Ten Years After C-Day

'You expect me to just believe that? That you shooting at me and then using an EMP blast against me was all part of a plan to disable the cyborg? How stupid do you think I am?!?' Wade yells out. Nothing about Chiharu's explanation made any sense to him - there were too many holes. It had to be a trap set for him. Obviously, there were three sides to this conflict - him, the cyborg and the marauders. As much as Wade hated killing humans, unfortunately he just needed to get this over with - Chiharu was too dangerous to be left alive.

And that's when it suddenly gets to him - that's Chiharu he's holding. He's about to slit the throat of one of his best friends from high school. The "straight girl" who emphasized his jokes, the one who acted like she didn't care, but was always there for him when he needed her. And now, he was about to execute her in cold blood.

Wade closes his eyes and braces his hand.

It's going to be a clean slice, from side to side. She'll go into shock within seconds. I can think of worse ways to die. I just need to...

He tenses his muscles, ready to deliver the fatal strike... And suddenly lets her go, removing the blade and standing up.

'If you ever get in my way again, I swear I will kill you. This is the first and last time you'll get any sort of mercy from me' he tells her quietly before putting his katana in the sheath on his back and turning around.

'Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a cyborg to slice apart'

When Wade lets go of her, Chiharu lets out a long and wavering breath of relief and takes a short moment to let the idea of her continued existence sink back into reality. Before Wade leaves she unwraps the Bandolier from around her shoulders and holds it out for him with 2 EMP's still strapped to it.

"These should help, they should stop or at least slow him down but only for a few seconds so make them count."

"So you saw the sick machinations of a madman and went beyond it?" Hawke says, disgust in his eyes. "The only way to improve a cyborg is to make it human again. It's a damn shame that you've strayed down this path, Toshi, but cyborgs are a blight on the Earth." Hawke takes a step back from the roof so he is withdrawn from any line of fire, and takes a deep breath.

This isn't gonna end well...

"Deadpool can do whatever he wants with her." Hawke says, blinking away the tears building up behind his eyes. "People have died in this war. People are gonna keep dying. You fucking cyborgs made sure of that."

That was practically suicide.

"The SCP Foundation was formed to protect the mutants. How many children were murdered by their parents because they were different? How many people were murdered by gangs of people against mutantkind? How many mutants were SAVED by the SCP Foundation, and given a home?"

Hawke simply shakes his head, giving up hope in the situation.

"Those that resisted the registration act were stupid. Takeshi was even stupider for taking advantage of the chaos. I can't even comprehend why you would do it to yourself...."

Upon being offered the grenades, Wade takes the bandolier and examines it. The entire thing is way too conspicuous for him to sneak in, but just a grenade will probably go unnoticed. He pulls one of the EMP grenades out and hides it in one of the inner pockets of his vest before handing the bandolier back to Chiharu.

'Hold on to the other one. If I can't take him down with the first one, I might need your help. And don't try anything funny - it's in your best interest to help me kill off the cyborg anyway. After that, you and your little group of marauders can go rob another poor fella. As for me, I've got nothing but Ellie's picture on me. Sorry to disappoint'

"We made the cybernetics and the X-gene research to HELP people, Hawke!
People like Ichiko Asari!
People like Sora Kimura!
People like Kuriko Hatsuhara!
People like Nayumi Tachibana!

"… people like me."

Toshiaki took the remainder of his suit's right hand – mangled by the grenade – in his left and ripped it off, revealing a scarred stump below the elbow.

"Tell me, Hawke… Have you ever had to perform trauma surgery on three people, including yourself…"

He pulled more armor off, exposing the atrophied upper arm.

"… lying on a concrete floor, bleeding and broken…"

He mentally cast off the left arm, nothing left but a short stump on his left shoulder.

"… one-handed, off-handed, and blindfolded…"

Off went the chestplate, revealing the ventilator at the base of his neck and the artificial heart in his chest.

"… with no anesthesia?"

