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Equilibrium Fan Fiction
by David W. Huang
The
Cleric
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1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6
| 7 | Author's
Notes
Now...
The Ministers pulled into
the SIMM headquarters and filed their daily report. Tatiana covered for
Nathan by making no mention of the violent incident earlier that day.
They were partners after all, that's what partners did for each other,
wasn't it? She reassured him but Nathan couldn't know, his only other
partners had been Clerics. He didn't want to think about it or anything
else. Nate felt mentally and physically exhausted. As he headed for his
apartment, his only thoughts were of embracing the oblivion of sleep.
Upon entering, he threw his coat over a chair and went for his bed. He
froze for a second and rubbed his eyes. Outwardly calm, his heart had
jumped and was beginning to pump erratically.
The familiar obsidian box
was now an ominous portent.
Hadn't he put his T30s away
the other day? He had, he was sure of it. There was no way he would
have been so careless as to leave them out... and set squarely in the
center of the bed. They represented the secret that he had buried
months ago, but could not get rid of. Why were they out?!
Nathan trembled as he
realized this was how sense offenders must have felt when their
precious contraband were exposed to the predatory eyes of the Cleric.
There was a science and psychology to hiding- and finding- things which
had been perfected during the rise of Libria. Despite his best efforts,
he fell into those same human tendencies that made finding contraband
something Cleric Loric had excelled at. God... Xian had been here.
There was no more use denying it.
The day he had left the
Catacombs, Nathan snuck back into the ruins of the Monastery. After
digging through the rubble, he made it to his personal footlocker and
removed the items that marked him as a Cleric in the registry. He took
his uniforms, his ID, his interval watch, his automatic wrist holsters,
and- of course- his T30s. Then he told himself he was scrounging up
spare supplies but he knew it went beyond that- perhaps it was his
intuition- he checked his partner's adjacent locker.
It was empty. Xian was alive.
During these investigations,
he had know- always known- that it was his former partner, Cleric Xian.
Yet he drifted forward in a dream world of denial. Maybe it wasn't.
Maybe Xian would stop. Maybe he would never have to see him. The lies
had sustained him.
Now, Nathan stood there in
his bedroom, irrationally gripped by fear. It was just a case on his
bed but he couldn't bring himself to approach it. It was as if he
believed he could simply stop time if he didn't do anything. He was
tired, he didn't need this too. If he could just ignore it, maybe it
would go away. Hah. Nathan Loric came to his senses and suppressed his
quivering. Loric despised what he was becoming...a weakling paralyzed
by emotions. Ridiculous! It was just a case!
Loric paced over and opened
the case and lifted a T30. Stamped on the bottom was "XIAN." Hmph. How
dramatic, Xian was loosing it too. He took out the other pistol and
removed the divider. Underneath, neatly folded, was his black Cleric
uniform. On top of it rested a familiar metal shard. The one which had
been removed from him. The one which Nathan had allowed Brother Martin
to keep as a memento.
Loric stripped off his shirt
and began attaching his wrist holsters.
The very air seemed to be
burdened with unnatural heaviness. It was past the midnight hour as
Loric entered the claustrophobic confines of the Catacombs. The
suffocating darkness only allowed for gasps of ambient light at
intermittent intervals where there were cracks in the concrete tombs.
He headed deeper towards inevitability. Then took that step into the
open area he had briefly considered home.
"My friend... ."
Blood. Smeared, splattered,
and drying everywhere. The old man, exhaled a rasping breath, struggled
to smile over his painful grimace. Brother Martin was slumped against
the wall, a dark pool of blood beneath him. Loric's jaw clenched tight
as he knelt beside his friend.
"I had h-hoped... I'm glad
to see you."
"Brother Martin, this is
because of me-"
"Shh. Nathan. My friend, I
knew... I always knew."
"I don't understand."
"I-I know... I know you can
do it." He lifted his hand with great effort to place it over Nathan's.
His eyes closed slowly as he managed to smile once more.
"What do you mean? Brother
Martin, do what? Brother Martin!"
"How did it feel, Loric?", a
voice echoed elusively.
"XIAN!!!!" came the feral
roar through hot tears and clenched fists.
"Tsk, tsk... I'll over look
your sense offense this time."
"Where are you?! Bastard!
Come out!!"
"Cleric," Xian scolded, "I
know they groomed you, but there are greater designs for us."
"Why'd you do it?! He never
hurt anyone!", Nathan moaned in sorrow.
