An Anon's Journey: Remnant Act 1

Ending 3: Ace of Spade

Numbness, such a horrid feeling. 

They say that Man would rather be feeling pain than nothingness. Usually, this is meant as boredom but, as Cinder would attest, numbness was worse than physical torment. Her whole body felt like it was shutting down. The pain she initially felt as Hope's blade split her spine open was now winning, replaced by a void of feeling. Her heart still beat but no matter what, the commands she sent to her limb were met with silence and motionlessness.

That feeling was... Awful.

The lack of control over her own limbs was debilitating for her psyche. The one thing she was sure she could control... Gone. Worse, for all she knew, she could have soiled herself and not even know. Any feeling of liquid or solid waste, of heat, could not be sensed. But the humiliation was the least of her worries. For the first time since meeting Salem, she felt...

Fear.

This lack of control over herself was the most afraid she had been in her entire life. Worse than the beatings at the orphanage, worse than the fear of not getting any dinner if she didn't do her work at the Glass Unicorn, worse than the Immortal Witch's very presence when she was scornful.

Her eyes trembled as she was picked up from her temporary tomb of rubble, held in a princess carry in the arms of a moronic assassin she found eternally distasteful. All she could do was slowly move her head around as she was carried away, a prepared Bullhead hidden away nearby. Her head lulled side to side, looking around, searching for something. As they made their way down the rubble of the broken tower, a section of debris exploded outward violently.

"Good grief!" Mercury yelled in fright. "What was that!?"

Emerald entered Cinder's view as she unclasped her sickle-revolvers, Thief's Respite. As soon as the dust cleared, the thief flinched. The Jabberwock rose, howling in pain as darkness snapped its bone back into place and filled its scars with calcified shadows. All looked in fright at the awful beast's regeneration, then at what it was facing.

He Called Hope, still clinging to life, fruitlessly trying to get up.

Emerald's hands began to shake, the gifted muffler warming her neck. She gritted her teeth as a pain she didn't understand ravaged her heart. Many emotions swirled in her gut, like fear and anguish. Her mind tried to rationalize but failed. Only a scant few hours they spent together, yet she had already grown fond of the strange man. it was mad... but she couldn't help it. As soon as she had gotten to know him, this man who was once homeless, this kindred soul who's known filth and loneliness like her, was about to be taken away into the hereafter.

Even Mercury winced as the Wyvern opened its mouth to strangulate the otherworldly seer with its prehensile tongue. He wasn't as fond of Hope as either of his comrades but even he wouldn't wish death by digestion on him. Had to be one of the worst ways to kick it he could imagine.

Cinder herself breathed heavily, her vision waning as she drifted slowly into unconsciousness. But as soon as she saw Hope, her eyes were wide open and her heart pumped like a jackhammer. He lived still, after all of this? She groaned and moaned, the numbness supplanted by pain. She managed to lift her arm, reaching towards the man who crippled her.

"N-no!" She struggled out.

The Beast's fangs closed around his neck and he closed his eyes, sneering bitterly. Cinder's eyes burst into flames, a burning command erupting from her throat like magma.

"STOP!!!"

The tip of the Jabberwock's fangs pieced the skin of Hope's neck before freezing in place. The beast turned its massive head to face the one who dared defy it, meeting Cinder's gaze.