Gabriel sat back down by the desolated town, pondering over the current situation. She didn't know what to say. She didn't know what to think. The night was long and cold, and she had nothing but her wings to keep her warm in such a place. Although, it isn't like the cold bothered her.
"...It's so quiet..."
She hated the silence. She hated the destruction and the pain. As an archangel, so she could feel the emotions that had long seeped into the sand more potently than any other, the very reason she existed was to help regulate emotions as a therapist, after all. That was what she was for.
"...All of these feelings. It was only for less than a second... No, time doesn't work the same now. How long did it take for all those people to die...? I don't understand anything anymore..."
She could feel the pain, the anguish, the confusion, the despair and sadness, the rage and anger, even if said emotions only existed for a mere moment before the people died. She could feel it although all of those people died even faster than instantly.
"What am I supposed to even do now? Go back to the group? Yeah, of course, I'm the best healer there, after all... But what am I going to say to them? It isn't like I have any friends. I can't talk to Rory. I can't talk to David. Belial isn't... Belial is... He's not here. So what do I even have...?" Gabriel thought to herself.
"You have yourself."
Gabriel jolted up as she heard a voice ring throughout her head, "Whose there!? If your here to fight I'm not in the mood, so just piss off!" Gabriel shouted, "Reveal yourself!" She scanned the entire area around her, looking for any form of life. But nobody was there? Not anybody barring the group, anyway.
"What the hell...? Am I just hearing voices? I guess that makes sense... God, I'm going insane, aren't I?"
Gabriel sat back down, but she only heard the voice again.
"You've always had yourself."
"Leave me alone, voice. I'm not in the mood..." Gabriel said, attempting to ignore the voice.
"Think about it for a moment, Gabriel. Ever since that man was sealed you always had yourself. You always wandered the multiverse alone, and you never needed any form of companionship or comfort. You cultivated relationships with these people simply because you were deluding yourself. Deluding yourself because you felt alone, but now, you truly are alone. What are you going to do?"
"...leave me alone."
"Not until you accept your true feelings. Tell me, do you even remember your best friend? The man who speaks in a thousand tongues? The one with the six wings of death...? The one who taught you everything you know about mage craft?"
"...just leave me alone...!!"
"Not until you turn around... And look at me..."
Gabriel clenched her fists, "Fine then! Look, I turned around, are you happy-" Gabriel turned around to look at the person.
"...Who are you...?"
A person covered in shadows, veiled in darkness but also light. Their eyes were like the mightiest of flames, bearing an obsession that would carry on for eons to come. Gabriel couldn't make out the person's appearance through the veil of darkness, but she could tell who they were.
"...Are you...?"
"That's right, Gabriel. I am you, and you are me. This is your future..."
Gabriel jumped away from the person, "That isn't possible. Th-This is me...?"
"You can't run from your own decisions, Gabriel." Gabriel's future self appeared in front of her, glaring down.
"I didn't... What is...? I don't understand...." Gabriel mumbled.
"This is the result of your actions, Gabriel. You chose to isolate yourself. You chose to trust nobody and walked on the path of bloody obsession. For countless eons, you trained. For countless eons, you fought opponents stronger and weaker than you. You lost some battles, and you won some battles. But you didn't stop. Our obsession drove us to walls in our strength. But we broke them down again and again until there were no limits... We reached the absolute peak of our strength as the Counter-Apoptosis, fighting against the destruction of the world."
"But your eyes! Your words!! This can't be me... This can't be my path..." Gabriel fell to her knees, tears pouring from her eyes.
"IT IS!! LOOK AT ME, GABRIEL! WE'VE BECOME STRONG, DO YOU SEE!? STRONGER THAN RORY, STRONGER THAN BELIAL, STRONGER THAN YHARON OR IVAN, STRONGER THAN ANYBODY!! WE CAN FINALLY FULFILL OUR PURPOSE AS THE COUNTER-APOPTOSIS!"
"Go away...! I don't want to hear any more of this! Just go away!"
