The Lone Soldier's eyes snapped open again, his body springing up as if released from a spell. He was in his cabin, the bed soaked with sweat, his breathing still ragged. He didn't know how much time had passed, whether minutes or hours, but something immediately struck him.
An Imprint, chaotic and mad, pulsed from the direction of the command deck. He recognized it, even though it was different, more intense, more corrupted than he remembered. "Jessie...?" he murmured, his voice filled with disbelief, as if he were still trying to return to reality after that nightmare.
"So the events of the vision have already begun," he said to himself, his tone hardening as his mind returned to processing, to rationalizing. But another sensation shook him, an emptiness that clenched his stomach. He clearly perceived Jessie's Imprint, but there was no one else on the Vienne. No other sign of life, no trace of the other crew members. His eyes widened, the realization hitting him like a punch.
He rose from the bed with a quick movement, his body still trembling but his mind returning to that of a cold, calculating machine. He left the cabin, the silence of the ship enveloping him like a suffocating shroud. Not a sound, not a breath. He didn't stop to look for the others—there was no time, no room for hesitation.
He headed towards one of the control panels scattered throughout the residential sector, his fingers precisely typing a code to access the labyrinth of corridors along the Vienne's perimeter. Every step was decisive, every thought sharp as a blade. His objective was clear: Jessie. And in his mind, as he moved towards the command deck, there was no room for doubt or pity, only strategies, plans to end the life of the boy he had seen in the vision, the boy who was now a danger to everyone.
The Lone Soldier burst into the Vienne's operational sector, his heavy footsteps echoing in the oppressive silence of the ship. The main screen was on, a portal to a frightening void: space, dark and starless, yawned open like an abyss, framing a distant ship, wrapped in tangles of pulsating red flesh, an image that exactly mirrored the vision that had tormented the Soldier. Jessie's mad Imprint saturated the air, a chaotic energy that seemed to press against the walls, a living, corrupted echo that pulsed like a sick heart.
In front of the screen, Jessie was a fragile, broken figure, his shoulders slumped, his face streaked with tears. He was crying, a deep, sorrowful weep, as if he too had seen the horror of the vision that had ripped the Soldier apart. When he perceived the Lone Soldier's arrival, he took a long, trembling breath that broke the silence, and slowly turned around. His eyes, red and swollen, were full of despair, a gaze that trembled with fear as he looked at the approaching man. "You saw it too, didn't you?" he suddenly said, his voice cracked with pain, as the Soldier advanced with determined steps. "You and I fighting... you turning everyone against me... you killing me." His hands fluttered, as if trying to explain a concept too large, the grim tone weighing like a millstone.
The Soldier stopped a few feet away from him, his gaze icy, devoid of emotion. "You are infected now, Jessie," he said, his voice cold as metal. "You saw it, didn't you? You killed Gabe. Wasn't he your friend?"
"IT'S HIS FAULT!" Jessie screamed, his voice breaking into a cry of anger and despair. "If it hadn't been for you, it wouldn't have happened! I will be a hero! I will save everyone from that damned war, as soon as I get what Chaos is looking for. But he wanted to stop me, he didn't understand!" His words doubled, a grotesque echo speaking in unison, a sound that echoed the vision. Through his tears, a sadistic smile creased his lips, an expression that seemed to justify the horror he had committed.
The Soldier stared at him, impassive. "And with all the power you claim to have, you found no other solution than to kill him," he said, his tone flat, an accusation that cut like a blade. "You are lying to yourself, Jessie."
"Lying to myself?!" Jessie retorted, his voice shaking with rage. "It was necessary!"
"That's not true, Jessie," the Soldier interrupted him, drawing his knife with a fluid motion, the blade gleaming under the dim light of the bridge. "Tell the truth... you enjoyed it, didn't you?"
Jessie froze, his eyes wide, despair overwhelming him. "Don't say absurd things! Gabe was my friend! I had no choice, damn it! I am not a monster!" he shouted, his voice breaking into a lament.
"Oh, really?" the Soldier continued, his tone growing colder. "Then what about Dorothy and Lem? Did they also try to stop you? Did they also not understand you? Yet they were still holding hands in the shower when they died. Why did you kill them?"
Jessie's face transformed. The despair vanished, replaced by a sadistic laugh, a sound that echoed like a distorted reverberation. "Well... yes," he admitted, the smile widening, mad and inhuman. "I might have gotten carried away, actually."
"And tell me," the Soldier replied, his gaze unwavering, "what have you done to all of them now? You've killed them again, haven't you?"
"I told you, I would never kill them!" Jessie yelled, anger mixing with delirious euphoria. "Every soldier, every man and woman who believe in coexistence and Maverick's freedom fight for them. Year after year, this war drags on endlessly, and what do they tell us young people? 'You will become heroes, you will be able to change the outcome of the war, with your commitment and sacrifice it can end.'" His words were a cry, a mixture of pain and madness. "Who knows how many hundreds of years they've been repeating that," he muttered, his tone dropping to an annoyed, exasperated whisper.
