3 Episode 3: Another day to Live, Another day to Struggle

Darkened walls and drifting debris mixed together within the lightly smoked dawn. A silhouette was seen pacing slowly under the flickering lamb.

Alan was walking down the street of Blackening Buildings. Under the martial law established by reB.O.R.N, people were banned from going out after 11 pm and before 7 am. Alan was a special case because of his suit and his title as a "Primus Atlatus", a privilege that allowed one to do almost anything.

Alan's destination was an old, abandoned storehouse at the corner of the street, one block away from his residential building. The storehouse was dark and uninsulated from radiation. It was weathered by dusted wind and acid rain, most of the paint had fallen off its wall, leaving only a carcass of rusted steel frame and broken bricks. Yet the storehouse was standing firm and upright, as if it was trying to salvage any remaining glory of its past days. Here, at this Alan's self-proclaimed hideout, he diligently honed his swordsmanship at every break of dawn.

The building was 12 meters high, 12 meters wide, and 12 meters long. It had a cubic shape interior that enhanced the feeling of spaciousness. The ground was cleaned from debris, leaving back only the scraps that were too heavy to be brought away by a person. Instead, they were turned into DIY weight machines. Immediately, Alan slowly yet efficiently moved from one weight machine to another to initiate his routines in great fever.

Normally, no one can ever perform such activities under the radioactive air without worrying about the risk of contamination. However, Alan had no qualm at all. From heat regulation, fitness elasticity to the unbreakable membrane, the Suit had almost anything that a Prime would need.

98...99...100...

Breathing lightly, Alan removed himself from the last repetition and did some flex routine for the main show of the practice. From the small area at the corner of the building, Alan was rummaging through the arrays of electric fencing swords that were left unorganized in a big bucket. The bucket contained from the common epee swords to the more strangely curved, disproportional custom-made saber that had an extra weight attached at the tip of the sword. Those custom-made ones were usually for a specific type of training that Alan devised for himself.

"Finally..."

After some time, he found what he needed for today's practice, a flexible foil with an excessively elongated tip. The entire length of the sword was roughly Alan's height, who was 1m85 tall. The image of himself holding such a thin and long sword would make any bystanders look at him weirdly. But there was none. It was only him with the swords. And memories of the past.

[Alan's recollection]

"Hey man, what are you doing being alone like this?" A cocky yet friendly voice was calling out to me as I was sitting at the corner of the class while everyone else was having a conversation with their friends. A prideful, handsome boy was reaching his hand out to me.

"Come here, we were just discussing the next virtual combat arena match, do you know what it is about?" - asked the boy.

To me, it was a memorable and life-changing moment. From then on, I became someone better, thanks to him. He introduced me to his friends. He was straight-forward and sometimes a bit rude.

"Hey, that shirt looks so bad on you. Here, wear this" - but it was always to help me become better.

"If you love her, you should say that to her" - he also assisted me in confessing to the love of my life.

However, to repay that goodwill of my best friend, I had taken away the most important thing to him.

"Why are you doing this to me Alan, you know much I need that position and you still do it? Damn it, Alan, why does it have to be you?"

I still remembered that slumped figured screaming at the top of his lungs towards me. He was on his knee, desperate. His fists kept banging on the concrete arena floor despite the bleeding. While I was standing there, helpless and inundated with guilt. That was the first time I ever hesitate about my goal...

The loud whip of the sword tearing through the air snapped Alan out of deep thoughts.

No, my conviction was and would always be absolute...

[Changed to Grant's perspective]

What should I do, what should I do??

Grant anxiously paced around his glamorous room, seemingly hesitated about something.

The red veins on his eyes were crawling across his pupil. The dark eye bags intensified the crazed sensation pulsating from him.

In fact, he should be in this state, he had to be. He was making an important decision, a dangerous one.

"Young master, I know he was your best friend but it was all in the past. You have to look at the family members you truly cherish, you have..." The young butler said an impatient tone.

"Shut up, you do not dare to rush me. You know barely anything to question me." Grant furiously shouted at him.

The butler was surprised and stuttered at the sudden shout. "Bu... But the time is running out. Master, you have to make a decision soon. Your grandfather would not want to wait..."

"One more word from that mouth and you will have nice chat with B.O.R.N operatives, GET.THE.HELL.OUT." Grant menacingly threatened the unruly butler.

Grant had never hated his status as much as now. Many times, he wished he, his mother and his little sister had been in a typical household.

"My child, you have to be humble at any time" - his mother's kind teaching painfully resonated in his head.

"Brother, you are always the best man in my eyes" - his sister's sweet smiles imprinted deeply in his heart.