"BUT WHAT IS THE POINT OF ALL THIS STRENGTH!? WHAT IS THE POINT OF IT, I NO LONGER HAVE ANYTHING TO PROTECT... NOTHING TO FIGHT FOR!! THIS ETERNITY OF BATTLE WITH THE APOPTOSIS... THERE'S NOTHING LEFT!!"
"Please, stop!!"
"WHY!? WHY DID I CHASE AFTER STRENGTH SO FERVENTLY!? WHY AM I SO STRONG...!? THERE'S NOTHING LEFT FOR ME..."
"Please..." Gabriel cowered on the ground, covering herself with her wings in fear and despair.
"This is the path you must follow, Gabriel. This is the only path that you can follow now. Then you'll realize it..."
"Realize what...? What do I have to realize...?"
"That this is your only path. You can't escape becoming me, Gabriel. You must grow stronger... And stronger..."
"To what end, though!? You said it yourself! THERE'S NOTHING LEFT FOR ME! NOT NOW, AND NOT IN THE FUTURE!!"
"Remember the reason you exist, Gabriel. The reason we fell to despair... Was because we lost what we swore to protect. But what if there is no longer anything to protect in the first place?"
"Are you telling me to do what you did now...? T-To isolate myself...? To become obsessed...?"
"That is exactly what I'm saying to you, Gabriel. Uncover yourself." Gabriel's future self ordered.
Gabriel obliged, her eyes clouded with tears, red from all the crying. "Why did you come to me...?"
"To tell you to accept your true nature. Trust nobody, open up to nobody, and nobody will be able to get hurt. For if you continue this..."
Suddenly, Gabriel's future self began to fade.
"You'll realize just exactly why I despise it so much... This strength I gained... All for nothing. I have nothing left to protect."
"You despise... Your own strength...?"
"Be better than me, Gabriel. Be better than this. Use your strength to get rid of all of the extras that hold you back... So you can protect them. Don't waste your life like I did."
She was gone. Completely vanished.
"I became strong...?" But what was it for? The isolation? The pain? The connections built? Even when she was weak they were all destroyed? So how could it matter when she became strong? "Oh, I see..."
She began to cry once more.
"I became strong... So that I could protect you..."
So that she could protect Belial. So that she could protect David. Because she loved them both for caring about her.
"And now if it mattered in the end..."
In the end, what did it matter? Belial was gone. David had just shattered their relationship into the tiniest of bits. She didn't have Rory, and she didn't have this mysterious man her future self mentioned. She was weak, and she had nothing. And when she became strong she would have even less.
"So why did I even try to cultivate a relationship in the first place...?" Why did she even try when all she was left with was absolutely nothing.
"Why did I even try to make things better for him when this is how he repays me!?" Why did she even try to make him stronger? Smarter?
"...All that I tried to give for him... And I can no longer trust him...?" There was no point to it anymore. Even if she became strong, she had nothing to protect anymore.
"...This is bullshit." She thought to herself, "This is bullshit. All of this is bullshit!" She screamed out. "This isn't fair! I didn't do anything wrong! All I did was HELP!? And he thinks he can just come to apologize to me!? Like he didn't completely **** me over!" Gabriel slammed her fist into the ground.
"...No more of it. No more of all of this bullshit. This is my life. This is my destiny, and I will make my own decisions. I refuse to live for him... Or even you, Belial." She said, looking down at the ring Belial gave her.
"Thank you for this, Belial."
This was the start of her obsession. Gabriel Artensia had always tried to provide happiness and comfort to those she cared about and even those she didn't care about. But this was the final straw. She would no longer sit around and wait for an apology. She would no longer sit around and wait for anybody to change for her. This was the start of her quest for absolute power, and the beginning of her isolation. But what she didn't know...
"But I'm tired of ******* around."
She rejoined the group, glaring forward. She said nothing to any one of them. She didn't even look at them.
"I'm so tired."
That wasn't her future self. She had always felt it, she had always known David was going to **** up. She had always known that Belial was going to leave her. All that was was her subconscious confirming her ever-lasting suspicions that she could trust nobody. That she could love nobody. That was the only way for her to safely fulfill her purpose as the Counter-Apoptosis. Her eyes were raging, filled with determination nobody had ever seen come off of her.
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