Artificial 7: Genesis Requiem

Chapter 16: Elias Gustafsson

Narration: While everyone was settling in for the evening,
Selena went to check in on Ventus,
who was very much awake.
"Hi!"
He says in the most innocent tone.
"You good?"
Selena asked.
"Yep! I got some strong painkillers for my headaches."
Selena softly smiles at him.
"That's good. I'll be downstairs if you need anything."
Ventus gives her the thumbs up,
and Selena closes the door and returns to the bar,
since the other seats were taken.

Male Terra sits on the seat next to her and starts drinking some water.
"I know we should be focused on the mission right now, but you and Seth had a pretty bad argument. If you don't mind me asking.......... what exactly caused it? You were speaking as if you knew him personally."
He says softly in a low tone.
"The twins have a contract with me, and they know Seth on a more personal level than me. After the trip to Eden and we had some downtime, the twins saw my memories and even one of my parent's killers. They told me they recognized him and that Seth killed him twice. So I started asking more questions about him."

Flashback:

Selena read Seth's old file from 2016 when he went under his Demon Council handel that Kenneth made a report about,
then, after the war,
Selena found a file on vigilantes that matched Seth's Demon Council handle description,
built a crime profile of him, and through logic and reasoning,
figured out how he lived,
how he was raised,
mistreated, abused, etcetera.

Then,
with the twins reading her thoughts and memories,
Selena asked the twins everything about him and made comparisons to the file she read and built on him.
The twins shared their memories with her,
so she got to see exactly how Seth fought, talked,
and acted.

In the present: " I know he has emotionally shut down twice, and it reminds me of my younger self so much so that it pisses me off. When I lost my parents, I cried, and I cried, and eventually shut down emotionally myself. Having Shimura there and Himiko, too, helped out greatly, and eventually, I got tired of crying and decided to do something about it rather than woe is me every time someone close to me gets hurt. I've seen my fair share of friends dying, but keep soldiering on."

Terra just listens to her and understands where she's coming from.
"Alright then."
Terra finishes his water and turns in for the night.
Eventually,
everyone, but Selena goes to bed.
While everyone else is in bed and Selena isn't watching Seth,
the sword corrupts Seth's dreams, revealing Clay training Seth in his mind and showing him what all he could be if he just cast aside his humanity.

The sword stimulates his brain,
causing rushes of dopamine,
and Seth goes from twisting and turning to sweating,
and to finally smiling as his dream ends with everyone,
but Zoey, Yuzuhara,
both Terras and Ventus are dead on the ground with a pool of blood around him. Clay puts a hand on his shoulder,
saying he's proud and that he'll mold him into the greatest devil ever.
Both share a chaotic laugh as they walk into the distance and cause destruction wherever they go.
Meanwhile,
on Mt Lucifer.

Clay appears before a human resembling Genesis with a long black coat that goes past the legs,
unbuttoned,
shirtless with abbs showing,
military grade pants and belt,
combat boots,
long red hair,
red eyes,
and sharp, pointy teeth like a shark. "Who the hell are you?"
He asked,
but Clay doesn't give him a response, prompting him to aim his military rifel at Clay with one hand.

Clay blitzed him so fast that by the time his brain processed,
he was already on the ground,
coughing up spit as Clay retracts his fist as it smokes from one punch.
"I don't take orders from you, twinkie ass."
The gunman looks up and shoots Clay until he runs out of ammo,
whereas Clay instantly regenerates. "Didn't you hear, boy? There's a new sherif in town that's calling the shots, and you're looking at him."
The gunman goes to reload,
but Clay crushes his hand under his boot.