He went down on his knees as the ab plates fell off. The organic part of his chest stopped just below the ribs – the same place he had shattered his lumbar spine, years before this all began. The scars and burns continued everywhere.

"That's about the best you could understand what happened when my X-gene activated on C-Day.
In that moment, I exceeded everything Tachibana had created before.
But I had no idea what I was doing, or what I even should do.

"I didn't have any other choice, Hawke.
You think I don't want to be 'human' again? I was never given that option!
I did the only thing I could.

"I tried to save the girl I loved… and I failed.
I tried to save the man who had treated me as his own son… and I created a monster.
I tried to save myself… and not a day goes by that I don't wish I had just let us all die on that floor.

"I had no way of knowing what Takeshi would do when he survived.
That his mind would be so warped by the horror of losing his daughter and his body.
That he would turn our cybernetics, our work of healing, into torturous monstrosities… weapons of death.

"He hated the SCP for creating the Sentinels that killed Nayumi.
He hated the mutants for even existing and being the cause of the war.

"But he hated me most of all.
And he wasn't entirely wrong to do so.

"So I did the only thing I could.
I ran.
I stayed alive.
I fought the first war as a Free Mutant against the Sentinels, while the second war against the mindless cyborgs began.

"I told you, Hawke.
The first war is over.
But the second war is still just beginning.

"I'm here to atone for my sins, and to destroy the monster I created.
But if you'd rather kill me, come down here…"

The rest of the black helmet fell away from his face, revealing a blind white-blue right eye.
Now, all that was left of his frail, degenerating body was bared to the world.
He gestured with his stump as he spoke.

"… look me in the eye, and kill Toshiaki Endō."

Hideyo, who had been hiding in the recesses of the grocery store for quite some time now, watching the mania unfold before him, lights up with undiluted glee. Another chance to kill one of those which took away his only family: the SCP Foundation. Many of his mutant friends had been mercilessly slaughtered by the cyborgs while trying to calm the masses. Hideyo himself had barely escaped the war alive, and as far as he knew his pride and joy down in the basement was the only surviving mutant from his home in... well, that didn't matter. Trade secrets.

As Toshiaki begins removing pieces of armor, Hideyo removes the combat knife that he keeps strapped to his belt at all times. It was a shame that his pistol remained in the basement, but a knife was sweeter than a bullet. Bullets simply ripped through a body, a knife could cause some real pain. He wastes no time in sneaking through the side door, so he wasn't in the scum's immediate line of sight. The years spent sneaking around with Kanna had taught the mutant how to hide in plain sight, and he begins picking his way past wrecked cars and wrecked masonry.

You will not take anymore from me, cyborg scum.

Circling behind the tortured individual, Hideyo wipes his sweaty palms on his trousers. Time for the golden moment. Two more steps...

"Fuck you, asshole." He whispers under his breath as the knife comes plunging down between Toshiaki's shoulderblades.

Toshi winced as the knife sliced through his flesh, passing just next to his spine and stopping with a metallic "clack" against his artificial heart. He didn't bother avoiding it.

My eyes can still see you, SCP dog.
You think this hurts?
You killed that part of me years ago.
There is no worse pain you can inflict upon me.

In the instant the knife came down, the parts of the suit flew up to assemble themselves around Masuda's body.

"Are you deaf or just clueless, Masuda?
I told you, I haven't even seen Takeshi since C-Day.
I've been busy killing Sentinels and the anti-mutant genocidal bastards who built them.

"I never killed any innocents, and I never killed any fellow mutants.
Can you say the same for yourself?

"Nonetheless, I intend to end that which I inadvertently helped cause.
You of all people should understand trying to redeem oneself after a deal with a devil, 'Mephistopheles.'

"Or is that just it?
Can you not bear to see a cyborg have some decency?
Does it pain you to know that you were wrong, that I am not the same as them?

"How many times will you try to kill me before you're satisfied?"

