Chapter 3: The Humors

  “Armored in flesh. Supported by bones. Deafened by silence. Shielded by madness. I am Unter Lightning. And I reject everything that has to do with the Saint King title,” said a much younger Unter, speaking into the microphone, standing on a makeshift stage made of bricks and snow. “Today, I establish a new Kingdom forged from the fires burning from the wrath in my heart. Every ingot, every bar, every brick from this palace I have made, born from ice, shall be where we forge our new nation!” Unter stood in the country of Akteon, once known as Los Angeles. “We will stride on the bones of the Saint King. We shall serve no one, we shall live with true equity, and true peace, and answer to no ruler. Once, the Americans enslaved our people and wielded us like dogs on a leash, but now, we shall establish our own land! The Americans are gone, now, there is only Lightning.”

  Today…

  “What experiment are you talking about?” asked Black Sabbath, dragging Beatle in the snow while he lay on a sleigh. “You told me long ago that the base was building something. You didn’t tell me about human experiments.”

  “I didn’t know. I knew years later that they were trying to make slaves out of human fetuses by mapping and restructuring their genome to be more similar to animals, prehistoric animals, and even Cavemen. It was atrocious. They had mutations and animal features, but their minds were Human. I signed a peace treaty with various tribes here in America, but one tribe rejected any peace treaty.”

  “Akteon.”

  “I now know why. I thought… he was willing to establish peace. He thinks I am here to rule over them. I don’t want to rule over anybody, dude.”

  “I never for once thought you did. Miguel, you couldn’t hurt a fly.”

  “I know you don’t hate me. I know you never did. You were just hurt. I’m sorry-...”

  “Didn’t I say not to tell me you’re sorry? Never be sorry for being who you are.”

  “But sometimes you act like it’s my fault that I’m this way… Okay? I don’t understand-...”

  “That’s never what I mean. You know that. YOU KNOW THAT!!!”

  “Then why are you like this!?”

  Anna dragged and pulled so quickly that Beatle bumped his head on the wagon.

  “OW!!!” yelled Beatle.

  “I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU THOUGHT I WOULD HURT YOU!!!”

  “You did. This all happened because you went to that party with our friends… Didn’t invite me. I asked if it was happening, and you told me it wasn’t gonna continue. Then you came. Then you guys sent the picture in the gc. So, I confronted you in the class group chat.”

  “Shut up.”

  “And I yelled at you.”

  “Shut-!”

  “I’m sorry I hurt you.”

  Black Sabbath’s eyes quivered.

  “I’m sorry I made you cry.”

  Black Sabbath stopped pulling.

  “I’m sorry I couldn’t be with you then. I’m sorry I tore you off like a Band-Aid… I should have… I should have treated you better. I should’ve known you would never ever intentionally hurt me. Well, you did after, but… I never properly apologized for that.”

  “I’m sorry I made you feel invalidated in the parade. You were the food and water boy,” said Black Sabbath. “I’m sorry I made you feel jealous of my relationship with Tyrone. I’m sorry I made you think something was going on. I’m sorry I got defensive. I’m sorry I hurt your relationship with Aurora… Caused her to crash out and… end the world…”

  Beatle cries softly and slams his head on the surface of the sleigh.

  “I’m sorry I broke your heart. I’m sorry I chose him. I’m sorry for invalidating your pain. Your misery.”

  “I’m sorry I thought you would ever want to hurt me. I should know you would never ever hurt me with that intention in mind. I’m sorry that I hurt you… over… and over again. I’m sorry I don’t let you see the kids…”

  “I’m sorry I had the kid with you… not sorry that we had her. Sorry I… used her to get you back…”

  “And I’m sorry I’m like this. But I’m never sorry for one thing.”

  Black Sabbath tears up.

  “That I love you, Anna.”

  “I know.”

  “Why did you decide… so much against it?”

  “Miguel, I’m broken… I hurt… people…”

  “I never for once cared that you did.”

  “I hurt you.”

