Weirdos IV: The Emerald Heart

Chapter 7: Two Sides of the Same Thing

It's summer break, and there's not a single student in sight inside Emerald's campus. The only people inside the school are the Emerald Guards, maintenance workers, or members of the Legion of Death. The deathly stillness and silence of the school grounds is enhanced further by the sinking sun whose pale golden light gives the school a lifeless and lonely atmosphere.

Inside one of the rooms in the Emerald Building, Rubio Talla is currently having one of his usual days. By usual, that means he's shackled on both hands and feet and he's enclosed inside a dome-shaped purple barrier. Scattered around him are the shattered remnants of his crystal butterflies. Everyday, without fail, RB would try to send his butterflies in hopes that they will find Ike or anyone from those who have fled from the school. Unfortunately, just like what happened to him a couple of months ago, the crystal butterflies always shatter after flying for just several feet.

Ever since he was imprisoned in this room, he never allowed anyone to touch him again. He would always kill anyone dumb enough to approach him without a barrier, and that forced the villains to always keep him contained. RB knows that he can easily get out of this prison, but using the Prime Destruction means that he's surrendering to Serafina—and he will never give that wretched woman what she wants.

RB himself doesn't look that good. Shadows have appeared under his eyes, and his purple and grey hair which used to be perfectly pristine is now ragged and uneven, thanks to his clumsy attempts to cut his hair whenever they get too long. He's also thinned considerably.

"Come on, why aren't you guys working?" RB said irately while staring at his shattered butterflies on the floor. "Of all possible time that you could not have worked, why does it have to be now? How convenient."

RB's power has also diminished drastically over the past weeks. He can no longer summon the hardest gemstones, including diamond and sapphire. Fortunately, he can still control his base gem which is amethyst. However, RB's energy gets drained a lot faster compared to his virtually bottomless stamina before.

The door of the room suddenly opened, and in came a guy with dark eyes and jet-black hair with middle-eastern features. RB threw the newcomer a sharp stare. Without any warning, one of his shattered crystal butterflies on the floor suddenly morphed into a spike that shot straight towards the guy. Fortunately, the newcomer was able to duck just in time.

"Wait. Slow down," the guy said, raising his hands. His expression was torn somewhere between amusement and fear.

"What do you want?" RB snapped at the newcomer.

The guy lowered his body with his hands still raised. "I'm Jelal. Jelal Habib. I'm supposed to stand guard at the door. I've been standing out there for a couple of hours already and I'm bored as hell."

"Do I look like I care?" RB replied.

"You don't," Jelal said with a faint smile. "I just want to. . . well, talk to someone. Ever since I got out, I haven't been able to talk to anyone. The students avoided me because I'm a villain, and I really can't relate with the oldies here."

RB's eyebrow rose. For some strange reason, this guy really looks familiar. "What do you mean by 'got out?'" he asked.

Jelal sat cross-legged on the floor before facing RB. "I'm a villain from the Time Citadel. Serafina just pulled me out of there along with four others a couple of months ago."

Realization finally hit RB. "I've seen you before already. I once had a trip there with. . . nevermind. What do you want from me? You do know of course that I murder everyone who enters this room?" he asked.

To his surprise, Jelal smiled. "That is one of the reasons why I wanted to talk to you. Also, I actually saw you murdering those villains when you were still free. You seem to be a really cool and badass guy—unlike all the other boring people in this school. You're strong, independent, and obviously doesn't bow down to anyone."