Republic of Heroes
Table of Contents
Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Chapter 34 Chapter 35 Chapter 36 Chapter 37 Chapter 38 Chapter 39 Chapter 40 Chapter 41 Chapter 42 Chapter 43 Chapter 44 Chapter 45 Chapter 46 Chapter 47 Chapter 48 Chapter 49 Chapter 50 Chapter 51 Chapter 52 Chapter 53 Chapter 54 Chapter 55 Chapter 56 Chapter 57 Chapter 58 Chapter 59 Chapter 60 Chapter 61 Chapter 62 Chapter 63 Chapter 64 Chapter 65 Chapter 66 Chapter 67 Chapter 68 Chapter 69 Chapter 70 Chapter 71 Chapter 72 Chapter 73 Chapter 74 Chapter 75 Chapter 76 Chapter 77 Chapter 78 Chapter 79 END ExtraChapter 59
It has only been month living in Planet X as he stood in this lonely bathroom of his with new set of clothes after having discarded the old one, staring at mirror with blank expression while looking at this unfamiliar reflection of himself with lifeless eyes, "it felt like years of living in pure bliss," commenting on how his life feel seemingly contented of what he has and how he's enjoying it.
Isn't that what he wants? A second chance in life to have a happy ending? All the problems living on earth are no more; it is just him, Sebastian, and Yumi, along with his clones, working together to make the perfect paradise for him to retreat to.
Miracle after miracle, it seemed to be true with the way things were going so far. It would be selfish to abandon this wonderful world to return to earth. There's nothing on earth he needs other than the clones he considers to be brothers of his and those two special ones that he cherishes very deeply.
Sighing exhaustively, "What am I even thinking...?" Placing his hands on the counter of the sink, gripping it tightly while hanging his head in disappointment, he said, I'm staying in the comfort of this place while the promise I made with my parents is being left unfulfilled simply because he wants to feel happiness for once.
"I'm a selfish bastard," he said, fumbling his lips from frustration. Carter slammed his fist onto the edge of the marble countertop in a sudden outburst of emotion, breaking it into pieces as a result. "This isn't what mom and dad wanted me to become," his hand beginning to bleed from the self-inflicted injury he inflicted upon himself.
Taking a couple of steps backwards, he placed his back on the wall before sliding down, ignoring the pain in his palm while he held his injured hand with the other, putting them together in the middle of his chest. "And yet here I am, sitting down like some coward," he said, seething through clenched teeth.
The room went silent after a few moments of him breathing in and out, attempting to calm himself down. It is not until they came again, this time with the very feminine voice of that freak, Legion, as they or rather, she calls herself, "Carter." Her sickly sweet voice echoed loudly inside his mind, filling it with a constant reminder of its existence: "Stop trying to isolate yourself from reality; it's not good for your health, you know?"
Having secluded his own feelings and thoughts within his link with the other clones he is connected with, Carter closed his mind and his mental barriers to them from understanding what he's been thinking of lately. Only he and he alone have knowledge of this hidden place and what it can offer to them, even this devious creature of sin that lurks in the back of his back.
Because if he hadn't taken away that barrier in his hive mind, then every clone on this dwarf planet would feel and hear the same suffering, guilt, and paranoia that he endured in these past months, resulting in distractions and failures to commit to their assigned roles.
"You lost," pointing out how he beat her, "but I won this time, so you should stay gone and leave me alone." Carter responded with much bitterness in his tone, not bothering to hide the frustration and pride in his face: "Get lost, will you? I don't have time to chitchat with my imaginary friend."
For a brief moment, silence loomed through the bathroom as there was nothing but the sound of his breathing and heartbeats beating wildly in his chest, waiting for it to finally leave his consciousness alone. But this is not the case, as Carter soon found himself startled by the shrill, disturbing laughter of that annoying monster that keeps pestering him every day.
She enjoyed his reaction to this, and this was not the first time either; in fact, she seemed to have learned this certain talent of riling him up with ease and getting a rise out of him, whether he liked it or not. After all, it's the right step to breaking man into madness with persistent psychological torment. "Now that's more like it; that's the Carter I know and love," Legion chuckled, poking fun of his pride and ego.
Rolling his eyes, he felt more annoyed than terrified or hopeless. "I have to remind you again that I have won? You didn't succeed in achieving your goal when I was locked in that white cell," he paused, allowing her to catch up with his words, "so, quit acting all high and mighty; you are nothing but a bad dream conjured from my darkness and sins," stating the truth, there isn't anything threatening about it if it kept haunting him inside his own head.
Regardless, Carter knows that the way Legion has been reacting to this makes it seem as if it has already planned for this to happen all along, or maybe there's something more to her that he's not seeing at the moment. But even if that's the case, what could she gain from messing around with him in the first place? What is this devious creature really planning?
In the meantime, her loud, obnoxious laughter echoed through every inch of the bathroom walls, causing him to shiver in irritation as he grit his teeth in aggravation, trying to block those disgusting noises coming out of her mouth, "you poor, delusional human," her mocking tone got worse with each word she spoke, "if you only knew, and it pains me that you are still unaware of the truth, you would be running in the opposite direction and begging me to take you back to that hellish realm of yours, now wouldn't you?"
Hearing this statement is enough to send a chill down his spine, prompting him to ask further questions, "and what makes you think that whatever exits your mouth is scary enough to make me run with my tail between legs?" Carter smirked back in smug tone, "at least in that place I know what I'm dealing with and besides, there isn't much you can do to frighten someone like myself unless you actually intend on showing up in person to finish the job instead of talking incessantly about pointless bullshit all the time," saying this aloud in challenging tone.
