2 Ballad of Fallen Angels

No matter how strong you are as a Hunter, nobody can survive having their brains blown out. That was the first thought I had as I saw my first love's remains scattered across the floor. The next thing I knew, I felt stronger. I saw a huge beam of light come from the sky, and suddenly my rifle felt light.

The men that had accompanied me killed two others, and the same beam of light came towards them from the sky, almost as if God was somewhat interested in us. The others in the squadron were struck with awe. They must have had puzzling mixed feelings of betrayal, resentment, and hatred towards us. But they wouldn't have the time to understand their feelings. Before they could even react to the sudden acts of lights and betrayal, we had already killed them.

The men with me had officially become terrorists. Nobody yet knew of what we have done, but they will probably question us once we reached the cylindrical building. We only had to gain the memories of the Hunters we had just killed. You see, one of the small advantages you get once you become a Hunter is that you can, sometimes, gain the memories of the people that you kill. Supposedly, the more close to the person you kill, the more the chances you have of gaining their memories.

I had told the men that I knew Ana from before and that we probably had a high chance of getting her memories. It was better than having a Hunter prisoner when our new powers still haven't awakened. The moment we lost the surprise was the moment we would surely die. We knew that would happen because it happened with a man in the army. He killed a Hunter on our side with friendly fire by accident. He told us that he became recognized as a Hunter shortly after.

The government tried to kill him multiple times, but he evaded the government while aiding regular humans. He was the one that told us that the men that were selected to go into the battlefield were actually used as sacrificial pawns for Hunters to gain resistance. And once we entered the strange facility, we were going to see how they did it.

But first, we had to find the place that we were supposed to be staying at. Luckily, nothing can live in such a contaminated environment. Only small beings that have the ability to fly reside here, occasionally making odd sounds that harmonically go together and become extremely lovely. The fact that they can make such beautiful sounds in such a terrible setting is jarring. I mentioned it to one of the officers with me, and they said that maybe they were happy that we were killing each other.

I told him that maybe it didn't even matter that people were dying, they just wanted to be happy despite it, or that they were happy that they were the ones that weren't fighting for a pointless battle.

"Then why the fuck did you ask me if you knew?" He stated angrily.

Death, to all living beings, is a scary point in our lives where the curtains of our personal play close. It might be a long play, but the show must always end. It was the best friend a soldier could ever have because if they didn't have death, they would never cease fighting.

We reached our camp. The scarlet purple flame was burning the moment we reached it, and the old Hunter finally came into light. He had a strange, imposing presence. He was slim but well built, and he looked at you as if he knew, as if he knew that you were a man lost in the desert, never finding any safe haven to exist, utterly lost and defeated.

Normally, the author would refuse to give names to any character. Now, he says to give this character a name. I am extremely unoriginal with names, and even though I am the protagonist of the story, I must adhere to what the author says.

"Can I call you Marcus?" I asked him.

"Marcus is a good enough name" he responded.

And such, he was named, and the story proceeds. Now, Marcus had always been know as Marcus, and his mother called him Mark for short. This was the first time I had ever actually seen Mark in the story. The moments before us where we decided his name had become a strange dream he once had, with no recollection of who I am and of the existence of an author.

Marcus looked at us straight in the eyes after a few minutes of comforting silence. He finally asked us if we had killed all of them. We told him what had happened, and he had this sad smile on his face. Marcus was extremely handsome, were it not for the scar he has across his eyes. He still had his eye, but it seemed like a miracle at this point. He had long, black, unkempt hair and a natural air of authority.

He often spouted idealistic crap about the nature of the universe, and that seemed enough for people to associate him as a smart guy. Because he could spout crap so naturally, he was made leader of the operation. People most of the time have always been interested, and so he was somehow the leader.

I sat on the ground near him. Marcus stated that, in a couple of days, one of us would gain the memories of whom we killed. He seemed so sure the other soldiers relaxed. But I had no fucking idea if such a thing would actually happen. In fact, the way he said things made it almost seem like a red flag. But it was clearly a very endearing attempt.

Now, time started to move forward. We ate the few creatures around the campsite that we found. He said that the Hunter he killed called them animals. pretty much anything that had intelligence compared to humans was called an animal, but they tended to be dumber than us.