"Cybernetic limbs and cyborgs are completely different things." Hawke says, smiling when he sees the knife enter Toshiaki's back "I have a cybernetic leg myself, I thank you for that "

Hawke stops for a few moments here, glancing to the side streets in blind hope that either Chiharu or Deadpool would come wheeling around the corner to put this dog down.

"But fucking cyborgs? They started this mess! They messed with an organisation that spanned all 7 continents, controlled the media and had a say in every government in the world. And what did the mutants do? They decided that they were more important than the rest of the world." Hawke stops, breathless, and now just pissed off that he was messing with one of Hawke's remaining friends.

"Kuriko was stolen from us, and as far as I know is now an emotionless scrap of metal. Sechs was, too. Vivian. Countless others across the globe. Do you know who could have stopped them? The mutants. But, alas, you're too fucking selfish to do that."

Hawke simply spits, getting it dead on Toshiaki's eye.

"and you? You're both of them."

He wiped the spittle from his face with his severed stump of a right arm.

"That's tautological bullshit.
Blame me all you like, but I didn't start this fucking war, Hawke.

"All the mutants wanted was to have the same freedoms as anyone else.
The SCP had other plans.

"The MRA and the Sentinels may not have come until '22, but the framework was in place decades before. Why else did mutants keep disappearing without explanation? Why else was funding rejected for my X-gene project seventeen times? Why were the Sentinels programmed to kill all mutants on sight?

"They never would have allowed mutants to roam free. I saw their secret prisons. I saw the way they treated us. They forced us into hiding. Then, when that wasn't good enough for them, they decided to slaughter us.

"They destroyed the world with their haywire enforcers.
Have you not seen Sentinels kill a family, Hawke?
How about an entire city block?
An entire town?

"The SCP thought they were above the law. They thought they were beyond reproach.
'Secure, Contain, Protect'?
They forgot to protect a certain eight million people.
And then they were incapable of protecting the rest from their own weapons.
They were wrong.

"Yet you call us selfish?
The mutants never had a chance to do anything about the cyborgs, Hawke.
We already had one war we were forced to fight.

"But if you care at all about what happens to humanity now, realize that you're talking to probably the only man alive who would be able and willing to help you undo the cyberization process.

"I can't do this alone, Hawke.
I need your help. And Wilson's.
… And probably even Masuda's."

"The sentinels were only necessary because the mutants refused to cooperate." Hawke cries out in exasperation, "There were no 'secret prisons' and mistreatment of mutants. The only ones that were locked away were Keter and Thaumiel class, the extremely dangerous ones. The ones that had already proven that they weren't deserving of their freedom."

Hawke steps back up to the edge of the roof, giving Toshiaki a cold, hard stare. "Hideyo is a mutant, if you haven't noticed. He was given his freedom. Several students at Yamaku were mutants, they were free. The registration act was to protect both humans and mutants, it's simply wrong for a mutant blessed with healing hands to hide his powers away while thousands of people die every day. Equally, it's wrong to allow people like The Living Inferno to walk among the general public. It was a necessity, and this war would have panned out very differently if mutants had seen that they had a higher calling - fighting against nutjobs like Takeshi."

Hawke pauses, "I'm never going to help a cyborg. Your kind has murdered... well, I don't know how many of my friends. All of them, I'd imagine. And more.

"Cyberization is impossible to reverse. The only cure is death."

"I know full well that Masuda is a mutant and was a Thaumiel.
That makes it all the harder for me to trust him.

"I don't expect he – or you – knew everything that the directors were planning. People in positions of power always lie and hide anything that could leave them looking bad. But I still can't understand why he would comply with the things I know he would have seen.

"At least we had the decency to test on cell cultures in petri dishes instead of little boys and girls locked up in cages.

"And cut out this 'kind' bullshit. I am not like those monsters that Takeshi's been creating since I left.

"Irreversible? Look at me now, Hawke.
Would you like me to rip out my eye? My guts? My heart?
What will it take to convince you?

