Seasons Beatings Epilogue

Like I said at the beginning of this little venture, I had many highs and lows throughout my life. Hell, even I've been through a couple of scrapes, though this one was quickly shooting up the metaphorical leaderboard. But I guess that's the price we pay to get ahead, right? Either way, I got up with the mother of all headaches.

I quickly let the headaches fall to the wayside with my renewed sense of focus. Then, remembering what happened, I quickly sprung back to my feet, my various bruises and light burns blazing. I looked around at our new area.

Thankfully it seemed the blast was relatively contained, only leaving a small crater of ash and small fires that were nowhere near dangerous for both The Cons and I. So with that, I decided to unfurl my smoky shirt and pat down the flames, clearing the smoke bit by bit. Unfortunately, I got greeted with a rather unsightly image when I blew it all away.

Somehow in the explosion, pieces of Eternus' frayed cape survived, leaving him with a couple of sizzling strands of cloth on his back. Yet despite all that, it almost seemed to look alive as it somehow billowed in the stale air to reveal Eternus' body. So, naturally, he got left in a far worse state than I.

With how bloody the guy usually gets, I was a little bit desensitized to it all, but this made me nearly throw up what little food I had (seriously, how long we've been here). The various burns across his body were so bad I didn't know where his skin began and ended with his clothes. Which either means they got blown off or fused to his skin; either way, a gruesome thought.

I swear I could feel his skin still sizzling, leaving behind a tiny but boiling trail of small blood drops. Yet the probably the terrifying thing about all of that was that Eternus didn't even seem to care. Instead, his usual aggressive demeanor got meant with a rather sadistically jovial tone, one that reminded me all too well of his fight with Damage.

Especially since he somehow managed to get Nefario under his foot heel in the small space of time, revealing the broken mask, they hid for all their worth. Their costume was just about as badly burned as Eternus, with their legs still far too damaged and mangled even to move, which made Eternus smile all the more.

"Ah, there you are. It took me a while with the eyes and all but, even with the smoke and smell of my searing flesh, I can smell weakness coming from a mile away."

Nefario gave out a pained chuckle at that point, with their voice sounding far less theatrical upon the response.

"Yes, it seems that I have a lot of weaknesses to make up for. I can't wait to see what else next time reveals."

At that point, Eternus pressed his foot even harder, almost giggling at what he said.

"Who said anything about a next time? Cause last time I checked, I said that no doctor alive would fix it when I was through with you. But maybe a mortician might," he said almost cavalierly.

With that, a sense of dread clocked over me, realizing that he was fully serious about his threat.

"Bravo, on the callback Eternus, you truly do have a way of words but, did you honestly think that I would have prepared all this without a guarantee that we couldn't get an encore to this little dance of ours?"

"Don't know, don't particularly care," he said, disinterested.

"Oh, but you should take care of Eternus because I still have one last trick up my sleeve. Unfortunately, in this line of work-life expectancy tends to go down by a wide margin. Which is why I've longed to marvel at the possibility of my death."

"So we share one thing in common."

"Yes, I suppose we do, except here is the metaphorical catch. For you see, I'm inclined to keep fighting even after I reach the bitter end. Which is why I've created my failsafe invention: my Nefariheart."

"I'm probably going to regret asking but, what's that?" I said while placating the two maniacs.

"Nothing too special, just a modified pacemaker I surgically implanted to replace my heart, just for occasions like these. For you see, if my heartbeat were to ever fall under my programmed beats per minute at a set amount of time, then a set series of programs based on my design would activate. The current program will detonate the various explosives I have set over this entire base. And while your regeneration may be impressive, I doubt you'd be able to survive the various burns, concussive force, and just the sheer weight of the rubble that you would experience. Course, even if my math was off, I also doubt your rather already wounded body would survive long enough before you suffocated to death. Frag's recent developments, Ricochet and Fury aside, I doubt that they would survive as well. So Eternus, I guess you can say that the lives of everyone in this room are in your hands," they said in subtle excitement.

Eternus shifted his foot at that moment, promptly stomping on Nefario's neck! His aura of darkness was getting even more potent as he said the obvious possibility.

"And tell me, good doctor, what exactly stops me from just making you wish you're dead or thinking that this is all some bullshit bluff to prolong your blight of an existence?"

"I'm hurt, Eternus; I haven't said a single lie since this entire trial started; after all, you said to yourself that there is a method to my madness, and that method is one of truth. The simple matter is that my will is far too great to fall because of faulty torture, especially when said torture could give me more than enough time to escape or, worse, retaliate. But, course, all of what I just said doesn't really matter, does it? You've never been the most trusting soul Eternus, not that you ever had a reason to," he said with almost eerie calmness despite the situation.

With that, Eternus grew a rather maddening grim, one that chilled me to my bone as he started to press down harder, forcing them to gasp desperately for air. With that, I began to get a little bit antsy.

"All very true possibilities Nefario, but you just made one small miscalculation; Eternus isn't home right now. And whether you're telling the truth or not, I'm more than happy to test your little theory! Cause if taking every last one of your pathetic lives means that I can rest in peace, then I happily go with a fucking smile on my face!"

A sense of weakening dread infected my being, almost making my knees buckle. But that sentiment didn't get shared with Nefario as they instead got even more crazed! I swear I thought they were high on some drug as they made their resolve known!

"Then go ahead! Because I'm also more than happy to die with my method intact if I can kill you while you lose yours! Let's go out together!" they said as they revealed a single piercing purple pupil with black sclera.

At that moment, I didn't bother to think about the situation any longer. Instead, I pushed Eternus off Nefario's body! Eternus then skidded across the floor, refusing to back down. A tense few seconds followed like something out of a horror movie Eternus turned his face to me, revealing his blood-red eyes. At that moment, I knew I wasn't talking to "him" anymore.

"What do you think you are doing, Ricochet?!"

"I'm trying to save your life, you know, return the favor and all that before you make a big mistake."

At that moment, the devilish smile he had seemingly vanished instead betraying a rising anger.

"THE ONLY MISTAKE I HAVE EVER MADE WAS-."

And as quickly as that boiling anger rose, as soon as I felt the chill of death, Eternus aura vanished. Like some kind of blackout, he quickly grew accustomed to the situation, leaving him to continue his statement under a completely different guise.

"Thinking that we would get lucky enough to finish this now. Let's just go home, Ricochet," he said in a rather somber tone.

Realizing it wasn't the time to continue this further, I for once kept my shut as we moved forward to the other Cons. And even though we managed to escape the clutches of the doctor, ending our year in a technical victory, there was no celebration shared amongst any of us. Instead, there was only depressing, grave silence as my eyes tasted the sunlight of a new dawn.

A new dawn showed us that the days of the other Cons and laying back in the shadows got done, our season beatings being very much proof of that. But, regardless it looked like we were going to have to do a helluva more work to keep on keeping on. Because for the first time, I understood the man that I followed, which means that I now know that I've got to work extra hard to lead us to the light, or else.