"You know, Soldier," he continued, his eyes glowing with a feverish intensity, "I saw it, the weakness in all of us. I was afraid of it, but I always gathered my courage. But that's not enough. Courage is not enough, heroism is not enough, even having the Imprint is not enough. NOTHING IS ENOUGH!" His shout exploded, a cry that made the air tremble, before he caught his breath. "Power is needed, only power. That's why I wanted to spare the others the useless sacrifice of participating in that war and, instead, give them a real, concrete chance to join something greater. Something that will truly end the war. I won't allow their sacrifice to be in vain." Jessie seemed to genuinely believe his own words, an illusion that kept him standing despite everything.
The Soldier stared at him, his blue eyes seemingly digging inside him. "What do you mean by 'something greater'?" he asked, his voice flat. "What did you do to them?"
Jessie's face deformed, the flesh transforming into a red, living, pulsating mass, steeped in scarlet liquid. From his skin emerged faces, still alive but with dead gazes: Ron, Ross, Gabe, Lem, and Dorothy, their expressions frozen in silent agony. "They are now part of me," he said, his voice doubling again, a grotesque echo that seemed to come from an abyss.
"I see," the Soldier replied, his gaze blank, as he slowly approached, the knife firm in his hand.
"This is all your fault, Soldier," Jessie continued, staring at him with a mixture of terror and madness. "I still dread it, you know? Your strength in the vision was overwhelming. Even though I have joined Chaos, I was an infant in your eyes. And that is precisely why I did it. By devouring them and making them part of me, they can now provide me with the power I need to kill you. Their Imprints are now one with mine."
"I understand," the Soldier repeated, his voice devoid of emotion.
"You understand? Can't you say anything else?" Jessie snapped, annoyed by that coldness. "Do you know what I had to endure? I couldn't avoid that vision! I thought that by absorbing them I could fight against you, but I didn't know how. How could I have prevented it from happening? But you never arrived, you weren't there. I wonder why... You don't know how many times I thought of coming to your cabin and killing you, but every time I imagined facing you, the terror paralyzed me."
The Lone Soldier, for an instant, thought back to the creature that had blocked him earlier, to the unsettling silver limb that had invaded his cabin, to the white liquid that had tormented him. But he didn't let that thought distract him. "But now I am powerful enough," Jessie concluded, the smile widening, a mad grin. "Now I will end the war!"
There was no time for more words. The Lone Soldier lunged at Jessie with inhuman speed, the knife in his right hand slicing through the air, aimed at the boy's head. But Jessie, with a confident smile, intercepted the blow with a lateral kick, precise and devastating, that struck the Soldier's sternum, pushing him back several feet. The Soldier spat blood, pain shooting through his chest. Damn, he's strong he thought, as he got back up, his eyes showing not a shred of emotion.
Jessie gave him no respite. With an almost imperceptible movement, he moved in front of the Soldier, his right fist snapping out in a hook to the face. The Soldier barely parried it, raising his left forearm to protect himself, but the next blow, a left hook to the body, hit him squarely, an impact that cracked several ribs, drawing a choked groan from him. Jessie didn't stop: a flurry of blows, jabs and straights, rained down on the Soldier like a storm, a relentless assault that the Soldier could barely parry with his arms. If I keep taking these hits, he'll break my arms he thought, his body trembling under the force of the attack.
Suddenly, Jessie changed strategy. With a fluid movement, he delivered a low kick to the Soldier's knee, making him stagger, his balance giving way. Then, with lethal speed, he loaded a right straight, a blow so powerful it could have killed instantly. But the Soldier, like a machine immune to pain, reacted. He intercepted the straight with his elbow, blocking it against Jessie's shoulder, and with his hand he grabbed the back of the boy's neck, squeezing it with inhuman force. "What's wrong?" he said, his voice tinged with a hint of mockery. "Didn't Chaos tell you that repeating the same move in a fight is stupid?"
Jessie's eyes widened, surprised, but he didn't have time to react. With brutal force, the Soldier pulled the boy's head down, hitting it with his knee in a devastating impact that made bone creak. Without stopping, the Soldier followed with a descending elbow strike, his right arm slamming into Jessie's face, tearing it in a spray of blood. Taking advantage of the movement, he dropped down, his shoulders pressing against Jessie's waist, and grabbed his legs, using them as leverage to slam him to the floor with a dull thud. Now the Soldier was on top of him, in a dominant position. With a quick movement, he brought his knees under Jessie's arms, blocking them, and pulled out his knife. With a sharp strike, he plunged it into the boy's head.
The knife plunged into Jessie's head, but an instant later a voice broke the silence, a sound that chilled the Lone Soldier's blood. "Impressive," the boy said, his voice calm, almost amused. His face returned to normal, a mad smile widening as a red, viscous, living liquid oozed from the wound. "Even though I absorbed them, it is still not enough. You truly are a monster, Soldier."
Before the Soldier could react, a sudden blow pierced him. A blade of red liquid, sharp as a spear, emerged from Jessie's ribcage, perforating the Soldier's stomach with lethal precision. The pain was immediate, a fire burning his insides, blood filling his throat. Jessie, with a final sneer, dissolved into a red sludge, and with absurd speed, that liquid moved towards the walls of the command bridge, slipping underneath them and disappearing like a shadow.