Pain Purity and Apocalypse

Chapter 9: Wrong to Right and Right to Wrong

Thursday, May 17, 1993
(Location: RORO)

"Listen, the red haired one isn't to be trusted, but Lok, he's alright. I can see the resolve in his eyes, he wants to help for sure." Says a raspy, smooth tone. A slick haired, scarlet eyed Demon sits hunched across from Jessica at one of the entrance hall's tables. His beard falls into a sharp point, and his brows arch cleanly across his sunken eye sockets. His harp claws, painted in shimmering silver, flick a defaced one hundred lier coin as he stares intently upon a chess board that lays between them. He's a soldier of RORO, one of the few elite soldiers in Jessica's division. A dull, yellow light flickers above them, radiating a slight buzzing. Jessica takes one of her glass pieces, her queen, moving it diagonally three spaces, and takes one of the Demon's white pawns.

"How can you be sure, once an Angel, always an Angel. I'm surprised that you, a Demon, can stand to have rats like them in this building— your move." Jessica replies, her scowl, unchanged as always. He studies the board, and takes his left bishop, sliding it down four spaces, he's inline with her king now.

"Those are the old days, Jess... The worst days— check your move." She aggressively slams her knight to the side of his bishop.

"The entire system of soul transportation and collection has degraded to a tragic mess, it's all because of the Angels—" He shifts his bishop down two squares, interrupting her.

"No! AOME's Angels, the fallen Angels, they are the problem. Don't go roping Heaven's Angels into that radical group." She responds by taking one of his knights, lining up her queen with his king.

"Check. Malachy, don't tell me you feel for those varmints?"
"Well..." He starts.

"Oh, dear lord."
"I feel for those varmints. Not Jude, not the elders of that dumpster fire— Just, the generation that defied God without a choice, they should be forgiven. Take it from me, I defied God—" Jessica can't contain her snickering, shaking her head with amusement.

"Sorry, you've done much more than the word 'defied' can be used to represent your sins... Sorry, continue?" His eyes flash a deep red, but he brushes her mockery off. This is RORO, here, Demons have to be somewhat civilized.

"Okay, listen, I know what I did, but Lok had no choice or ability to see the wrong. To put it simply, AOME has made wrong right, and right wrong. Even I know that's some pretty messed up bullshit and, i've committed atrocities."
"Case and point, AOME deserves no praise. If it makes this little argument better for you, I feel neutral towards AOME's newest generation of monsters. Lok though, we can't sit here and let him off the hook for murdering our leader. He murdered, The Grim Reaper, the president of the entire race of Reapers, there has to be some punishment here!— Check mate."
"Damn." Jessica lays his king flat across the board.

"You're pretty good."
"And you're pretty terrible."
"And I don't know how to play chess?" She turns suddenly, Rio hangs above her head, his lens blinking curiously down at the scattered chess pieces.

"Bloody hell, Rio!"
"Apologies." Malachy stares up at the small bot with questioning eyes.

"Shouldn't you be in the security office, or whatever?"
"What security office?— I am the security."
Jessica lets out another few, muffled snickers.

"I am, it's not a lie, i'm the security system! What is there to possibly laugh at here?"
"The fact that the engineer who made you thought that AI needed to be more 'sentient' , well here you are, a personality with flaws that we can't fix, they are encrypted into your permanent database!" If Rio had a mouth, it would have dropped right then. His singular eye stares, unblinking.

"That's very insulting, my flaws are what makes me, me, and since you can't fix that unless you destroy me, I guess you're just going to have to live with a flawed security system!" Jessica spreads out the fingers of her right hand. Forming from particles of white light, her death scythe morphs into view.