Two hours have passed since Ismael has successfully infiltrated the nordic upstates in the name of Raven Perma. This region of the world looks more earth-like than the rest of them, that look otherwordly. A lot of green spaces they have happen to be protected spaces where the flora and fauna has not yet been damaged nor touched by humanity, or barely. Records of people sitting down, laying down and sleeping on the grass. They say if you're good, harmless animals will come to you and gather around you, but if your core is evil, you're not waking up. Ismael falls asleep on the grass and is met with a bunch of small animals laying next to him and for a moment he can forget the absurdity of his life, the insanity of his mission. He is still a prisoner, but he's got a goal, chained but motivated. He's down but someone gets close to him, stroking his hair, seeing the collar around his neck.
"She's still doing this."
Ismael wakes up, slowly and surely, within the embrace of a woman he doesn't know.
"I'm supposed to check if people go to heaven or hell."
"You don't say", she replies with surprise.
"Raven sends me...to make even. I have a gift, I can tell where people stand in the afterlife."
"I think some of us have been waiting for you. Get up, soldier."
Both parted together from the forest part of the region, Ismael was walking slowly, sometimes glancing at the woman.
"Name's Alice. We learned an intruder was around this area but you don't seem to be carrying any trouble."
"Ismael. Elite sniper for the State of Cressenie that no longer exists."
"So what are you an elite sniper of now?"
"I'm not sure I'm even a sniper at all anymore. I was with my wife, we grew up our whole childhood with Materi Tarima, Basil Morgan, Raven Perma and Genova. One by one the idea was to kill them to avoid that the Killing of Nara happens again, the very event that changed us. Me and Gloria, my dead wife, were the only ones who remained human. I assure you those people were not like that in the past. I vividly remember them being cute and full of life. Weapons do that. War does that. It changes their perspective. I witnessed their own respective before and after, and I was there at the moment of change, so nobody else knows how and why they are what they are now. Becoming entities of another world. Only me understand. I'll crack open every skull to get the intel i need. Raven is listening right now, and I want her to know that despite what she did, she's still human. Perhaps even they deserved it. Sending kids to war...they said we were fighting for a freedom that will change us for the better. I can't even put this into words the way I should be able to. Can't crack the code. Two of us died and I won't stop until either there is not a single weapon in circulation or they're all dead. Those are the only two requirements. You'll have to actually kill me because I won't stop. Not at anything. We came back to the land, covered in the blood of our defeated enemies, and they told us "great job, go back home". Nothing, not a pat on the back, no medal no congratulation ceremony, we came back as heroes of nothing. Angels of despair. We soon realized, we idolized war. We don't need any of this, we shouldn't even have wanted to go in the first place but we did. We idolized death and now, I'm planning on killing out of pure consciousness. The only fabric of my will is metal. Raven is next."
"That is quite the life you've led."
"I'm sorry?"
"You see the wrong side of things. You've served your country very young and you came back with a level of life experience that most people have never acquired in their entire existence. I'd rather live your life than stay in my room waiting for grim reaper to find me. And now that you're free to do whatever you want, you choose to kill your friends because they decided to cope with war in a different manner than yours. You've accepted the death of your wife so easily, you can't even be bothered to shed a tear for her. You're the one that should be questionning himself, Ismael. Not Raven. And don't forget you're the only one who had someone after all of this, all of them were left alone to purge their emotions the way they felt necessary."
"I've made my way until here by being indoctrinated to glorify war, I exist in that regard and nothing else, so I will act in that aspect."
"That's understandable, if you think about it for a split second and not any longer. Be a responsible human being and go apologize. You act like you have to kill your friends, that you of all people are the holy sacrificed one, but look at the truth, nobody's forcing you to be so depraved, you did this to yourself. You deserve every bit of this. This perspective of things never even crossed your mind, that's how narcissistic you are. The ego of the survivor, rather than the syndrom of the survivor. I survived, so everybody else must die. You said your friends became monsters, when you come back to Raven's lair, when the dog comes back to his mistress' cage, ask for a mirror. Raven was right, the Congress of Cressenie had to go. And you're not the main character of anything, by the way. You're as much of a criminal as anybody else."
"I might be. I'm also obliged to give you one last detail. After seeing that we only fought for a political stance we weren't even aware of at the time, we asked to simply spend one more evening at our school. Which they didn't understand, how could they, but absolutely accepted, thinking we would ask for more. We went back on that bench and we stood there quitely. I remember Genova saying something. "This is life. The life we've lived was paved in nostalgia and blood. We survived, let's be grateful." I've never bypassed the code of her sentence."
"That's literally what I just said, Ma-mael. I hope you live long enough to see the errors of your ways. Here's the grave."
Two fingers up, knee down, hand on the cold rigid tombstone. White pure fresh wind comes at him.
"That's two in a row."
Ismael then kept talking with Alice and a few other locals in a positive and respectful manner, as Raven was listening. He then asked for permission to escape for a moment to a nearby field that holds thousands of flowers and holds his necklace.
"Raven, you're still here? You need to know something. Mateni really, really loved you. He wanted to have you back, but couldn't reach you like I did. You don't have to say anything back, but I want you to be aware of it. I'm not coming back. You can order me from afar, you can just surveil me from your home and watch me lose myself trying to reach Genova."
Raven, dumbfounded by the insanity of it all, fought tears all alone in her den. This time there was no music to be heard. It would be too suffocating.
"Ismael. Wait here, I'll be there in a moment. I think we need to talk about this murder mission."