Anastasia (2)

The sun dropped down below horizon, Jean and the others followed a Rogue down the stairs of the church. Tension grew with every moment that passed until finally, the flight of stairs ended and they found themselves in a dark room.

"Welcome."

A voice resembling a screech echoed throughout the room sending chills down the members' spines. Looking forward, they saw a figure sitting on a broken chair in the middle of the room.

"Ana."

"I thought I told you to not call me that again."

Anstasia stood up from the broken chair, which immediately turned to dust. Staring at her face, Jean couldn't help but grimace.

Her human face was a mix of grief and anger and her skull had one more hole, one more massive than the others, that Jean hadn't seen before.

"What happened to your skull?"

"Crab."

Silence filled the room once again as Jean and Anastasia stood opposing each other. And breaking the silence, was Jean.

"Where's Andre?"

Anastasia stayed silent, then she looked at the two who were with Jean. She was disappointed to say the least. Then, looking back at Jean, she replied.

"He's safe."

Jean didn't doubt the legitimacy of this information but what he wanted to know was his location, and it didn't seem that Anastasia was willing to reveal it.

"Why did you leave us?"

He asked a question that he had been pondering for so long, he truly didn't know why Anastasia left the Union, to roam the endless earth.

"You know my ability, don't you?"

"Yes, of course."

"And you know its consequences too, right?

"..."

For an ability as powerful as Anastasia, there was bound to be drawbacks. She then spoke, her voice heavier than before.

"Each and everytime I heal, it doesn't just replace the missing cells, the damaged cells. No, it enters the body, like a parasite, reshaping every single cell and the healthy cells will fight back leading to the parasites to try even harder."

The 'maggots' in the middle of her face grew and twisted violently, expressing her anger. It grew and grew, eventually reaching her eye and popping it.

A gasp could be heard behind Jean.

The 'maggots' didn't stop as it then filled her eye socket completely, before breaking off, creating a new and functional eye, after which, it reverted back into its original position. Her rage had died down.

"Every time I 'heal', I get reborn, as a new human along excruciating pain. The pain was paralyzing, but I had to continue forward, for YOUR sake, for humanity's sake."

"I am sick and tired of it. I'm sure you are too. Me and the others, who you call Rogues, just want peace from fighting the Zirtue, we want to remain neutral"

Jean knew all about this, afterall, she told him about this before. Before her face got torn off by a Crab-IV. But he couldn't do anything about it.

"Why are you branching off and creating this group then?"

Anastasia stayed silent for a while. The group had gotten used to this reaction, she just thought for too long.

"They just followed me, I had no say in it."

"What did you do for them to follow you?"

"Killing Zirtues..."

Jean was confused, she just said that she didn't want to fight Zirtues but now led a group, to kill Zirtues?

"It was just clearing the area, so that I could make a place to live for the rest of my life."

"And they followed me, just like that."

Hearing this, Jean felt like he shouldn't try to get back the Rogues anymore. He couldn't. They just want a peaceful life, and he was proactively stripping them of it.

But he also wanted a peaceful life, find out the origins of the Zirtues, destroy it then live happily. They wanted the same thing, but one cared more about retaking their planet and the other cared more about themselves.

"Just, take that guy back, seeing him in such state concerns me. From now on, just let us go our seperate paths. Ask a random person and they'll lead you to him."

Xander and Aceso was very happy, they could end the mission right now and they even got the information they had been striving for a long time - both the Rogues' and Wanderers' intentions. They seemed harmless enough.

But Jean, was not happy, he was stubborn in his stance. It was now, or never that he would manage to convince them back.

"Are you really not coming back?"

"Yes."

The 'maggots' on her face were really expressive, though the human face showed no emotions. Just by looking at the 'maggots', you would know. And right now, she was sad, expressed by the unmoving and stiff 'maggots'.

Jean looked at the other two and told them to go retrieve Andre. They complied.

"Are you not coming back with them?"

"Ana, please come back."

