( • R3BELL10N • )

"Daughter," I hear a voice call faintly behind me. I freeze in shock, hearing my father's voice as the breeze of a celestial presence grows stronger. I spin my body around, finding his silver attire gleaming against the light of the walkway.

"I made it, father. I've made it to the end," I tell him. He walks toward me slowly, his silver mask blemished from the afterlife.

"How do you know this is the end?" he calls out, his voice muffled. I drift away from the holograms, my focus completely shattered at the sight of the one person I've ever trusted in my life.

"I can feel it. The weight of the world is being lifted, and the soil is being swallowed by the sky," I answer. He takes a gaze of his own at the hundreds of cages surrounding us, finding the animals in a place where he once was.

"You're going to save everyone, but from what?" he asks, drawing himself closer. I hold my stance strong against the winds, eager to tell him of all the work I placed into this plan.

"Divinity is not designed to be withheld by the human hand," I respond, watching as each little detail of his figure gets clearer. His shine starts to reflect itself in my tears. "I'm leading the last rebellion. After this, there will never be another. I'm uncaging everything."

He walks up to me and analyzes my attire, placing his hands on my shoulders.

"Who brought you here?" he whispers. A faint pinch of disappointment from his voice brings a crack to my mask.

"The Legion," I admit, looking up into his eyes and finding the same void I had memorized when I was a child.

"Where are they now?" he asks. My body tenses. I shake my arm uncontrollably as I raise my finger to the side of my head, tapping another tear down to the floor.

"Where you are, father. I listened to your stories when I was young, and I had never imagined anything stronger to protect me. The people of your trust were ones of mine. They guided me here," I grip his chest and pull him into a firm hug, "You kept me alive, even after your death."

He looks down and holds my body carefully. "I understand."

"Everyone has a mark they leave on the world," I grip him as if I'll never see him again, "You left yours on me."

A moment of silence passes among us, my attention so drawn to him that the howls surrounding us make little change to our stance. He lets go of me, looking down in assurance, and memorizes my gaze a final time.

"Even after the universe is free of its limitations, I know you will never cower to the fear that follows its liberty," he nods.

Past his shining silver, the large entrance of the den finds a new figure in its white, the security hack meeting its expiration. The light of the other side swarms through the room, the enslaved animals more visible as they chant for freedom. At the center of the door, Ash stands firm until she finds the mask of a kitsune ahead of her. Staring at me in silence, I tap on the screen again to return the holographic words into the air.

"Stop!" Ash calls from the door, frozen and without assistance. Her security must have been limited after entering the monstrous world she created.

I look back to my father, who stands with pride and a grin carrying so much intent that his mask can no longer hide his emotion.

"Set us free," he says.

I watch him for a moment, admiring the movements of his attire as they drift against the wind, and reach over the hologram to send a final request through the system. Ash's fear swallows the room as it opens up in front of her, the cages unlocking the animals who were in captivity and letting their roars echo louder than before. Letting in a heavy breath, Ash reaches for the emergency lock on the entrance door, smashing it as quickly as the animals climb to the floor to shut the door once again.

As the door draws to a close, I realize any action I make to rush beyond its metal will end in my demise. I stare at the entrance as it locks in front of me, leaving the animals I released to witness their captivity with my body as the only thing left worth taking apart. The animals surround me with a new darkness at their tails, swarming around me in hunger and rage.

I step back into the stone podium that was once an artifact to the downfall of Delta, but now sits worthless as I have found myself to be. A single mistake has brought me to my end, and my faults have halted me from my destiny. I kneel to the predators surrounding me, my tears no longer a flag to surrender, and I rest in a mausoleum built for the pathetic.

The voices of the Legion call out to me from the darkness, their bodies lost in a false reality, and my vision pulses like a glitch over a digital screen. My tears grow quicker as my mind loses itself, the true predator against me as myself, and my work fails with a simple gesture from a sovereign. I've thrown myself into a cage that I can't get out of, and I'm no longer the one in control.

As I close my eyes and accept my end, a shining light breaks through my eyelids, blinding me on arrival. I blink several times, believing my afterlife has begun, but the cold drops over my knuckles tell me I'm still in the fight. In an instant, as the entrance doors slide open again, the light ahead enthralls the creatures around me and sends them storming in a stampede to freedom. Several jump over my body, forcing me to hide my head over my hands as their fur skims past my body and out to serve vengeance to their captors. The snarling beasts rush out of the den, throughout the tower, and prepare to give their lives bringing it down. Soon, they'll overwhelm the front doors to let in the other animals that roar outside.

With few left within the artificial den, there isn't a single predator with a desire to chew on my limbs. I raise my head slowly, standing shortly after, and freeze with a few slices in my attire. A new silhouette showcases itself at the entrance, walking toward me without a single flinch to the animals that stormed past her. Holding a bright white staff in her hand, she calls out to me with her pale dress flowing softly against a gust of hope.

I wish I could say she was also a fragment of my imagination, but her existence was clearer than even the normal human life. Even while wearing a white mask with wolf engravings, I could see the look of relief she gave me in such a way that even I couldn't comprehend. Taking my forearm in her grasp, she speaks to me with silked words of promise.

"The branches haven't fallen to the ashes yet, dear Faeri."