Apocalypse | BTS ✓

45

"In the beginning, I will admit that I was afraid of you," Reine says as she stands before Seokjin. "Not only was I afraid of how I would come across to you because I needed to impress you, but also because of how powerful and intimidating your aura is. You demand to be the center of attention even with so many other powerful beings in the same room. You can wear down the spirits and bodies of others while barely lifting a finger because of the power you hold. You are Death, and from the moment I met you, I could tell that you are different from the others. You hold yourself differently."

She makes sure to show her change in demeanor. When she first met him, she did her best to hold her head high and not let her voice tremble as badly as her hands were, but she knows he saw right through that. She knows he could sense her fear from the moment she freed him, and no facade she put on would hide how terrified she was of him in that moment. In this moment, her shoulders are held back, her chin held high as she regards the Horseman of Death with a steady gaze that she refuses to let waver. She is not afraid of him - not anymore. He holds no power over Reine anymore; she has the power gripped tightly in her hand while he stands alone against her and the Archangels.

She has no reason to impress him - no reason to convince him of her character and her worth.

"That I do," he agrees, his scythe hanging loosely in his grasp as he regards Reine. "I was the first to accept the darkness, and I have had longer to understand it - to make it my own."

"Death is the most absolute thing in a human's life," Reine continues. "Some of us never live; we only survive. Some of us never know love, acceptance or hope. Some of us never know comfort and riches, only living with the bare minimum in all facets of life. But we all die - every single one of us. You, Seokjin - you were once the Angel of Life until you let the darkness corrupt you, and in turn, you became something absolute; you became Death."

He hums, nodding to himself as he waits to see where Reine is going with this. The Archangels stand beside Reine, ready to put themselves between the Queen and the Horseman if they need to. Reine's aura is shining brilliantly around her. Even though there are three golden beings standing next to her, Reine is the one shining the brightest in the room.

"To become something so necessary and inevitable like that," Reine says, shaking her head, "I can understand how that makes someone feel powerful - even invincible. You saw yourself as something more than the others; you saw yourself as someone above everyone else. You grew too confident in that feeling of being so absolute, Seokjin. That is your fatal flaw. Because you are not absolute; you are not inevitable. You are not necessary. You bring death where it is not meant to exist yet; you steal the lives of others before they are meant to move into the afterlife. You are nothing more than a nuisance and an embarrassment to the natural order of Death - the one you are trying so desperately to imitate."

"What is your fatal flaw, Reine?" he asks, his fingers flexing against his weapon. "What will be your inevitable downfall?"

Reine smiles. "I did fall. I fell so far and so hard that it seemed impossible for me to get back up. I would stand back on my feet only to be pulled back to the depths below me, and it felt like the entire world wished for me to be on ground level. So I stayed there. I stood on my two feet and I walked where I was being pulled instead of fighting against it to climb back up. I looked around and I saw the hungry, sad eyes from the depths of the sorrow I was in, and I realized that I do not need to be above everyone to save them. I can do that from right where I am standing. I was put on a pedestal the moment I was born, and I have been terrified of it ever since. But to contrast that, I was also afraid of being without it. What would the people around me think to see me fall from where they had their eyes locked on me? Who would I be without it? And when I fell, I realized that they don't care how high above them I stand; as long as I reach my hands out and offer my heart to them, they will accept me as I am. Not for who I thought I was supposed to be."