"So, Marcus are you an animal?" I asked innocently.

He let out a small chuckle and said that following an important scientist we were, considered in the metaphysical level, animals as well. I was pretty sure he didn't even know what most of what he said actually meant.

Slowly, I started gaining Ana's memories.

"That's strange, normally it happens after a week, never have I or Virtue heard of it happening to someone in less than that time frame," Marcus said. Virtue must have been the person that he had killed, but I didn't even bother asking.

Ana's memories started to surface, and slowly they started to fill my mind. I remembered her infancy. She was a lonely child, abandoned by her friends and parents until she met me. I was the closest thing she had of a real friend. She remembered me fondly, trying her best to look as beautiful as she can for me, learning how to cook because I was hopeless at it, learning alchemy because I found the subject repulsive, and trying her best not to leave my side.

She was suddenly revealed as a Hunter, and her life changed drastically. Her father started abusing her once he was told. Her mother started crying every day, and worst of all, we couldn't see each other because she became a Hunter. Now, she was thrown into a world of jealousy and hate, full of beauty yet cold, so very cold.

She loved me. She loved me with all her heart. The few men that she had an interest in even looked similar to me. But in the end, she always left them, desperate by the idea that I would never be more than just an endearing memory. She would lie to herself all the time, telling herself that she was interested in these men because she was forgetting me, but every time she would even kiss them, she would close her eyes and imagine it was me.

My head started aching like crazy. It felt as if it was splitting into two, and suddenly all of Ana's memories were lost. I shrieked. The pain became unbearable. My companions came close and tried to help, but to no avail. I started sweating and bleeding from my eyes.

"Oh shit, this is not good!" Marcus stated in an alarmed fashion.

I couldn't even respond. The pain was way too intense for me to even start thinking. Finally, after another minute, it stopped. The blood that came out of my eyes stopped. I had lost Ana's memories, and as I was about to tell them, she appeared right in front of me.

"Ana?" I asked, looking at her.

"To think that you actually killed me." She said while taking a big breath. "It seems like the report was true.".

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"As you know, humans can become Hunters if they kill Hunters. I chose you to come to the Industry, or the place where you want to go, because I wanted you to kill a Hunter and escape with me." She said. "Sadly, you killed me before that could happen."

"But why am I seeing you right now, and what is the report you mentioned?"

"Well, apparently, when people share a connection, such as friendship, and that person is the stepping stone for you to become a Hunter, you gain their memories. In a government experiment, a human killed a Hunter that she loved. The Hunter became delusional, stating that she could see the dead person, but nobody else could. After a couple of studies, it was concluded that the lover became a new ego, which helped regulate her personal ego. The report was what I read about that experiment" She said casually.

At that moment, the men were looking at me as if I had grown a huge conspicuous dick out of my face. I decided to go outside, Ana followed me. The men stayed inside, bewildered by the events that had just occurred.

"So, are you really Ana?" I asked.

She moved closer, her hands touched my face. Her fingers felt surprisingly warm. I thought that something that was ethereal wouldn't feel like anything.

"Yes, and we will be able to live together for the rest of your lives," she said.

She kept tracing the lines in my face, passing her fingers which barely touched my mouth. She left her fingers lingering in my lips for a short while, before telling me to sit down. I finally sat, and she sat on my lap. It felt strange getting aroused by someone that did not exist.

"Everybody that becomes a Hunter and is not born one live a short life in this world. If we are to exist for as long as we can, we'll have to enter Epsilon." She said, as she casually started biting my neck playfully.

Epsilon is a place where Hunters become Wonderers. A Hunter enters Epsilon to search for their deepest desire. It could be your dead sister, a lover that was separated from you, your family, or pretty much anything really. It can become your paradise.

"We could just hide there. I don't have anything I want that is worth dying for in the search for Epsilon" I tell her.

Her smile can sometimes be such a beautiful feature. I want to live the rest of my life with her. Even though she isn't real, she feels real. She has her own thoughts, her own actions, her own personality, her own memories. She exists within my realm of understanding, and for me, she is more real than anything that can exist within this world. And she now cannot abandon me.