15 Unification Part 2

Engulfed in a glorious ball of flames, Rubin and Noe form a union beneath the sun. Their watchers, Feng Mian and Rosalind, look on in unglazed curiosity. Like a king of destruction, Noe's hair ravenously slices the air. His ashy skin limers a deep white so pure it feels as if it could exorcise all the evil in the world.

"Will you take us back to Earth?" Noe asks his dragon as they separate from one another. His robes are still intact; heavenly fire cannot burn them.

Slowly, their raging flames calm. While Rubin continues to be a softly-burning kindle, Noe has returned to his ground state. He lifts off and takes a stand upon his dragon's silver armor that is cool to the touch.

"Let's go," he calls the other two. Once they are all comfortable upon her back, Rubin jets off towards the sun. They feel the air thin around them. A coldness relaxes their anticipation and promises them the sight of their soulmates soon.

A hyper-portal opens up before their eyes. Breaching its entrance, colours of blue, yellow, and white form tapestry in their vision.

They come out the other side and a horrified gasp escapes from each of them. Flying among the clouds, the green glow of the Earth is astounding. It is not in natural splendour that it glows but in the pain of all that was left behind by World War Three.

Metal sticks out of collapsed cement, a haze scarfs down the last evidence of life, and its radiation shoots anything that tries to grow again.

Aside from the wind rushing past their ears, the air is stagnant; everything is gone. No longer do birds chirp their young to wake, the beatles have ended their ancestral status on Earth, even vultures fled to places unknown; dissipated, obsolete.

It is a sight they wish to turn away from but cannot. Some things terrorise the mind so much as to possess the body.

Although Noe was unsure which direction to travel, the thought of Mr. Henderson forever lingers in his head. Thus, he and Rubin can both sense Mr. Henderson's spiritual energy. It keeps them on their connected flight towards the sun.

"Why are we going West?" Rosalind demands of Noe.

"My soulmate is in Westville."

"Well, hob-scotch, look at that, we forgot to talk about this too!"

Their attention breaks away from the terrain and forms a circle of questioning.

"Feng Mian and I both come from the North. What gives you the right to see your soulmate first when each of us played a role in our escape? I would fly Feng Mian and I over there but we can't split up in case we meet some Borne; don't wanna be crushed, die eternally and all that jazz," Rosalind argues rationally.

Feng Mian eyes Noe with resoluteness.

"You're right," Noe says. Knowing neither side shall back down, he momentarily shuts off the oxygen in bits of Rosalind and Feng Mian's cerebrum and, consequently, knocks them out cold. Fire is the result of the combustion of oxygen. Hence, his true power lies with his manipulation of air.

He catches them as they fall and gently rests their bodies on Rubin's back.

"I'm sorry about knocking you out," he apologises to them, "but I will do anything to protect Mr. Henderson... I can't tell if he is safe at the moment."

Rubin peacefully flies. For hours, Noe surveys the land below for any sign of life. Soon, they come to a region where snow falls. It covers the earth in a blanket of recovery and healing. Noe can only hope that this coma patient will awake one day.

As Westville's dome comes into view, a huge 'W' marking the front of its colossal circumference, Noe casts a layer of invisibility over everyone. His eyebrows tighten - in worry that their trajectory shall break the lead barrier - until his heart is assuaged when Rubin gracefully passes through it, no damage in sight.

Hustle and bustle of stressful city life jams his eardrums. The other end of the dome is not visible from where they fly but Mr. Henderson's spiritual energy coaxes Noe's own.

As they come nearer and where Mr. Henderson must surely be, the immense sensation of Noe's soul mixing with another's almost paints stars in his eyes. It causes a rush of pleasure sprinting up his spine. Instinctually, a tug to protect punches him in his stomach after four years of not following this need. This feeling, state of being, Noe named 'Veren'.

Cruising past the outskirts and subdistricts of the dome, Noe notices how stacked and unkept the infrastructure is. Suddenly, they are hit with the sight of an exquisite cement city. Metal shines as Westville's Prime Minister delivers a message over comms.

"The night has come to a close," a warm smile is hinted at in her speech. "Where it's always summer, may we all remember to bid our parents and loved ones a good morning after another safe evening in our World's West District."

Veren wraps itself around his torso and he is lulled. Sensing Noe's shift, Rubin descends between the high-rise buildings and lands upon the watermelon green and pink helicopter platform of one of them.

"You imbecile!"

A screech is thrown at him.

Rosalind clambers up from her position on Rubin. Feng Mian rubs her forehead; she is not in pain but the experience felt foreign.

The air around Noe dries as beads of water collect in a circle around Rosalind. She has pulled water vapour into her arsenal.

Her fuse has been lit and an explosion was the result. "You think you're the only one here who has cool otherworldly abilities?" she screams. "Although we trained them together, you must have obviously been holding back to take advantage of our lack of knowledge later - like you just did! Well, two can play at that game."

Suddenly, the water she has pulled around her darts toward Noe and knocks him off of Rubin. He safely lands on the ground but again, Rosalind sends tendrils towards him. With every attack, he retreats a step and she stalks one forward until he is at the edge of the building.

He refuses to return the blitz.

Just like that, Noe is flung off a hundred-story building. Trying to fly back to the platform, dread nestles itself in his stomach as he realises he cannot levitate on Earth.

His plummet continues and Rosalind looks down at him with distaste.

He cannot die before seeing Mr. Henderson is well. Noe fuels the air around his feet with concentrated oxygen. Sparking his firepower, the force of combustion jets him into the air.

The anger in Rosalind's eyes multiplies and she raises her hands, pulls some more water vapour into her collection, before sending it all in Noe's direction. However, this time, the water cages him in an impenetrable fortress that perfectly encases his body.

His fire burns out. Turning one-hundred and eighty dergees, his freefall resumes.

"Please, stop," a meek whisper finds them and stops Rosalind in her tracks. Feng Mian voyces, "Rosalind, you don't need to do this."

Noe sends a wave of heat out of his body but it is extinguished before birth.

"Rosalind," Feng Mian pleads.

Suffocation creeps into as the tar below swims closer and closer. Black dots spot his eyes.

"Rosalind," Feng Mian tries again. Noe stops, suspended in midair by the same water that sent him falling to his near death.

Feng Mian has succeeded in calming Rosalind down. "Bring him back," she half-demands.

Slowly, Noe begins to ascend. The mirrors are stained blue. People working in the building he is staring into stare back at him. To them, it appears that a bubble of water is climbing up the side of their workplace.

Drifting back onto the platform, Rosalind sets him down on the speckled landing pad.

"Let the water return to the atmosphere," Feng Mian concludes the debate.

Noe is released from his shackle and gulps down air like a drug addict in withdrawal inhaling their chosen ecstacy. It feels as if he has been doused in ice even though is body temperature is still much higher than average.

A bellowed yawn escapes Rubin's throat as she falls into a blissful nap. Feng Mian lays a hand on Rosalind's shoulder as they send a combined glare at Noe.

"I don't agree with what you did," Feng Mian begins. "'We're here already so we may as well just find your soulmate and move on.' That's the only thought that had me return to peace and save you from Rosalind. We all have people who make us crazy so don't think for one moment that I won't fight as hard as you two to keep them safe."

Noe rises to his feet having made a near full recover.

"The sooner we finish this, the better," Feng Mian sighs.

"Let's go, loverboy," Rosalind grabs him by his collar and walks them into the sky parlor.

--

Veren:

The sensation created when the souls of soulmates combine.