Not even hesitating for a second to answer back; her next reply made him uneasy with its implications, "well then, if you insist..." There was another pause before she finished her sentence, "how about a nice surprise gift from me to you, shall we?"
Unsure what to make of this, he sighed irritably, "get it over with already," he said without much interest, "for once, stop talking for a second or else I'll be tempted to shoot myself in the head just to end this conversation in getting rid of your nonsense blabbering," Carter snidely remarked, not seriously taking her words to account.
She laughed manically from this, finding his pride and ego much humorous compared to her sadistic tendencies that can't be helped due to her nature as monster of lies, deceit and chaos, "oh, don't worry, silly boy; it is just a simple gift to show my appreciation towards your progress of what you had accomplished so far," the sentence caused him to narrowed his eyes in suspicion.
"What gift?"
He asked in curious manner, "and why do I get the feeling that this is something that's bound to make me regret asking you to show me whatever it is that you're up to?" Carter questioned with skepticism written all over his face; he remained cautious throughout this entire conversation with her because he knew better than to let his guard down.
"In few days ahead, your beloved city will be torn to shreds by mysterious calamity," ambiguously telling the future, "after which, you will know why I consider this to be your greatest achievement to date, seeing all your hard work, dedication, blood, sweat and tears amount to nothing but failure in honoring your parents legacy," her voice became more and more distorted with each passing second until the point that it started to fade into silence, leaving him in utter confusion over her cryptic words and warnings.
Slowly blinking to comprehend her words as he slowly stood up; his back still resting on the wall before turning his head to look up in the ceiling, "just what is she trying to imply by saying something like that?" He pondered over, trying to think what that freak is trying to convey.
He knows it is future telling but Carter doesn't believe whatever his mind makes up, trusting on himself that it is simply just hallucination of his inner turmoil that he's trying to forget altogether. On the other hand, he thinks this is simply just her taunting him in hopes of scaring him off with false prophecies.
Not uncommon to think about when throughout most of his life; he is so used of experiencing hardships and horrors that he almost felt of submerging himself into sea of negativity.
However, he can't deny the fact that his supposed imaginary friend may have been watching him ever since its creation, knowing his secrets and abilities, observing his every move and analyzing his entire life as if she's been with him throughout lifetime.
But shes nothing more than illusion, right? An entity born out of his own guilt and repressed emotions, correct? Carter thought, struggling to put a proper term for the creature. Even with how long he spends theorizing and hypothesizing; there still isn't enough evidence or proof to verify whether or not this thing actually exists or not.
Looking down at the floor with conflicted look, "I'm just crazy," he muttered weakly in response as he clutched his injured hand tighter, applying pressure in an attempt to stop the bleeding, "that is my only logical conclusion for all this madness," sighing deeply, he averted his eyes away from the floor.
Directly staring back at the mirror again, seeing his said injured hand being covered by thick crimson fluid that dripped down onto the bathroom tiles beneath him, "crazy..." Repeating those exact words in disbelief of himself, "am I going insane or everything is just that messed up right now?"
After taking a deep breath in to compose himself, Carter used his free hand to reach for a nearby towel and wiped the excess blood from his palm, revealing the damaged skin underneath before reaching for the bandage from the countertop to wrap and cover up his hand, stopping the bleeding altogether; making sure to apply just enough pressure without cutting off his circulation and hurting himself, "she's probably lying anyways, what the hell am I freaking out for?"
He watched as droplets of liquid continued to trickle down to the ground, forming a puddle of red-colored goop on the white surface below; being memorized by this sight for some odd reason, "at this rate, I would rather deal with someone like Nyarlathotep than spend another minute conversing with this so called Legion," shaking his head side to side, forcing himself to ignore the slight hint of fear in his heart.
Heading to the door, he used his other uninjured hand to turn the knob gently; opening it in cautious manner as he finally exited his bathroom of nearly spend there in hour of talking to himself like lunatic who should be in asylum already, "really...I need to get myself together," he uttered quietly, walking back to his living room couch and plopped down on it.
Hanging his head low in contemplation, Carter buried his face in the palms of his hands, gritting his teeth and groaning in frustration before slouching forward on the cushions of his furniture, "even when my situation is happy; I am always stressed, frustrated and depressed..." Letting out a deep sigh of exasperation, he leaned back and slumped against the back of the sofa while spreading out his arms on both sides of his body, stretching his legs out, "living in a place like this should've made me the happiest man alive and yet, I still feel empty and incomplete somehow," muttering under his breath as he stared ahead with complete silence.
Carter's master bedroom is the epitome of luxury and comfort, with plush carpet and silk sheets on his bed, which is large and adorned with expensive pillows along of having blankets. He also has a walk-in closet filled with designer clothes, windows to allow the warm sunlight to filter through the blinds, a desk in one corner for him to read or write at.
His walls are decorated with paintings and mirrors, giving his room an elegant and classy atmosphere, while also having a full-length window to see outside at his leisure as there is also television mounted on one of the walls, a mini-fridge full of snacks and drinks, including the of a state-of-the-art music jukebox. He has multiple drawers and shelves for storing his belongings, as well as a digital clock to keep track of the time and date.
Just as he thought Carter would get another moment of silence, he heard a gentle knocks on the door that leads out of his bedroom, "come in," he loudly said without messing beat, not even worried nor concerned about who it might when everything is his property after all.
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