Waiting For Zero

With her dark blue hair in a braid and flowing with the wind, her crystal eyes shine like the source of the neon beyond, and the face of the Queen returns in a tattered form above the dark elite uniform.

"I am not Azura," Kyani whispers to him, "Not anymore."

Ryker stares in shock. "You look just like her."

"I was the one with the mistake to hold," she stares at her own body without anything to fade her vision, "I've lived with that mistake for too long. She was the one part of me I couldn't get rid of. The one part of me that always came back to you. The one that took so much pain that it turned into beauty."

"What was that mistake?" Ryker gazes.

She glares. "You were. I won't be lured by you like she was. You wanted to dethrone her, but I'm here to destroy that throne. You will never be avenged."

With one minute left to tick on the clock, the last seconds pass with innocence and with the intention of celebration. The world has found a new purpose with Kyani, and the fireworks will become milestones as the people of the poor will climb to equality with the monarch.

The shards of the crown are split for the souls of those who can fly.

"What do you wish for?" Ryker asks, analyzing the tattered scars over Kyani's cheek.

"The way it always should've been," she answers, stepping closer to him. She grabs his throat swiftly, not giving him time to react, and disarms the orb from his palm. She kicks him down and holds the orb in her hand as it activates, blinking a taunting neon to flash in her pupils. Ryker gives out a coughed curse, reaching out to something he can't hold, and watches as Kyani throws the orb to the sky. "Equal."

The metal ball flashes faster as it rises, and right before it sinks back down, it explodes into a green flame and releases a blue ring to spread an aurora through the atmosphere.

Twenty.

She turns back to him, her braid coming undone to match her disordered appearance.

Seventeen.

Ryker stares at the stars as they fade out of the sky, the sparkled dots being covered in a silky blue.

Fourteen.

His effort to rise again is little, for the surface below him won't crush the Kaiyo name as he had hoped. Rolling over and crawling up again, Ryker finds Kyani again as she spreads her metal wings out another time.

Twelve.

She gives him a final soft gaze, the compassion in her eyes as rare as the gems scattered on the rooftop.

Ten.

"You know this wasn't how things were supposed to end," Ryker says.

Seven.

"Without a throne, only I will decide the fate of my life. I want everyone to know what it costs to acquire solace," she responds.

Five.

"I'm still alive," Ryker responds.

Four.

"You'll see me again," she steps onto the edge, "Enjoy the fireworks."

After speaking her final words, Kyani jumps over the edge and backflips out to the world below. A snap echoes as her body swings with a rope attached to her neck, and a heavy crack booms just before the fireworks as her body slams against the glass of the tower.