Janus 02.Redemption #Wattys2018

6.02 You are my door not a key.

"You can hijack my hardware and kill him. It's simple but there is a little problem. You can't actually do it so you want me to do that for you. I access your memories the way you access mine. You have never killed anyone but versions of yourself who never really mattered to you."

"Isn't it what everyone does?" Janus asked. "How many versions of you, did you kill before you started killing other people? Each one had a different name and a life that you terminated in order to go on. We are not that different Eden."

"The blood on my hand is my choice."

"I am helping you making another one."

"In case I kill Jim, Ed dies along with him. I can't kill Ed the way you can't kill Jim. We are in vitro equilibrium. Jim picked up the only man I couldn't let you kill. I have a strong feeling that you despise tea. Is black still your preferable choice?" Eden used the teapot to pure some tea on Janus' cup but coffee filled her cup.
"Any Gordian knot can easily be untied by blade. I die, you die. There is nothing more for Jim here."

"I cannot die. I am already dead. Jim will find someone else to take your place."

"That's your problem Janus, not mine."

"Once he removes himself from Ed, he dies too. How many versions of him are you willing to sacrifice to get the easy way out?"

"I guess you never were the life and soul of the party"

"Nope, I have always been my own party."

"All that you really want is for Jim to forgive you. You don't want to kill him. Forgiveness is the only blade that could break your bond. Blades are my expertise." Eden pointed out to Janus while purring some tea to her teacup. "So the real question is: do you really want to break your bond and set you both free or you enjoy pushing him to extremes to get your validation? Do you even remember what you did to him?"

Janus placed her cup on the table.

"I have no memory of it. It's a blind spot for me. You are the only one who can find it out. I had been searching for a key to unlock the door to it but it took me an eternity to realize that I didn't need a key but a door. You are my door Eden. Do it and you will be free. Ed will be free as well. All this will be nothing but a bad dream. Don't you want to wake up Eden?"

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* "The Gordian Knot is a legend associated with Alexander the Great. It is often used as a metaphor for an intractable problem (disentangling an "impossible" knot) solved easily by loophole or "thinking outside the box" ("cutting the Gordian knot"):

Turn him to any cause of policy,
The Gordian Knot of it he will unloose,
Familiar as his garter

— W. Shakespeare, Henry V , Act 1 Scene 1. 45–47"

* "The origins of the "Gordian knot," a term commonly used to describe a complex or unsolvable problem, can be traced back to a legendary chapter in the life of Alexander the Great. As the story goes, in 333 B.C. the Macedonian conqueror marched his army into the Phrygian capital of Gordium in modern day Turkey. Upon arriving in the city, he encountered an ancient wagon, its yoke tied with what one Roman historian later described as "several knots all so tightly entangled that it was impossible to see how they were fastened." Phrygian tradition held that the wagon had once belonged to Gordius, the father of the celebrated King Midas. An oracle had declared that any man who could unravel its elaborate knots was destined to become ruler of all of Asia.

According to the ancient chronicler Arrian, the impetuous Alexander was instantly "seized with an ardent desire" to untie the Gordian knot. After wrestling with it for a time and finding no success, he stepped back from the mass of gnarled ropes and proclaimed, "It makes no difference how they are loosed." He then drew his sword and sliced the knot in half with a single stroke..."