ATEEZ: Remnants

[The Man with the Black Fedora - The End]

When you feel lonely, miserable, scared, or afraid, who do you turn to but yourself? The mortals believe there are two sides to one coin. Two faces, yes – the past, and the future. How simplistic their minds can be. Why choose the coin when you can become more? I find it fascinating. Your youths seem to understand – they can become more. But they are your chosen, for my challenge.

Their lives are not a game.

Oh, but on the contrary, they are. This has always been a game. The moment your youths challenged my beginning, my end, this is what it has become. I have placed the doors, the passageways – I have created the journey, but the choice to take it is up to them.

Lies, you give them no choice.

I give them what they need. Your youths are only youths in just a moment of time. Change is ever present. Still, I have even graced you a wonderful opportunity: the chance to see that very moment in multiple different faces. And yet, they will still lose their prime, and you will lose your wings.

They will reach their dreams.

How amusing. They will entertain me nonetheless. Perhaps you are the two-faced one. You give excuses, having already fallen into despair, and yet you still hope. You ignore the nightmare; you ignore the reality. And just like you, I will make your youths blind to their nightmare, to their reality. I see the past and the future, but your present lies in hypocrisy. Their cries will come from your false reality.

My youths are much better than I am. That is why they are the ones I have chosen. Their hearts beat with passion, their choices will be different. And they will make their own ending.

You and I have already created their beginning. Only time and space will tell how the journey will end. I know you have given them that very specific gift – time and space. It will be for naught. Their choices will not change. You toy with their hearts, but I have already seen their destiny.

Their destiny is in their own hands. Not ours.

-------------------------------------------------------

The world laid to waste, and despair filled up the burning sky like smoke. This was the dystopia. A young masked man, dressed in all black, journeyed through the dirt and gravel as he looked upon the broken world that burned around him. He had piercing dark eyes that, though overshadowed by the black fedora he wore, had clearly not lost hope and were still brimming with life.

He couldn't remember the last time he had a nice dream. Both his reality and his mind were such living nightmares, he couldn't tell them apart anymore. But he once saw himself living in happiness, surrounded by friends, and he knew immediately that this was a dream. He watched the sun shine over his even brighter smile. Despite having the same face, he never knew he was capable of smiling so big. At first, he was angry. This was not him. This was someone else's life. He became filled with frustration and hate for the person he gazed at, them living in blissful ignorance to his own suffering. Overcome with rage, he didn't realize his own legs walking towards the other self.

As he rushed forward, an unfamiliar voice filled his head.

"What is your treasure?"

The young man in black forcefully grabbed his other version's shoulders and turned to face him. This was supposed to be a dream; so, he was initially shocked that the touch felt so real, but it only lasted a second when his vision turned red.

"Help me," were the first, unexpected words he uttered through his black mask.

As much as he tried to convince himself that this was all a dream, he realized now that this was real. He knew the moment he gazed at the determined and expectant eyes of his other self, staring right back at him.

"We're coming, I promise."

When he opened his eyes, he found a peculiar object in his hands: an hourglass. He turned it over and the sand flowed backwards, from bottom to top. Despite all the chaos he's lived through, the young man had never seen anything like this before. And yet, as if by instinct, he immediately knew what he had to do.

He needed to go find the others.