  “I know. And after all the scorching burns and the earth-shattering betrayals… after the literal world froze over with fucking Hell in its horizon… I still wear this star on my chest… and I still love you.”

  Black Sabbath tears up, hugs him, and kisses him.

  Beatle laughs softly. “Another, please, kindly.”

  Sabbath kisses him again.

  “Again.”

  Sabbath kisses him again, longer, pushing their lips together and sniffing each other upon the tilt of their heads. She pulls away.

  “Keep… Keep doing it, please,” Beatle said.

  They kept kissing… and kissing…

  Beatle hugs Sabbath, tightly. “I know you’ll keep hurting me… But this time, unintentionally.”

  “Vice versa…” Sabbath deepens her hug.

  “You smell like you haven’t had a bath,” chuckled Beatle.

  “Sorry.”

  “I always liked your scent. I feel safe when it reaches my olfactory-...”

  “I love you.”

  Beatle laughs and hugs her, giving out that signature sigh. “I’m dying.”

  “I don’t care.”

  “I’ll ascend soon.”

  “Then, I will join you, or die trying.”

  “Hyatt… It meant… everything to me.”

  “Thought you died there.”

  “Yeah… But for uh… some reason I immediately remembered our kiss last month when you were daring me to face my fears going back there…”

  “Mmm… I feel warm. I know we might die of hypothermia… but I feel warm… right now…”

  “Because after 800 years,” said Beatle. “We’re finally together.”

  Beatle fell asleep… and wakes up in front of Unter.

  Unter sighs. “Seems your faith is getting strong…” he said, pointing his arm cannon at Beatle’s magical mirage.

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  Beatle looks around. “What is this?”

  “You are Astral Projecting. Your love for her saved you two. Now, since the cold and mother nature herself failed in killing you… sided with you even, well… I will go out hunting.”

  Beatle sighs. “I’m sorry. We all are. We didn’t mean any harm. The Americans were doing inhumane things, but we caused more damage than harm. We are sorry.”

  “Okay.”

  “I am serious. I don’t care if we die in the winter. But I have a family who needs me and Anna especially. I don’t care if we both die for our sins, but I give a damn for my family who loses us. Because I love them.”

  “‘Love.’ Hmmm…. A fallible word. Hate is born from love… No, really,” said Unter, cocking his arm cannon. “I lost my arm and leg because I ate them after feasting on my father. True story. I found two pegs and made a makeshift arm and a makeshift leg and carried my cooked flesh, and ground it with some berries to turn it into pemmican…” Unter grabebd a pemmican and crushed in a mortar and with a pestle. “Then, I was… taken in… by the Native Americans… I was 15 then. Crawled in the snow and survived with Pemmican for 10 years. I knew how because I watched a documentary when I was five with father. The Natives and I raided an American base near Los Angeles, gathered some thingamabobs and doohickeys you find in an old film like Star Trek and blasted our way into Los Angeles. There were tribes there, men, women, and children. I killed the children, kind enough to give them a quick death. The men and women, though, their sins were carried by voting and agreeing with the American government in creating us to be enslaved. Republicans and Liberals agreed, can you believe that? We took some mammoths and tied their bodies around like chains and painted the whole town red.”

  “Why?”

  “I hate them. I profoundly do. But not because they were weak and feeble than us. I don’t believe in hating others due to a race or color or religion. But because they enslaved us. They allowed it. Why will I try my best to live among them?”

  “No race deserves to be judged and destroyed for their past actions after they have been redeemed.”

  “Did the Americans give you an easy time after they colonized you a hundred years before you were born? Perhaps you forgot how when they found out your country was the big new superpower, they grew weary. Cut ties with you. Allowed Sinostan to attack you. Allowed the Greatest War to happen WHERE MY BRETHREN DIED IN YOUR ARMY’S HANDS!!!”

  “We were at war. I was a soldier.”

  “Fuck you. I watched my fellow armies die when I was 23… entered into war after the Americans hostaged my Native American brethren. I watched you just fly around and destroy us, with that pain in your eyes. Why would I respect a slave of God?”

