Agent of The Nine

CHAPTER VIII: IT'S LETTING GO

"Wake-Wake-Wake up, Jovian. Hurry, Your task finishes soon." whispered the voices of the sleeping Jovian in an echoey immersion, waking up with a mild headache and with a slight pain from his side. Barely capable of opening his eyes, his vision remained very much blurry. But, through the blurriness, he could see light, hear birds chirping from beyond and feel the warm air flow inside the pod. He got up on his feet, the numbness of his feet barely felt the freezing ground of the pod. He followed the light, reaching his hand out like he's reaching the heavens above. As he exited the confined space of the pod, his leg stumbled on its frame, causing him to fall down on the ground face flat. The Jovian groaned in pain, having only one arm couldn't save him from the fall. His hand caressed the ground, feeling the grass between his coiled fingers wave with the air. He dug his fingers inside, feeling crumbs touching him as they fell into the hole he created. And there laid the Jovian helplessly, feeling quite empty. Reminiscent to the hopelessness of Arroyo. "Soil... Earth?" He whispered as he continued to rub his fingers around, and his visions finally came to him.

Xur looked up from the ground, seeing beautiful greenery all around him. Trees prospering in their times and flowers blooming everywhere. Creaks of some old roads turned into grass and vehicles with only their rusted skeletons remaining. He looked up to the sky to witness the shining sun. The same sun he used to rarely ever see this bright before. "Ah, so this is what the sun feels like in this skin..." Whispered Xur to himself, as if he never experienced the sun before. "It burns.." he continued. The Jovian sat on the soil beside a rose. He touched the rose from its base and gave it a whiff of smell. At first, he couldn't smell anything. Confused as he was, he gave it another try. "Rotten." he whispered with befuddled eyes. It is at that point that the Jovian realized that this ill-omened skin is the reason why he can no longer feel or experience the small things he enjoyed in his past life. The trees, the radiant sun, the flowers, they are all figments of what Xur used to be. Memories of sorts. But, his metamorphosis has changed how his new skin reacts to all things. It has also shifted his perspective of all things around him. Drab and dull seemed to be what he felt all the time. He thought it was all temporary. That is when he finally ended the life of the murderer that wiped out his dear village. He thought that his life would be back to normal, back to calmness. But, the revenge had done nothing, it had not created any peace or calmness for the Jovian; only an abyssal void inside of his heart. Attempting to fill it up with anything he remembers from his past. But, it slips right back out.

The Jovian is enraged. He pulled out the flower right from the soil and threw it away with his good hand. His inevitable fate became his demise and has no escape from it. He calmed down and laid back on the ground. The anger had seemed to consume all the energy he had left ever since the ravage. He watched the blue sky from above as the clouds moved beside each other. Even when the sun rays directed at him, burning his skin, he seemed unbothered by it, and remained locked towards the sky. The Jovian closes his eyes and falls to slumber once more.

Moments later, footsteps were heard from a distance. "Could this be who he was talking about?" Said a staticy voice from afar. As the footsteps got closer, Xur slowly opened his eyes to see what or who disrupts his sleep. He slowly got up and turned his head to the direction of the voice. He saw a man with a rather strong chin and half closed brown eyes with dark circles underneath them. He had black, short hair and a small vertical scar on the right side of his lip. He wore heavy plated armor and defensive pauldrons with what looked like a pump-action shotgun strapped to his back, both shaped rather fit for his body. On his right was a ghost: A rhombus shaped robotic figure floating around with one eye in the middle. The man gave a concerned face as he slightly leaned forward with his right hand holding the stock of the shotgun from his back.

"You there! Identify yourself." Yelled the man as he slowly and reluctantly walked towards the Jovian.

"Does it matter?" Replied Xur after a moment of silence, as he watched the man scared of approaching him any further.