[SFW VERSION]
🌹 There's something wonderful in those who stare death in the face. Even in a world wracked by relentless calamity, flowers blossom between a sea of corpses, the shapeless crimson rivers marched over by mechanical instruments of mass...
[A reimagined ending to the LICENSE TO KILL event.]
[Requested by @WAREDGO]
Take your pick.
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The president has his back turned to us.
From the back, he appears confident, but he cannot hide the fact he is trembling.
Meanwhile, the two with their guns drawn at him are both steady as a rock.
The man attempts to suppress the quivering of his voice when he speaks. "Please, don't do something you'll regret."
There is a pause. He takes a short breath.
"What I've done, what I'm doing, and what I will do..."
Another pause.
"You've got to take it all into consideration. You can't let your personal feelings get in the way of all this. So please, think carefully about what the right decision is."
The two figures who are pointing guns at the man begin to speak. D shifts her eyes to me, the barrel of her gun trained forever on the back of the president's head.
"Decide," she says.
"All you need to do is make a choice," K adds, her eyes now also on me. "We'll handle the rest."
"Just keep in mind," D continues, "you mustn't make it personal. Whatever you decide, it..."
I take a few steps forward. Both trained assassins keep their eyes on me, watching as I wordlessly close the gap between myself, them, and the man whose life is on the line.
D's words begin trailing off, her focus warped by my sudden lapse in judgment. They expect me to think, but I don't wish to do such a thing. Having been apart of this operation for as long as I have, piecing together the true gravity of what goes on within Cycle of Life, I've learned that mercy sometimes is not the best option.
Above all else, an outcome where those deemed devoid of their humanity and moral end up surviving the deaths they so desperately deserve is not an outcome I will allow to come to pass.
Both K and D shut their mouths, lips pursed in tight lines while they watch me reach for their gun. I pry it right from D's fingers, and she does not resist. Out of disbelief or confusion, I'm not sure. In any case, I am the one bound to this choice.
Choice?
No, there was never any choice. The moment I learned this man lacked all respect for the living was the moment I decided there would be no life-or-death choice in the near future. Of course not. Why even bear the thought of letting a monster roam free? It doesn't matter to me what good he's done when the bad ends up outweighing the positive in the long run.