  “I am not God’s slave. I deny him overt control.”

  “BULLSHIT!!! Every time he tells ya to kill someone, YOU DO IT!!! Doesn’t matter if it was unintentional!!! When was ONE TIME you denied him something!? PERSUADED him into doing what is best for one person?”

  “I adopted this girl.”

  He laughs. “Well, now she’s an orphan again. The only time you grew balls was to find a family. Find love. Where I was denied that. I don’t blame you for that. I blame you for causing so much PAIN!!! And anguish… to my people.”

  Beatle sighs. “War does things to a man.”

  “Is that an apology?”

  “I wasn’t talking about myself. Not right now.”

  “You have NO REMORSE!!!”

  “There isn’t a single day I stop thinking about all those people who died. I punished myself. I denied myself love because of it. But, if you’re going to blame me, I humbly accept. All that I have done was to save others like you. The little guy.”

  “WHY DIDN’T YOU!!!? I HEARD YOU COULD SENSE PROBABILITY!!!”

  “If it favors God. Not me.”

  “God… God… Who is this God? Maybe you are shielding yourself with madness. JUST AS I AM!!!”

  “Maybe. But the Voice tells me what to do. I am just here to protect humanity… sometimes I don’t even do what he wants me to do. Hence, my daughter.”

  “You’re a coward.”

  “I’m not a coward.”

  “You’re a coward for choosing not to kill when you need to kill.”

  “You know, maybe you should’ve been the Saint King. You sound just like Him.”

  “Hmph. Maybe. I am wrath.”

  “And I stand for peace, equity, kindness-...”

  “BORING!!! What I want is you to die. Be wiped from the stain you stand on this wretched Earth. Scorched away like a wart!”

  “I’m sorry. I hurt you. It’s my fault.”

  “I don’t forgive you.”

  Beatle nods. “I respect your decision.”

  Unter stands up. “I. DON’T. FORGIVE YOU!!!”

  Beatle just nods, with a look of gentleness.

  “WHY!?!? WHY DON’T YOU GIVE A SHIT!?!?”

  “Because I dealt with someone like you a long time ago. And he was far more selfish. But I respect you more because you’re only looking for your own kind.”

  “SHUT UP!!! YOU HURT ME!!!”

  “I know.”

  “YOU HURT ME!!!” Unter sobbed.

  “I know.”

  “Why didn’t you save us? Why didn’t you care-?”

  “HEY!!! Don’t ever fucking say that. If I had known you were under that rubble, I would’ve fucking bore a whole through that debris… If I knew you suffered, I would’ve torn the whole fucking universe for you.”

  “Why didn’t you?”

  “Your heroes can’t save everyone. You’ll learn that one day, as I have.”

  “WHY DIDN’T YOU!?!?”

  Beatle sighs. “I’m so, so sorry. That time, I… I remember I just flew away, destroying the base. I was arguing with God, telling him that I wanted no to go through with it, but he told me the ramifications if I hadn’t destroyed the base. He said the bio weapon they were making would create air so toxic that it would wipe out my people… wipe out America eventually as well. A mutagenic nuke. So, I blew up the device at the heart of the base, not knowing they had other bio weapons inside. I’m sorry… All this time, you suffered…” Beatle teared up. “What’s disgusting was that I had a party with my allies that night… I didn’t know… I didn’t know…”

  “Stop crying. Stop it.”

  “You wanted me to stop masking, man. C’mon… I am sorry. I don’t want your forgiveness, I… I just hope you understand… If I found you, and I took you in, would things have been-?”

  Unter blasted the illusion away, and the mirage was gone.

  Chapter 4: The One-Sided Dialogue

  Beatle and Sabbath struggle, still walking in the snow, only to see a barn.

  The barn was large enough to keep them in, and it came from a time when the sizes of man were all the same. They entered, and warmed themselves with the hay.

  Sabbath smiles, tending to Beatle’s wounds. “I love you!”

  Beatle chuckles. “You don’t have to strictly administer what I said. Telling me to love me every hour. It was just a metaphor.”

