An Enemy Bathed in Light

Continuous echoes of water droplets slowly awaken my numb senses. My eyes hardly opened as I tried to look around while laying flat on a cold hard ground. I'm in a glass enclosure; a glass cage. My whole body felt like it weighed tons that even lifting my arm was almost impossible. I tried to think but my dull senses couldn't communicate effectively with my brain.

So, I gave up and tried to go back to sleep despite of being in a very bizarre situation...

"Joe! You're alive! Thank God! Joe!"

I heard a faint call and faint knocks outside the cage.

I turned my attention to the voice's origin.

She looked familiar to me but my head's too blurry to remember. Too familiar actually that I asked...

"Do I know you, ma'am?"

As I tried my best to get up she answered me.

"What are you talking about?! It's me! Ariel!"

For a second, I didn't know what she was talking about until everything came rushing back in my mind.

"Ariel. Yes. I remember. Th-the war. Wh-why am I still alive?? Where's this place?" There were a lot of questions in my mind as I remembered the suit's draining power.

"You called for me, right!?" Ariel said. She was also in a similar transparent cage beside the cage that I was in.

"Really? The last thing I remember was me running out of oxygen in space and --" I said.

"I was watching the news when Cassandra notified--"

I interrupted her.

"Cass?? My suit, my suit! Where'd it go!?"

I couldn't hear cass anymore. My HB100 chip has been removed from my head and I'm no longer wearing my suit.

".. What the hell is going on?? Where are we??"

Finally, I regained the strength I needed to stand up and there we were; Imprisoned in cylindrical glass cages inside a dark and spacious room with spotlights pointed at us.

"No idea. I've been shouting here for days but no one's responding. How are you!? The world's looking for you since the war ended. I've been looking for you too..."

"...Cass sent me your possible crash area before you went offline. It was in the Celebes Sea near North Sulawesi, Indonesia. I called Ed immediately and we travelled to the exact location via a convoy of helicopters but--" She stopped.

"Hey, but what? what's wrong?" I asked.

"Our helicopters were attacked and ours crashed."

"The last thing I remember was we were crashing to the sea. And, I woke up here, alone. I don't know what happened to Ed. I'm sorry, Joe. This is my fault!" She sobbed.

Upon knowing the incident, I dropped to my knees. I got no tears to cry anymore. I just stared blankly at anything. A moment of deafening silence transpired.

"No. It's probably my fault."

She gazed towards my direction.

"I keep on losing everyone. It's almost like a curse I couldn't break."

𝘈 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘐 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘐'𝘷𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘪𝘥.

I looked up to the cage's ceiling. Tears began falling from my eyes involuntarily. I was so tired of crying and whining that I just let them jump off my eyes, crawl down my cheeks, and onto the floor.

"Joe.. " She called.

"... It's not your fault. Hey! Don't do this to yourself! You've done way more than anyone should! You always have..."

"... You shouldn't, but you do it anyway... "

"Why Joe? Why??" She hit the cage repeatedly until her knuckles were sore. She cried a river in front of me.

I stared at her without any emotion.

"I don't know."

Suddenly our cages shook.

It opened...

I was as shocked as she was as we watched the cages rose up until we couldn't see it through the darkness.

I looked away from her and I looked around. I stood up and prepared myself for anyone or anything to appear from the dark.

"Brace yourself, Arie-- what the!"

Something rushed from behind me.

"Ssh"

It was her

Hugging me from behind.

"I'm sorry, Joe..."

She said as she just stayed still hugging me and leaned her head on my back.

"Stop it. They could be anywhere here!"

"I don't care" She said as she still held me from behind.

"Oh c'mon! Can you take this seriously??" I got off and faced her.

"What's the matter with you??" She's pissed.

".. This could be the last time I get to see you. This could be the day that we die, Joe Madrid! They can just shoot us right here, right now! Why can't you see that?? Why can't we just.. for once. Just for once, Joe, be honest with what we feel? Is it too much to ask??"

"... Whoever the fuck they are had all the chance in the world to kill us when we passed out. Guess what?! They still do! So please! listen to me."

She began shaking.

She stared at my eyes as her tears fell.

"I'm afraid to die." She held my hand.

"I don't wanna die in a place like this but.." She squeezed my hands.

"I wouldn't mind dying anywhere as long as you are there with me..."

Her voice was shaking..

"... I-I love you, Joe Madrid."

".. I always have."

My brain just froze. My lips couldn't utter any word. My hands, they just stayed in her hands. Before I had a chance to say anything...

A loud whirring echoed in the room.

A giant robot arms pulled us apart from each other! One robot arm shoved Ariel back her cage and locked her up.

"Ariel! You okay?!" I shouted.

Dizzy, she tried to stand up but she can't. She just held up a thumb as she recuperated the effect of the throw.

"F*ck you!! Show yourself, pussy! Ariel! Stop moving!"

I shouted as I tried to pull myself out of the other robot arm fifteen feet up from the ground.

A few seconds later, sounds of a hydraulic door opening resounded throughout the room. A wind of dust crawled from its entrance and into the spotlights. Steps of a person started to echo throughout the room. Each step was louder than the other. I could hear chuckles along with the loud steps.

"F*ckin' psychopath!" I yelled.

The steps stopped just as the culprit just barely reached the spotlight. I can barely see its silhouette.

"Who are you? Why are you doing this?!"

I yelled but all I got was a vicious laughter.

"Joe" The culprit uttered his first word and it was my very name.

The culprit is male.

His voice.

The way he said my name.

"It can't be... " I said in total disbelief.

Deep inside I begged the heavens it shouldn't be him but it didn't listen to my plead...

He took just one step forward to reveal himself and asked me.

"How's your sleep?... "

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".. Brother?" He added.

[𝚝𝚘 𝚋𝚎 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚞𝚎𝚍]