The very moment 427 turned around and spoke 539 found herself transfixed. Despite the dim red lighting and the sound of the klaxon she was unable to move. Was this real? Was she here at this moment? The freedom of the last few moments had seemed like some kind of cruel trick. They had been freed, and in her quest for freedom, or simply for something different she had found him. 539 felt her face contort into an uncomfortable smile. Not one that was forced, no. Simply one that had been so unfamiliar to her, save for small moments of rebellion that it almost felt wrong, some kind of sin.
When his voice hit her ears, she was instantly brought back to her dream. The two seated in white chairs against the emerald field. Side by side, as though they had known each other their whole lives long. The voice she had created for him suddenly replaced by his own. 427 had a voice and it was divine. Lunch date sounded nothing like she had imagined. After all, in her isolation how could she have imagined anything? It had a distinct rasp, the sound of a voice which had not had practice, she considered it was perhaps like her own in that regard.
539 recalled the fateful moment in her dream in which the tuxedo'd or suited 427 sat beside her, shot, dying limped and slumped into her lap. The moment in which she raised her hand up as a signal, calling the for the guards to take her own life as all hope had been lost. Feeling the pain of the shot to her chest she finally came to, back to the present moment. He had asked if she knew what was happening. She didn't, at least not entirely. There were bits and pieces of the previous events that made sense to her, so she did the only thing she knew how, answering his question.
"The power went out."
It had been a simple answer to a simple question. She paid no mind to the fact that those first words he had spoken to her, ever, were not ideal. 539 had no expectations, for a part of her still denied the fact that any of this was real. Even those four words, simple as they were seemed unreal. Aside from "yes" "no" "don't' "please" she could hardly recall speaking a sentence. Perhaps she had spoken one, but it hardly seemed to matter now.
There was a strange sound that came down the hall, it was unfamiliar as opposed to the creature that made it. An inky mist charged toward them, the figure of a fox clear as a bell leading ahead. It was the very same fox that had scurried across lunch date's face. The same fox she had taken a beating to conceal. Yet here it was manifest, tattoo somehow made real, perhaps it had been alive. 539 had no questions in that instant. After what they had done to her, she didn't dare question what the powers that be had done to anyone else.
Sesta had come with a warning, there was danger on their heels. 539 was not phased, she simply looked at her lunch date and smiled as his gave his assessment:
“Guards. Coming this way. We need to run, or hide, or something. Fast.”
His words washed over her. She understood each word individually and after a moment she understood them as a whole. She would not run. Not anymore. "No." was all 539 could muster, a smile still on her face as she stood steadfast, the guards coming the corner and into view. "Save yourself." She spoke clearly, determined and ready for a fight, 539 turned her attention back to the trio running at them with guns in hand. It was unclear whether or not they were the target, or if they were simply in the way of a greater task she could not comprehend at present. 539 had enough.
The slim girl had closed her eyes and listened with every fiber of focus she had within her. Three distinct heart beats, three blood flows pulsing through their veins. The sound was intoxicating. Likely something her captors had not taken into account. It was through her will power alone that she could persevere. Raising a single hand out in front of her, the guards had stopped in their place. A second hand now outstretched with palm flat facing the ceiling, fingers curling inwards as though she were beckoning them forward. The moments would pass like hours, and a red mist would slowly manifest itself around the frozen guards. If one could look close enough, the source of the mist was the guards themselves. Tiny droplets of blood leaching from their skin and suspending themselves in the air.
The mist grew greater and greater until it resembled an enormous cloud shrouding the guards entirely. It was at the moment when it seemed the cloud could grow no larger, 539 dropped her hands to her sides. The red mist had fallen at once as though gravity had suddenly and rapidly won the battle, a thick rain of crimson blood fell to the ground and with it the lifeless body of the guards. The smile had long faded from her face, she returned her attention to her lunch date and moved toward him, moving past him she turned her head. "Let's go." She seemed unphased by the violence she had rained down, though it had itched at the edges of her mind. He was right, they needed to move. "I'm the Queen of the castle." She whispered harkening back to a song she had not heard in a great many years.
Ahead was the heat of flames, the sound of screaming. Every thing once held in cages now released. The masters were now left to cower in fear of their creations. Revenge was upon them and nothing, not even their precious Gods could save them now.
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