  “But I love you.”

  Beatle smiles softly. But he frowns.

  “Hey. Listen to me. You don’t have to punish yourself for hurting that kid…” said Black Sabbath.

  Beatle chuckles.

  Sabbath gently takes his hand off the candle’s flaming wick.

  “Ah… Didn’t notice.”

  “Beatle. You are not a bad person. You are an optimist. You believe that the best thing for each person is life.”

  “I thought the base was empty...” Beatle teared up. “He told me-...”

  “Listen. You never wanted to be the Saint King. You never did. You chose to be Beatle. But then they forced you into the role.” Sabbath hugs him. “What do you want to do? Movies marathon? I brought my iPad!”

  “I wanna rest.”

  “Okay…”

  “I chose Miguel Azral to be my successor because I damn well know he’ll make a better job as the Saint King than me. He is much, much more rebellious, clever, and capable than me. I am just a slow autistic kid thrust into all this. And him? At 15 he defeated an Ogre.”

  “What’s your point?”

  “I am not cut out to be this. I… renounce my Saint King status-...”

  Sabbath gives him the hardest smack of his life.

  “DUDE!!!”

  “Don’t ever say that! DON’T EVER SAY THAT!!! If you were never the Saint King, you’d never have had our daughters! Our friends! DON’T EVER… SAY THAT!!!”

  “So, the only people that matter is our own?”

  “No. But don’t you dare renounce who you are. You helped shape who I fucking am. You helped me be a better person as Black Sabbath. I fought by your side. YOU’RE MY GUY!!! And you just renounce everything you worked for? You achieved!? You DEFEATED MORNINGSTAR AND UNBREAKABLE!!! YOU SAVED MIGUEL AZRAL!!! YOU SAVED THE WORLD COUNTLESS TIMES!!!”

  “I got a kid’s father killed”

  “Yeah! And I’m a shit parent who barely wants to see her kids THAT HAPPENED TO ALSO CAUSE THE END OF THE MULTIVERSE BY RUINING YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH MORNINGSTAR!!! But unlike me, you FUCKING MEANT WELL!!! You mean well! And Unter means to hate! You were damaged by Aurora, by me, by Unbreakable, and you chose to forgive ALL OF US!!! HELL!!! YOU FORGAVE UNBREAKABLE!!! You forgave me! You forgave me! And I know, you think I never cared about you-...”

  “Now that’s where you’re wrong. I did think that. But not anymore. I am not Miguel Ibarra anymore, I am Beatle Saint King. And I damn well know you care about me. Your whole life and vocation is about caring about me. Do not dare put yourself down like that again, not by Miguel.”

  “Then don’t ever renounce yourself.”

  “Neither should you… Then what can I do?”

  “You could… legalize and consider their country as legitimate.”

  “Already did that. He just sent me a note with a middle finger back in the middle ages.”

  “Then uhm… We could kill ‘im.”

  “No. That wouldn’t be right.”

  “Then what?”

  “I can… I can… Shit…”

  “What?”

  “I will get reprimanded by God for this. I can… bring back the dead.”

  “Yeah. You did that with Miguel Azral’s body.”

  “Yeah, I know.”

  “Wait… You’re saying you could bring back others without their-?”

  “No. God no. I can’t do that… But didn’t he say he buried his father. Human bones don’t exactly rot in ice, especially on these conditions.”

  “Beatle… You would inch closer to your ascension. Miguel Azral needs more time to-...”

  “I know. But it’s worth it. The little guy counts. And, if we look at this with a utilitarian approach, if he goes berserk and kills our worlds, then that’s on us.”

  “It’s cute when you pretend to be utilitarian to look good before God.”

  “Shhh… He sees all.”

  “Well… So, we dig up his body, right?”

  “Yeah. And I will bleed on him.”

  “This is kinda fucked-...”

  “Definitely.”

  Beatle senses something. He releases a sigh.

  “He’s fine with it?”

  “No. i sense danger. It means he very well isn’t.”