"Most of them don't have the degree of injury I do.
As the war went on, we captured about a dozen cyborgs.
Unfortunately, we couldn't save them all.
But there are three people out there that are living proof that it can be undone.

"I have made mistakes.
I have my regrets.
But I've moved on. Because this fight won't be over until Takeshi Tachibana is destroyed.

"So either let me help you end this war, or kill me now and keep struggling alone."

[I apologise profusely, replace Thaumiel with Euclid in my previous post - tiredness got to me and I mixed up the classifications]

Wade Wilson Jr. wrote:Upon being offered the grenades, Wade takes the bandolier and examines it. The entire thing is way too conspicuous for him to sneak in, but just a grenade will probably go unnoticed. He pulls one of the EMP grenades out and hides it in one of the inner pockets of his vest before handing the bandolier back to Chiharu.

'Hold on to the other one. If I can't take him down with the first one, I might need your help. And don't try anything funny - it's in your best interest to help me kill off the cyborg anyway. After that, you and your little group of marauders can go rob another poor fella. As for me, I've got nothing but Ellie's picture on me. Sorry to disappoint'

<Rob you? We don't need your stuff, we need your body. Ugh.. no time to explain.>
Chiharu gets to her feet and re-adorns the bandolier before looking Wade in the eye and saying, "Good luck."
She then takes a couple rags from the first aid kit and begins wrapping them around her hands as she jogs across the street before turning back to add, "I'll be around."
Having said all she was going to say, she turns back around and runs into the alley opposite where they were before, she jumped off a pile of rubble, boosted herself higher by kicking off of the edge of a dumpster, to then grab on to a broken window on the second floor of the building with her wrapped hands and pulling herself up and into the building.

Wade nods and turns back around as well, taking one last look at the wrecked bike.

Rest in peace, bike... Our awesome roadtrip to Tachibana's fortress just wasn't meant to be...

He sighs and turns around, then starts walking slowly back towards the place where he left Omega, secretly hoping that he has been either killed or at least chased away by the time he reaches the grocery store.

Omega's drone made another pass over the alleyway, seeing Wade walk away, alone.

Wha – Where's Chiharu?
No blood. That means… Wilson… thank god.
Still, the fact that he even tried to…
I have to be careful around him.

"Hawke… Chiharu's… all right.

"We can't keep fighting like this.
If we start killing each other, we don't stand a chance.
Takeshi won't hesitate to kill us all.
We have to be better than that."

Chiharu made her way through several buildings, being sure to avoid any cameras or radios once she thought she was outside the EMP's blast radius. Finally she came to a second floor room of a somewhat burnt out building with an outside wall that seems to have collapsed for one reason or another, giving the room a wide view of the street. When she caught a glimpse of the base's roof she decided this was close enough and rested behind a wall. She took off her headphones and listened carefully to how the situation develops.

Tiberius Hawke wrote:"Kuriko was stolen from us, and as far as I know is now an emotionless scrap of metal. Sechs was, too. Vivian."

I refuse to acknowledge my feelings for that black widow woman.

Even as her name echos through my distrustful, hurt head...I can only acknowledge the disappointment and sorrowful hate that I feel for her.

Nothing else.

As for Vivian...her name brings back the blurred memories of my last interaction with her. All I can remember is being free from my shackles and then her frightened face and this inexplicable amount of rage and-...

...and then I was kneeling over her motionless, cybernetic body.

No wonder Setsuna was just standing there with that stupid look on his face...

My continuously-darkening expression of negativity cracks with a small, dangerous smirk and then back to before.

I was using my tonfas fucking improperly, wasn't I?'

I quietly abandon the rooftop vantage point. It is compromised anyway.

From behind the hiding spot I put the rifle back on my shoulder and move to the ledge, taking advantage of the fact that Hawke has his back to me and is also otherwise occupied.

Never thought sneaking around that boy-er..man-would be anything other than recreational for me...

I hop over the ledge while holding on with my left hand to swing me around and face the building. My right hand grabs hold of the ledge and my shoes press against the wall to keep me from falling prematurely.