His hand trembled while picking up the telecom. He finally made the hard decision: "Do it"

[Changed to Alan's perspective]

After the long workout, Alan was back in his room. While he was emptying the shirt pockets for a laundry, he felt a small object in his shirt from yesterday dropped on the floor. An inductor.

Confused, he reached out to pick it up.

Throbbed, he was caught by surprised by the pain of his head.

Ba-dump, Ba-dump, Ba-dump.

Knock, knock, knock. Light taps on his door suddenly brought him out of the pain. He quickly went for the door, putting the weird phenomenon at the back of his head.

He was not expecting her to come. A small, sickly girl was standing in front of him, both hands were feebly holding onto an insulated pink lunch box that was meticulously wrapped. It was hard for her to even keep standing still. She had dirty blond hair, unbrushed and unkempt for who knew how long. The only remarkable thing about her now was her high nose that kept sneezing due to congestion. For an entire time, she kept her gaze down at her shoes. Looking at that girl, he felt a tinge of pain in his heart.

"Hi Rachel, what are you doing here?" - it hurt him so much to talk in a harsh voice to her.

"Eh...uhm... I just...just want to make lunch for you" - she weekly replied, hardly audible.

"Sigh, you don't have to you know, I can cook myself. Besides, you have to take care of yourself. Hey, what happened to your hand" - He spotted a small bandage on her index finger.

"Not...nothing...It was only a scratch"... she quickly hid that hand behind her back.

Agitated, he quickly grabbed the wrist of that hand. It truly a small cut, but with her Hemophilia, it was truly a devastating wound.

"I told you not to do this anymore right?" - His voice turned chilly rapidly.

"I..I..."

"No more of this nonsense, you have to look after yourself more than me. I don't need your care anymore" - Alan tried to control his overbearing voice when saying this. He thought, sometimes, it was better for your loved one when you push them away. She had been sacrificing so much by looking after him like this. What if she heard about what he did to keep her alive, to achieve this "Prime" role? He was too afraid to even think about that.

For the first time, she looked into his eyes. Her eyes were red and bruised up. It must have been because of her constant crying, and she was also on the verge of another. But she saw it, she saw how Alan's eyes were shaken and his quivering lips. She knew that he did not mean what he said.

For this, her cracked lips opened up a slight smile. It was a surreal scene to see a girl in such a miserable state like that to have a blissful smile like her. Alan was caught off-guard when she went over, putting the lunch box on the floor, and embraced him. She whispered

"Hey Alan, Will you promise me that you are not going to look for me? Find a better girl, have your own life, your own family in the Rainbow District. Please, Alan, don't go looking for me..."

Still muddle-head, Alan could not think straight. He foolishly thought that his act of pushing her away finally worked without realizing the peculiarity behind her speech. He tried to control his quivering voice. "Why would I? I told you that I don't need you anymore."

She detached herself from him, they looked at each others' eyes for a long time before she broke out in small tears and ran away unsteadily. Alan did not say anything but looked at her distancing back, a line of tear also rolled down by his cheek. For some reason, he felt like this was going to be his last time seeing her.

[2 hours later]

Riding on a self-driving car, Alan was in deep contemplation. Part of him was screaming inside to go and chase after her. The other part, more familiar to him, kept telling him to keep himself away from her. This was really rare, Alan has a one-track mind, he never had any other doubts for the actions that he made. For many, this may be a bad character. However, to Alan, this was the only thing that had made him much more steadfast than a normal human being. To Alan, the determination and obsession were the only things he needed in his life to keep Rachel safe and alive.

Yet, he could not help feeling uneasy for this particular feeling of hesitation and duality in his thinking. He remembered getting a sudden headache when holding onto something, what was it?

Alan pulled out the small cylindrical inductor from his pocket. The moment he tried taking a closer look at the object, a brain-racking pain assaulted him. The pain lasted for seemingly an eternity. Finally, it ended.

SYNCHRONIZATION SUCCESSFUL, PROCEEDING TO NEXT STAGE IN 23:59:59

A mechanical sprang out of nowhere, buzzed loudly at his mind. Alan's mind was muddled but everything was coming back to him. The dream machine, the professor, the forced travel and most importantly, her expulsion.

Damn, Alan thought, what happened on this day?

Oh, shi*. HELL NO.

It's not gonna happen again.

He rushed to the dashboard and tried to take control of the wheel. However, the system was hacked and his car was increasing in speed. Time was ticking, Alan tried the brakes but none worked. He reached for the door and quickly activated the reinforce mode on the suit. It took quite long to describe but everything happened in split seconds. Because the moment Alan realized where he was.

WHIZZZED... KABOOM...