"On the contrary, his type
of sentimentality is the seductive lure which draws humanity into the
fatal trap of passionate emotions.", the response came eerily calm.
"Stop it! Stop repeating
those lies!"
"Cleric, this time, I've
seen the truth more clearly than ever before. Oh have I seen the truth,
Loric. While you were pampered, I came to see the despicable weakness,
the vile hypocrisy, and the degenerative lie that was Libria. Father,
the Council, DuPont? Liars, all! Prozium? A pathetic crutch... the
opiate of the masses. Disgusting. Weaklings, each and every one of them.
The message matters, Cleric.
Father's teachings were correct, but Libria was too feeble to follow. I
came to a realization, Cleric. The realization that we, the Clerics,
are the future. We are the true sons and citizens of Libria. Where this
population must rely upon the chemical crutch of Prozium to escape
their primitive impulses, you and I, Cleric Loric, can do it by sheer
force of will! The blessing of Gun Kata, has given us the gift of human
evolution... we are truly what Man was meant to be. Everyone else? Mere
animals.
I had to help you evolve,
Cleric. They were trying to drag you down with them, but we are so much
better than that. Together, we can build a New Libria... a True Libria.
Like Romulus and Remus, we'll create an empire based upon true freedom
through the strength of will to conquer all emotion. I had to eliminate
them so that you'd be free."
"You crazy bastard. You're
insane, he died because you've gone mad!", Nathan wept.
"He died because he was
against us and because," venom crept into Xian's icy voice, "you needed
to be taught a lesson, Cleric. A painful, but important lesson. Emotion
is weakness. Emotion is pain. Emotion is useless and primitive. I am
refining you, Cleric Loric, putting you through the fire so you'll be
pure for New Libria. Unless you want to wallow in pain, you will cut
yourself off from that weakness. If you want revenge, stop sniveling
like the rest of these cattle and become a Man. Use Gun Kata and fight
me!"
All at once the tears
stopped. Loric got up from the ground and turned around, ejecting both
T30s into his fists... as Xian, stepped out of the shadows. Loric
didn't hesitate, his arms were up and firing, but Xian disappeared back
into the darkness.
"That's right.", Xian
encouraged. A clatter was heard and Loric spun and fired at the noise.
The smoke grenades went off diffusing what was left of the light. This
would be a test of blind Gun Kata. Their fingers indexed the fire
selectors and switched them to Auto. They both froze in the darkness,
careful not to make a sound. Their minds fell into the trance of Gun
Kata. Thousands of Kata flashed through their minds weighing the
probabilities and analyzing the risks. In their mind's eye they fought
to a standstill over and over. Arcs of lead and muted muzzle flashes
blazed in their minds and they kept killing each other in each
scenario. Gun Kata was never meant to be used against another Cleric...
with their T30s, despite Xian's greater skills and Loric's intuition,
every situation ended in mutual death or defeat. Unless your first
round killed, the other would track upon the sound and the muzzle
flashes in response... but in the fog and with these acoustics, the
response would be just as imprecise. Both would be spraying automatic
fire in their opponent's general vicinity... both were likely to end up
killing each other. With nothing to lose, Loric went for it. Time
seemed to move in slow motion... .
Loric took a
running leap into the air.
"THERE!", Xian
thought focusing on the sound of the footsteps, firing in two arcs for
maximum hit probability.
Loric was
twisting through the air in the area where he was least likely to be
hit, but knew roughly 2 to 3 rounds were still going to hit him. He
focused on returning fire to the center of the glow of Xian's T30's
through the fog.
As Xian's guns
raked the air, one line of fire crossed Loric's body.
Having
anticipated this, Loric's left arm was crossed over his heart. The
first round clipped his shoulder, the second deflected off the wrist
holster on his arm, and the third buried itself into his thigh. He fell
to the ground breathing hard and time caught up with him. Loric was
hit, but he wasn't dead... he had got Xian.
"Ugh, very good
Cleric."
He was still
alive?! His voice echoed like it had before... was he retreating?
"Wrist holster
shield. I figured it out too, but slower than you... I'm hurt, but so
pleased to see you at your fullest. We'll continue this tomorrow. Meet
me where Erol Partridge was executed... I've got your girlfriend and as
you can see I've got no qualms about killing her if you need another
lesson. I want you to join me, Cleric Loric. Think about it, cast off
those useless emotions and embrace rational logic."
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