Out comes the grappling hook with my old rappel rope. The small hooks lock down against the ledge and I let my hands slip down the rope while walking down the wall.

When I reach the bottom, the tonfas come out from their thin, canvas bag on my back.

It is unlikely that I will encounter an enemy so soon after a disturbance of the peace but habit forces my hand.

Time to find a new hide...

While the others babble on about their own morals, I peak around in a building next to the adjacent one.

Right after Chiharu takes off her headphones, I finish the sweep.

Clear.

The tonfas are pressed together side to side and slipped back into their bag in their upside down position and I begin to position a small coffee table far back into the room. Then the matching table on top to create a shot-worthy surface for my hide.

Light does not come in far enough so there is no scope reflection and the shadows hide me nicely.

There may not be a bipod on the rifle but-

Lets see...there we go.

-this book will suffice for a dart rifle. So, I set it down with the barrel pointing out the window, down on the scene bellow, and lean forward into the stock.

It is approximately 50 or 60 meters to the target so I do not need to dial in a distance really.

Instead, I just slow my breathing and steady my heart rate as I look upon the developing scene.

Toshiaki continued to watch the movements around him as Hawke hesitated to decide one way or the other.

His wide-band ocular implant picked up on two silhouettes in another building.
Chiharu… and Veach.
Still trying to snipe me? But you're clearly visible to radar, IR, x-ray…
If I get hit like this, though, I'm done for…

He extended his focus in that direction, finding Chiharu's headphones. He spoke only through them, loudly enough that she would hear, but remaining silent himself. The voice that came from them was softer than before, more human in tone.

I hope that's right. It's been so long, I can't even remember what my voice was really like…

"Chiharu… I'm so sorry.
I was only trying to keep you from getting involved.
That goddamn hothead Wilson…

"I didn't come here to kill anyone. I came to see if there was anyone left, to help them.
I can help you stop Takeshi's cyborgs. I can help save them.
It's time to end this war.

"Please… tell Veach to put down the gun."

There was more pain and pleading in his voice than there had been in years.

"I have no guarantee that you won't hesitate to kill us all!" Hawke calls out in desperation. "For years cyborgs have hunted down us humans, and nearly all of them use sorry excuses like yours when faced with weapons."

Hawke's heart pounded loudly in his ears and a sharp pain builds behind his eye. He never did handle stress well.

Toshiaki returned his attention to Hawke, and his voice came from the device in his throat once again.

"Nor do I have any guarantee that you won't kill me. In fact, all your actions indicate that you intend to.
But I haven't killed any of you in all this time. What do you call that?

"If it was my own life I was concerned about, I would be gone before you could stop me.
No… I wouldn't have come in the first place.
But here I am, placing my life at your mercy.

"Hawke… all we have now is each other.
We should be fighting to protect that, not fighting among ourselves."

Fireworks. Lots and lots of fireworks, of all sorts of colors. They paint the night sky like a canvas, drawing upon it with all kinds of brushes. The colors flow naturally across the sky, mixing themselves in with the light from the stars and the moons to create something indescribable, something impossible, and yet so very beautiful.

Fireworks. I've only seen them once. Dr. Fujioshi told me there were going to be fireworks above the city tonight. They didn't allow me to see them, but Dr. Fujioshi didn't care. He sneaked me up on the rooftop so we could see them together. They were just as beautiful as he told me. I liked Dr. Fujioshi very much.

But now he's dead. And Dr. Makina is dead too. Dr. Ito died as well. Dr. Chibusa, Dr. Kurosaki, Dr. Yamagi...

And Maki...

I don't understand death. Masuda-san tried to explain it to me, but I don't think I ever understood what it was. What does it mean when someone is "gone"? If they're not here, then where are they? When Dr. Ito died, Dr. Fujioshi told me she was in Heaven. But where is Heaven? Why do you have to die to go there? And why can't people come back once they go? Why hasn't anyone returned to me?

