If You Can't Take My Sass, Fuck Outta Existence

18 | Scars

Lara admired Atalanta a lot. Her prowess, her personality, and most of all, her determination to fight for what she believes in. This admiration led her into wanting to be like the #1 hero.

She knew this was the worst timing, considering that Atalanta was still recovering from the traumatic experience of her kidnnaping a few hours back, but Lara was a curious girl. Nothing could halt her from her from her investigations.

She stared into Atalanta's soft brown orbs as she activated her vision. She completely regretted doing so, as she saw things she would rather erase from her mind. Atalanta held many secrets, and none of them are pleasant.

She saw a seven-year-old child being abducted for an alien experiment. She saw her pain and anguish as the people around her die, never to be seen by their families again. She saw the fear and horror reflected at the unhindered eyes of the #1 hero.

Lara watched as a much older-looking Atalanta escaped the hellhole with her sole companion, VoiceBot. She watched as the heroine pushed everything behind her as she struggled to live a normal life.

Atalanta soon joined TAPOPS and immediately clicked with another recruit. Lara smiled as the vision showed how the two's friendship gradually turned into love.

Lara's joy turned into horror when Atalanta received her first hit from her boyfriend. At first, it was just an occasional punch or forceful grabbing, until it evolved into beatings that usually rendered Atalanta severely battered and bruised.

As Lara continued to watch, she realized that Void wasn't just hurting her physically, but emotionally and mentally as well. He would call her a freak, and say less than pleasant words that would degrade her. Sometimes he would use his powers to trigger her fear, pain and misery, knowing that it would lead her to drown in the memories of her dark past.

Atalanta endured all of these, not showing any outward reaction to all of them as she waved away any concerns when someone sees her jumpy nature. However, Lara could see that she was slipping away, only holding on to a thin strand of love that she was feeling towards Void.

That was until she saw him with another girl.

Void was slowly becoming distant to Atalanta. She had initially felt relief since it also meant that Void doesn't hurt her as much. But then she knew of the other girl he was seeing, and it hurt her more than all of the beatings combined.

Void didn't tell her about the girl, so she confronted him herself. She tried to threaten him of breaking up, but he just shoved her hard against the wall and told her to shut up.

Atalanta had spent weeks alone, avoiding Void as she consoled her hurting heart. It had taken Void to beg for her forgiveness as he promised not to cheat with her anymore. Atalanta knew it was pure foolishness but she abandoned all reason and soon, they were together again.

But as The Engineer from the play Miss Saigon says, "Men will always be men." It didn't take long for Void to break his promise. The cycle repeated like a broken record playing the same tune again and again. Still, Atalanta did not let go of her love for Void, even if it meant being constantly subjected to pain. She held on until the last inch of her sanity.

It was during another torture session with Void when she finally snapped. Her body was already battered and she was bleeding in multiple places. All of the emotions that she's been bottling up overcame her, and she screamed with all of her power. Void was thrown backwards and he growled at her, getting ready to hit her again with his longsword.

Lara gasped as the last of the vision was shown to her.

Atalanta was running on pure adrenaline as she dodged the incoming attack. Her hand went straight to Void's side pocket and closed around the cool metal. It all happened so fast and the next thing she knew was Void lying lifeless on her feet as she held the gun in her shaking hands. Her face was contorted into something that showed a mixture of fear, anger and misery as tears flowed freely down her face.

Lara found herself unable to breathe normally as she was pulled out of the vision. Atalanta looked at her, a bitter smile playing on her lips as she guesses what Lara had done.

"You shouldn't have seen that." Atalanta didn't know what she had seen, but can deduce something based on the other girl's reaction.

Lara looked at her feet, tears pooling in her eyes. "I'm sorry, Atalanta," she whispered.

Atalanta's smile was strained as she looked at the crying girl. "Don't be. Just be glad it didn't happen to you." She walked towards the door and without looking back, she said, "It was the greatest mistake I've made, killing him. I never knew anything." With that, she went out of the room, slamming the door shut behind her.

Written by Eau_de_Glace