Us and Them

The Shape of Things to Come

   Josh grunted as he pushed up on a sewer cover, shoving it off to the side and hoisting himself up out of the tunnel. DEMA's streets were completely empty, the darkness made the concrete city nearly freezing in the late fall weather. Buildings had all their windows shuttered, but he could occasionally see a small pair of eyes peeking out from between the cracks in windows. He rolled out his neck and took a deep breath before setting his sights on the group of towers that looked over the smaller buildings. He wasn't very familiar with the city, having left when he was only a teenager. After several dead ends and wrong turns, he finally found himself at the base of the towers. Nico's resided just beside the shortest tower, which was home to Nills. The only way in would be to walk up a spiraling staircase, if he could gain entry through the door. But that would risk getting caught in a dangerous position. So, he would have to climb the face as Clancy had done. He rounded the tower until he found a good shot at an entrance, a window some eight hundred feet from the ground.

   "Why is everything about this war such an inconvenience?" He mumbled, wiping his hands on his pant legs.

   Josh started feeling the stone wall for hand holds, some were barely enough for him to grab onto. He was exhausted, but driven by the adrenaline of being at the finish line. He only worried about what the NEDs meant about Clancy changing. Maybe it had been for his own survival. He couldn't have possibly just given up.

                                          •••

Clancy wheezed as he dropped to his knees, Nico's now lifeless body in a heap in the corner. His head pounded as he was trying to keep Vessels in the fight while going through a rather excruciating ritual. It had taken weeks to prepare for it and the final product was just now coming to fruition. Nico had called it spirit binding, where one, with enough power, could use psychokinesis to pull a physical spirit out of a body and consuming it to obtain its characteristic s and influence. It was considered experimental and often required all nine Bishops to be pulled into an empty Vessel for it to work. In turn, it eliminated the need for NED horns in order to channel psychokinetic power. He had to release his control over the Vessels after some time of trying to wrestle the two tasks at once. Once he let go, he blacked out.

He was down for only a matter of minutes, but it had felt like days when he finally came to. He pushed himself to his feet, stumbling over to the nearest wall to hold himself steady. He followed the wall to a glass window and looked at himself. The veins that went up his neck had turned to a black tone all the way behind his ears and the veins in his arms reacted the same way. What little black oil paint that remained on him looked a light gray in contrast. His pupils were dilated, red irises a small ring as the whites of his eyes turned the same black. Clancy pushed off the wall, wobbling a bit and looked out upon the battlefield. He snapped his fingers and a shockwave was sent across the perimeter of the city, knocking back anyone who didn't have proper footing.

His show was interrupted when he saw something flop through the tower window opposite of him in the reflection of the glass. They stayed down for a few seconds, the only sound in the room panting as the other struggled to catch their breath. Clancy turned to face the intruder, voices in his head clamoring in question. The figure rose and stepped forward, pulling two objects from his waistband.

"Clancy?"

The voice was familiar. No, not just familiar, warm and friendly. As if they were two childhood friends catching up in a cafe in their hometown. Clancy relaxed, but his mind has alarms blaring.

"What are you doing?! You have the power of a god! He would make a quite nice Vessel to bring the surrender of our enemy!" His subconscious hissed. "Hesitation is ruled by emotion! Get on with it!"

Clancy straightened, taking a few careful steps forward. He was practically blind right now. He did not expect to be put in such a weakened state.

"That is not my name. Not anymore. Clancy was weak, emotional." He replied, voice sounding as if several people were speaking at once. "I am Blurryface. The High Bishop. Nine in One."

Josh's eyes widened and he shook his head in disbelief. "Clancy, please-"

"Enough!"

The building shook and Josh took several steps back, gripping an antler tight in each hand. There was no way he was going to be able to beat Blurryface with psychokinesis alone like he'd hoped. The other had yet to even comment about the antlers. He decided to test a theory.

Josh took a deep breath and put the antlers back into his belt loops. "I apologize, maybe I have overstepped my bounds. Would you be willing to come to a truce? I didn't want this war. I just wanted the people I care about to be happy and safe."

"If you didn't want this war, then why are you here?" Blurryface inquired. "Happiness is fleeting. Emotions cause quarrels and conflict. This is what drives you, is it not? You felt wronged by the way my Municipality operates and the values we have. We were on the right path to ensure wars and conflicts of all types would be unnecessary through conformity. People cannot quarrel if they are all united under a common belief. Feelings cannot be hurt if they do not exist."

"The way DEMA operates is vile. Encouraging people to give up their lives so that you may live through their bodies and have the means of control is disgraceful. And you can't say that emotions are nonsensical and useless because you are ruled by one emotion: fear."

"Fear is not an emotion. It is a tool. Just as you have used the fear of being controlled to sway your companions."

"I didn't scare them into fighting with me. We all agreed that eventual death by our own hand after a life of trivial, repetitive tasks was no way to live. I mean, you've seen outside of these walls! Whether you would like to see that or not. You fought Nico tooth and nail to be with the Banditos–"

"This conversation is going nowhere." Blurryface interrupted dismissively. "There will be no truce. There will only be unification under DEMA. So, you will surrender and tell your army to submit or I will simply take what I want. This time you won't get in my way."