Heaven must be a prison...

That's the only thing that makes sense! Because if it's not a prison, does that mean everyone I loved simply doesn't want to be with me? Does that mean they like it more in Heaven than they do on Earth with me? Earth is really terrible, especially after the robots started destroying the cities, but I'm here, and not in Heaven, so if Maki is in Heaven and not here, does that mean she prefers it when I'm not with her?

The fireworks all turn into motorcycles. Everyone I love is on a motorcycle - Maki, Dr. Fujioshi, Dr. Ito, Masuda-san, Hawke-san, Chiharu-chan... They're all going to Heaven...

No, please... Don't leave me here! I want to go to Heaven with you! Please take me with you!

Kanna slowly opens her eyes as her dream starts to fade away. She forces herself to sit up on the bed and quickly wipes the tears that had welled up. Even though the girl couldn't exactly remember what she dreamed about, she knew it was probably pretty bad - why else would she be crying? Then again, most of her dreams were pretty bad. It's why Masuda-san never let her have dreams and always woke her up when he sensed she was dreaming. That's the reason he specified, at least. But Masuda-san never lied, not to her.

Actually... Where is Masuda-san, anyway?

Slightly alerted, the girl stands up from the bed and reaches for her clothes. After getting herself ready, she peeks out of her room cautiously. 'Masuda-san? Chiharu-chan? Hawke-san? Anyone?' she asks quietly. After stepping out through the door and into the hallway, Kanna carefully makes her way over to the ground floor of the shop.

The entrance, completely wrecked up until that point, suddenly shows absolutely no trace of any damage whatsoever just moments before Kanna lays her eyes on it. She walks up to the door and looks through the glass panel and right at the scene outside. Nothing. Not a soul.

Sudenly, the girl hears a familiar voice coming from upstairs. 'There you are!' she smiles to herself before turning around and heading towards the stairs. A few moments later, Kanna is already is front of the door leading to the rooftop. Without really thinking too much about it, she pushes it open and walks through... Only to discover Tiberius in a particularly interesting situation.

'Hawke-san?' she asks quietly, confused by what she's seeing. 'What's going on?'

Through the scope I can see that old man, Masuda, behind the kneeling cyborg. His frontal armor is completely torn away.

What the hell is this??

Frustration swells inside of me again.

I am ready to fire and if I had one of the spotters with me, he would have already told me 'send it' but my finger does not move.

The cyborg is really putting himself at a huge tactical disadvantage. It would be borderline execution if I were to fire now.

But would that even work, this dart?

I was told to hit him in the weak point of the backside but that was before his chest was completely exposed.

The fact that the weak point is the best spot for both a toxin of some sort and a something like a mechanical virus means that this dart could be used for either.

I could fire now but what if it is a virus for the mechanical half?

That would waste my chances completely!

I decide to hold my fire for now.

The barrel of the rifle does not move, though. This way I am ready to fire on a moment's notice.

Mmh...standing down...

A cold chill creeps down Hawke's spine as the rubble on the street under him disappears. That could only mean one thing....

Kanna.

Hawke points directly at the cyborg, "Peace treaty, for now." He says, a hard look in his eyes.

He looks over his shoulder, and puts a smile on his face, moving down onto one knee and throwing his arms out wide, "Hey Kanna! Thought you were sleeping?"

'I woke up' she responds immediately, her eyes scanning the scenery. 'W-what's going on here?'

Toshiaki sighed deeply, his gaze falling to the ground.
A child.
So this is what you're fighting to protect.

He moved his armor – still bound around Masuda – to remove the knife from his back. He then freed Masuda, returning the plates to his own body. He turned and dropped the bloody knife at Masuda's feet.

"Do that again, and I will hit you back," he said coldly. "A hell of a lot harder."

He turned to face Hawke again.

"It seems you've thoroughly destroyed my means of transportation. In that case, I'll be forced to stay here until I can repair it, at least," he said flatly.