Violate

Ryo returned Natia to the desolate commercial district in Kathuz in his arms. His wounds stung with each movement of his body parts, but they failed to stop him from protecting Natia and keeping her safe. By the time they had reached the basketball court, Natia's inaudible voice combined with her lifeless corpse-like expression continued ever since her escape from the Meister's Casino. It was a different kind of cry that Ryo had never witnessed before.

It was a silent cry of violation.

Natia clung to Ryo's shoulder as the only living thing she could latch onto for close comfort. But even that was not enough. Her sanity drained like a ridiculed slave seeking refuge, a safe place to call home. But her constant reminder of "home" was nothing but torture for the mind as she reminisced about the fallen corpses of her family.

"Natia, get out of here! Run!" The echoes of her father's voice leaked through her ears and seeped through her sanity.

Natia maintained her lifeless stare into the skies as Ryo rushed through the commercial district for silence and solitude. Her blood became bitterly cold, and her pale white eyes lost all life within. Ryo clenched her shoulders and legs tightly, pulling her closer to him. "Look at me," Ryo said, pressing his palm against her forehead. She was burning up. "Natia, look at me."

Natia did not respond.

Ryo shook her up and down to awaken her stunned slumber. His voice grew weary and thin as well, believing Natia to be ensnared in an inescapable trance of trauma. "Look at me, Natia," Her condition drained his strength. The mere sight of her weakening made him regret his every move during the mission. He gently placed his hand on her cheek and stroked it. "Hey... look at me. Please."

A single gasp escaped Ryo's mouth, and it was enough for him to shut down completely. His head slumped down to Natia's shoulder and his pupils involuntarily shook as madness enveloped his soul. His sanity had now reduced to ash. He clenched Natia's body even tighter and pulled her face up to his. Unaware to him, Ryo's sunken cheek had connected with Natia's. Her cheek's lathered tears began warming up the moment they touched together.

"You... saved me." Natia's voice escaped her throat like a zombie's moan.

"I didn't," Ryo denied, shaking his head. He was reminded of how he failed to save April from the car accident, which Eve did not deem an accident after their confrontation. Now she spent months in the hospital, and her memories were completely lost. Now he failed the mission, failed to locate the Jester, and traumatized Natia even further from Eve's unknown means. "What did Eve do to you?"

Natia's eyes began watering up. She swallowed an entire lump down her throat, reluctant to say. "He told me the truth," She whispered. "He made me think... that when my family died... it was my fault that I couldn't protect them."

"What...?" Ryo couldn't fathom how she listened to Eve. "Don't listen to him! He was trying to get into your head! He doesn't know you!"

"But it's true-" Natia said.

"No, it's not!" Ryo shook Natia. "Goddamn it, when the hell did you get so soft?! For fuck's sake, you're Natia Zanner! The same girl who doesn't let anyone tell her off or bullshit her like that! Do you think he knew what you went through in Iran? Do you think he actually gives a fuck about you? Why are you letting some hot-shot nobody like him get through your skull like that?"

"Because... I am tired... of hearing... all of it!" Natia shouted, which immediately led to crying right after. "I was told the truth! And I accept it!"

"You were a kid, damn it, I told you this already! It's not your fault!"

"Then whose was it?" Natia lashed back. "Who?"

"F-Fucking... no one!" Ryo retorted. "Because that's just how life is! We're not as fortunate as the people above us, but we still live with what we can! I live to protect my family and my sister, and I live to protect you! It's not rocket science! It's that fucking simple!"

"It's not simple to me!" Natia cried.

"Well, it is simple!" Ryo yelled, snatching Natia's left hand and pulling her close. Her eyes widened at Ryo's sudden movement with her. "You listen to me right now, and you listen carefully. I'm not going to let anything ever hurt you anymore, do you understand me? I'm not going to let anything hurt you anymore! If you get hurt, I get hurt. Whatever happens to you, happens to me. Whatever you do, I do. Whatever pain you feel, I feel. And whenever you call my name, I'll be there. And if I call yours, I want you to be there for me."

"You... want me to be there... for you...?" Natia whispered.

"Yeah. Because I can't live a life where someone I know who I treasure deeply gets hurt without me being there for them. I can't live my damn life knowing you're out there alone, hurt because of something you had no control over. And I sure as hell won't sit here and wait for that to change! Because I'm here for you, and I don't give a shit if you say no!" Ryo rejected, snatching Natia's pinky with his to tighten it. "I don't care anymore. I just want you to get better. I want you to be happy! Don't you see that?"

"I..." Natia voiced out, relaxing her head onto Ryo's thigh. She slipped her fingers down her dress, touching her smartphone to remind herself of Saki. And thus, came a marvelous hail of colorful optimism that reminded her of yesterday's joys. Frolicking in the sunlight with the children and the merriment of others, enjoying the company of friends, and eating the most delicious food of all time. She knew all of it was impossible and improbable without Ryo beside her. It was him that awakened this new light inside of her, and she wanted to embrace it while she could.