"I can't, and please stop calling me that."

Despite expressing her full refusal, he was stubborn.

"With you back in the Union, we could regain our peace again."

The 'maggots' on her face wriggled intensely with each word that came from Jean's mouth.

"We just need to kill all the Zirtues."

Immediately, the 'maggots' grew to astounding size, covering Anastasia's entire face with one even grabbing Jean's arm who was standing a few meters away. They wriggled even more than before.

"Are you"

"planning"

"to build another Haven, you shit?"

The maggots began bleeding, the one on Jean's arm dug deep into his skin, almost aiming to break his bones. Her voice was calm and steady, but Jean knew better, that she was not.

"No-"

"I was fooled by you once, Jean. I still remember that day. That day when you announced to the world that the invasion was over. And th...that we just need to stay inside the Haven and let you kill the remaining few."

Ignoring Jean's attempts to speak, she continued.

"The population was 80 million, Jean. Eighty damn million, and after the supposedly safe Haven, there were only 9000 left."

"You killed them all Jean, including my family."

Hearing these words hurt Jean, he didn't know that Zirtues could be that huge, and that they could hide deep underground. The maggots' grip on him loosened, and then he spoke.

"It's not another Haven, trust me."

The maggots began dying off, and her face was how it usually was.

"Tell me, how many Zirtues have we killed?"

"...50 million."

"And how many do you guys estimate to be left?"

"..."

"Two billion."

For the first time in 100000 years, a smile appeared on Anastasia's face. However, it wasn't because of happiness that she was smiling, it was of despair and hopelessness. Jean was quite shocked at this, but he didn't comment.

"So how do you guarantee that with us, you can win?"

Jean stayed silent.

"Prove it, prove it to me that it was possible. If you can do that, I'll go with you, and maybe even convince the others to go too."

"How do I?"

"The grade V. Kill that thing and I shall believe in your words."

***

"You two go get Andre."

The two was very happy at the series of events, though they had to meet Anastasia, they could still leave without any fighting, and they even got valuable information.

The two headed upstairs and upon seeing somebody, they immediately asked for Andre. They had thought that the person in front of them wouldn't believe them but to their surprise, the person immediately led them to a room.

Opening the door, they found Andre just sitting in the middle of the room, dazed and unmoving.

"Andre!"

Andre shooked and he looked upwards, surprised when he saw Xander and Aceso.

"Why are you here?"

"Let's just go, sir Jean is waiting for us."

They got out of the room and returned to the main hall but they didn't see Jean anywhere. Concluding that he must still be underground, the three of them all went down. Approaching Jean, they could hear the voice of two people talking. And when they had finished descending the flight of stairs,

"The grade V. Kill that thing and I shall believe in your words."

"Deal."

They heard soemthing that was truly shocking, Anastasia telling Jean to kill the grade V and Jean agreeing without hesitation.

"Sir Jean! What do think you're doing?"

"But you must do it alone, I shall observe your fight myself."

The three were speechless, to say the least.

"Sir, you shouldn't do this!"

Xander pleaded for Jean to stop, to go back to the Base, but to no avail.

"When morning comes, you three go back to the Base, I will stay here."

"But-"

"Just go."

"..."

***

Morning soon came, turning on their brains, they looked for Jean but it seemed he had already gone somewhere.

"Damn it."

They were now forced to return, without Jean. Three hours into their journey, they all heard something in their heads.

"Hello? Can you all hear me?"

It was the voice of Erika.

'So this is telepathy?'

Telepathy, an ability of one of their members, Iris.

"Oh hello Andre, it seemed you guys succeeded."

'What the fuck?'

"You said it yourself, it's telepathy, I can hear all your thoughts and you can hear mine. You can also hear eachother."

'Hello?'

"Shut up, you all are to immediately return, there's a serious problem, where's Jean? I don't hear him."

'About that...'

"...God damn it, did he get wooed again?"

'No?? He, went to kill the grade V.'

"..."

"Fuckkkkkkkkk."