Teki

It was a word Rei had applied to many in her time. The face of Typhon rose up before her, struck down even as he willed her to burn, her psychic knife draining the last of his power away at the very moment he would have destroyed her. Her hands around his throat, squeezing tightly, feeling the pulse of his life slowing, slowing, gentler and gentler against her palm, his whirling thoughts fading and fading until... silence.

Teki.

The word rolled like a pulse of light on the surface of her mind. She saw the face of Nero, greasy hair and red eyes full of quiet hatred.

Teki.

Aimi’s face swam into view. An image floats before the screen: a thirteen year old Rei crying bitterly as Mama Pain praises a very young Aimi for behavior that she had punished Rei for the very same day.

Teki.

The Infected, swarming through the mines, threatening Moses’ life.

Teki.

Aliya Pain, dead on the floor, a needle sticking out of her heart.

Teki.

Nero. Nero with a blackened skeletal arm and a malice that burns with the fury of a star. He clenches his skeletal fist; bits of metal float into the air and flow together through the gaps in the bones, knitting together of his accord, melding, fusing: in moments a gleaming metal arm glitters dangerously beneath the stars.

Teki.

Rei flings herself into the very maw of doom, into the Shadow with teeth bared, defiant to the last breath.

Breathe.

The fire comes forth, and the fear is swallowed up in fire. It feels right to bring the fire. It makes her wish Amaterasu were here. In that moment, everything is gloriously, perfectly clear; in that moment, with golden flames burning all around her, when death is like a light and blood is like a rose, Rei loves her Enemy.

Teki.

Enemy. Now, looking down at the beast even as it melts beneath the combined barrage of the Goshi heat-bombs, Rei can’t help but feel sorry for the demon. This abomination. This creature which should not and can not be allowed to exist. This thing of malice which feeds upon the living souls of its prey.

She doesn’t recognize the feeling at first. It’s not something she’s ever experienced before, after all. This strange movement of the heart is altogether new to her. There is no frame of reference for it. There it is, burning in the heart of the young Biomade like the searing light of the sun-child. Every Cheldrun lived in fear of that thing which waited in the starless void. Every Cheldrun had heard whispered tales of the Enemy. Rei had learned of it through Others. Through their thoughts. Through their darkest fears, their moments of weakness, through the moments in the night when the pulse quickened and terror grew within the heart of a young man just outside the compound as he thought he saw the shadows move. And the reality was every bit as terrifying as the stories had suggested, and yet...

Though the creature be terrible, abominable, and fearful beyond all measure, as she watches the Demon melt - though she says nothing, and the thought of it disturbs her more than the feeling itself - Rei’s heart is moved to pity for the first time.

She would never admit it. Not to anyone. Not ever. Not even to herself. But there it is nonetheless.