." Justine said, frowning in disgust.

"Humans are more apathetic... and more foolish than I had thought them to be." Igor said, thoughtfully. "The world will soon see its ruin..."

"I DON'T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT RUIN!" Akira screamed. "WHERE ARE MY TEAMMATES?!"

Once again, Igor dodged the question. "...You have lost the game. You were meant to bring change to mankind as a Trickster, but it seems that was too much for you. In accordance with the game's rules, the defeated must pay a price. Your life is forfeit."

"What?!"

"Huh?!" The twins said, simultaneously. It seems they didn't know this was coming either.

"I sentence you to be executed." Igor said, casually.

"Executed?! Then I really am alive... and he won't answer me... I can't die yet... Not while they might still be alive!"

While Akira was thinking, he didn't notice the twins' reaction to this news. For the first time, they looked considerably distraught.

"M-Master, I don't believe I heard you correctly..." Caroline said. "You want us to... kill the prisoner...?"

"God's decree is absolute..." Igor answered, simply.

"God...?" Akira muttered. His mind went into overdrive trying to figure out why that response bothered him...

"My experiment has come to naught..." Igor continued. "Everything is over. Grant that man a swift death."

Akira stared down at the twins with pleading eyes. The only way out of this room was to talk Caroline and Justine down. Easier said than done. Arguing with Caroline was as effective as arguing with a brick wall. And Justine, while less hostile, always sided with her sister in the end. But a thought occurred to him, they were wardens here. If Igor knew where his teammates were, then maybe they did too... Maybe they knew if they were alive?