"I see..." She said. Natia tightened her pinky with his, swearing a secret oath between the two of them. She broke out in bright laughter and tears of joyful hope. She leaned forward and held Ryo tightly in a warm hug. Ryo closed his eyes and gently embraced her. He never imagined that someone like Ryo just described as Natia Zanner, an unapproachable, headstrong, and fierce woman like herself would be entrusting her safety to Ryo.

"All right then," Natia said, reinvigorated by hope. She moved back and met her eyes with Ryo's. "But you'll be the one who'll call me first. I'm not going to call you for shit unless you do." She said, giggling at the circumstances.

"Look at you, always making a fussy game. And says the one whose ass I just saved," Ryo retorted, lifting Natia off of the ground like a princess. The cloth of her black dress dangled from her legs. "If you count that, then you've already lost. But I'll be nice about it."

"You've got some nerve holding me like this," Natia mentioned, looking at Ryo's torn suit. "You've got guts."

"Sorry," Ryo said, preparing himself to put her down. "I'll just-"

"No," Natia said, pressing her palm against his collarbone. She relaxed her tensed-up shoulders, letting her invisible worries sprinkle down to the ground with her in his arms. "Just leave me like this... for a little longer."

Ryo lightly smiled back at Natia, who released his worries alongside her. He watched her shut her eyes to rest, and he did the same. He kneeled, crossed his legs together, and lay with Natia on the basketball court. He did not mind the filth-ridden terrain, nor his mild bruises and injuries. He did not mind the plague-filled mist, nor the abandonment of a location once held dearly by others.

He just wanted to be there for Natia, at that moment, resting beside her in a metaphorical bed of happiness.

But just as he began to close his eyes to relax, a miracle sparkled in front of his very own eyes. Seismic waves began shaking the foundation that they both laid upon, splitting the weakened cracks of the commercial district's old flooring. Vibrant sunlight peaked above Kathuz for the very first time, calling upon the treasured gift of Mother Nature to heal its plague-ridden city. The entire base of Kathuz City began rising toward the surface. Chimes and bells from faraway signaled the civilians rising with them, calling others to bear witness to the impossible.

Ryo and Natia both awakened from their light slumber and lifted each other from the ground. They stood firmly as the skies above Kathuz opened up, revealing the entirety of the bright morning horizons of Aries casting down upon them. The oceans slowly parted to allow Kathuz City to rise from the underground.

"What's happening!?" Natia shouted as she tried to maintain her balance.

"Natia, move!" Ryo yelled, leaping onto her and grabbing her for safety. An unknown tower split the ground beneath them, rising through the terrain until it carried Ryo and Natia alongside it on its metal girders. The two of them held the edge of a railing as the tower lifted them up into the heavens until they had a wondrous glimpse of Aries's coruscating districts in the vivid morning. More buildings underneath pierced through the floors beneath them, creating more structures around the vicinity.

The two of them waited until the chaos halted. Ryo covered his eyes with his palm and approached the edge of the tower, witnessing the plague ending before his very eyes. Natia followed him as well, experiencing the impossible worldwide phenomena with him. The eclipsed and shrouded streets of Kathuz were visible once more to the people who threw it away like lambs to the slaughter. Echoes of cheers and jubilance struck all places around Kathuz City like a worldwide victorious fanfare. Ryo and Natia stood next to each other completely speechless from it all.

"How the fuck did this happen?" Natia asked, turning to Ryo.

Ryo tried to access his communicator, but it was destroyed in his battle with the Seething Vipers. "My communicator's dead. Call Jinrai and Claire." He said.

Natia pressed against her ear as she activated her nanosuit. "Hey, it's Natia. Jinrai, Claire, are you two there?" She called, hoping for an answer. Static was all that came after. "Damn it, they're not coming through."

"We're above the underground. It's still not working?" Ryo asked. "They would have answered if it was an emergency. Try again!"

"Shut up, let me do it," Natia voiced out, turning away from him to activate her communicator again. "It's Natia. Jinrai, Claire, do you copy?" She repeated.

An erupting implosion detonated from miles away their position, sending a shockwave that surged across all of Kathuz City. The bodies of water around them rippled in response to the implosion, crashing toward the nearest district in Aries. From beyond the districts across from the two, flying drones with built-in cameras from news stations took to the skies to report live on Kathuz erupting from the underground. Even the drones' engines lost balance momentarily when the unexplainable shockwave crashed through the city.

"I think they copy, all right," Natia said as response to the detonation. She tried pinpointing the general direction of where it originated from. "I've got a hunch that's them."

"Let's go," Ryo said, activating his nanosuit to cover his suit. Despite its heavy damage from the Seething Vipers, Ryo's strength returned after being subject to his wounds momentarily. He eyed Natia, who also transformed into her full nanosuit with her helmet visor. "Ready?"

After heating up her ignition boosters, Natia nodded and readied herself for flight. "Ready." She said. The two sprinted off of the metal grid from the radio tower and gallantly leaped off. Their thrusters ignited in unison, and they blasted off into the horizons in search of the implosion reaction.