Squander Not Thy Joys

[Weapon]

"Oh." They said emptily, turning their eyes back to the sky where the battle had resumed—ships carving each other apart in silent fury. Ignoring her hand, Bellamy stood up and began to walk east, their shoulders sagging. "I've finally gone insane."

Somehow, Kimiko was already walking beside Bellamy, as if there was no transition between her sitting and moving. She quizzically tilted her head at them.

"What do you mean?"

Shaking their head softly from left to right, Bellamy simply continued walking. The coast, which would've still been miles away, came into view after passing through a small swath of trees. The pair stood above a small cliff, with a settlement visible below—lights twinkling in windows, smoke rising from chimneys, the gentle hum of life continuing despite the carnage overhead.

Sitting down, they laid back and rested their head in their palms, watching the warships carve each other apart in orbit.

"I'll make you a deal," Bellamy said, the lightshow not leaving their sight as they spoke.

Kimiko watched the contrast of calm and chaos play out. A blue morpho butterfly landed upon her shoulder, resting there. She righted her head and looked at the display in low orbit.

"What sort of deal?"

"This place, this world. They bomb it, don't they? Every last settlement." They spoke, their gaze momentarily shifting to the town below.

"If this is a dream, I'll wake up and you'll get what you want, right? And if it isn't," Bellamy paused a moment, their eyes returning to the battle. "Then I'll die here the way I should have, five years ago."

Her eye closed as she thought about that. The little morpho fluttered in front of the two of them, circling around.

"Is that what you believe, then? Well, continue."

"It is." They said, as the debris of the engagement began to fall upon the landscape of the Legionnaire's mind. The ground itself began to crack, their inner world's surface fracturing into islands, drifting apart with void between.

"Sorry, Aunt Lorna," Bellamy spoke softly, as the first warheads began to fall. A few sputtering, pathetic exoatmospheric intercepts punctuated a rain of falling stars, detonating magnificently on the horizon over larger towns and cities in the distance. A single tear ran down Bellamy's cheek as half a dozen warheads plummeted towards the settlement below.

And yet, oblivion would not come. It was as if something was keeping them safe, despite the explosions. The wind of fire passed over them, flames and debris and heat passing by uneventfully. Only Kimiko's eyepatch flew away, revealing a stark sight: The socket was empty, and in its place, was a void twinkling with distant stars. Surrounding the socket were crystal veins that grew like taproots around the voideye. Glowing mists of purple and blue flowed from it, as Kimiko's other eye now glowed purple.

"No. This is running. Escape from pain. You will come back here, again and again. And this hell cannot come to pass."

---

Recruitment | Task Force Prometheus | ICN FIRESTORM