Cloud - Chapter 50: Chapter 50

"Hello, Luffy."
"Hello, Axel."
"How are you feeling?"
"I'm dead."
"Don't be so dramatic, you're still alive," Axel assured me as a smile danced on his lips. I was sitting at a table in front of him. Some cookies were placed on a plate and each one of us had a cup of tea. It was strange. One minute I was in Cloud's strong arms and the next when I opened my eyes, I found myself in this familiar darkness in the presence of the original.
"Do you want to regain the control of your body?" I asked Axel, suspicious, and he frowned, like if my words were confusing him. He brought his cup to his lips and took a sip of his tea. "Why else would you call me here?"
"I did not summon you. You came here on your own," he informed me and I was the one to frown. He hummed thoughtfully, "Vance died. He's gone for good. He now roams among the dead but everything is not over. They are here and they want me."
"You mean the reapers," I concluded and he nodded.
"Your friends are with them right now," he informed me and when he saw my expression change, he quickly added, "Do not worry, everyone is alright. You are the only one who seems to be off. Nicolas already took care of your wounds but you still need to recover your strength. You will feel better soon."
I was healed already? Weird, I did not feel any better. Actually I was feeling nothing. I felt no pain, no joy, no sadness. My mind was no longer trouble. I was at peace. I felt like I could go away at last. I could leave this world.I was feeling dead after all. Why such feeling?
"What is going to happen to us now?" I asked the original, leaning back against my chair. "Will the reapers kill me?"
"No, they won't," he assured me and he sighed, shaking his head, "They are probably going to lock us somewhere. A place where no one will find us, a place really dark and lonely. We'll probably never see the light again."
The reapers will never let you go, those were Vance's words.
Until now, I did not realize how serious he was when he said those words to me. I did not know the reapers at all and I did not know how they work but something told me that they did not like to be displeased. I was confused about one thing though. If they did not want the original to be free, why didn't they act sooner? Why didn't they try to stop Vance? They let him do whatever he wanted. If he was a real danger, they could have tried to stop him.
What were they going to do with me now?
"Even if they lock us somewhere, will we still be together?" I asked Axel curiously, "Will we sit at a table like this one? Will we drink tea and have deep conversations about this and that? We'll keep each other company, won't we?"
I grabbed my cup of tea and drank some of its content while Axel looked at me in surprise.
"The idea of being forever in the dark with me doesn't seem to be a problem to you," he noticed and I shrugged before taking a cookie to eat. He raised one eyebrow, "Don't you hate me anymore? Don't you want to kill me?"
"I do hate you and I do want to kill you," I agreed as I bit my cookie, "But you were right about one thing; we're connected and I don't feel like I can exist without you."
"Did you get hit on the head? Or perhaps, you're drunk?" he asked me, laughing and I lowered my gaze, my body relaxing slowly.
Maybe I had gone crazy for real. Maybe I had completely lost my mind. Or maybe seeing death so close made me forget what was right and what was wrong. I was not going to lie but the idea of staying with the original forever was not really bothering me that much. Despite my hate and anger, I got used to him being around and we were somehow in this whole mess together.
"I had a vision, you know," I told him, "When Vance was about to crush my heart, I got a brief vision. I saw you in your black cloak. You were with a baby, he was in your arms and you were telling him that someday, he was going to become the light of someone. You wanted him to become good, even though you were not going to be there for him...Vance did not know about this, did he? He did not know that in one moment of his life you were a real father to him and that you wished the best for him."
"Interesting," Axel said and he let out a sigh, "Eldon thought that I could be a good father, he wanted me to take care of Vance. He said that he was going to help me with him but I couldn't. Maybe in another life, I would have been able to take my role of a father seriously but I knew that Vance couldn't fit in my life. I did not want him to become like me...but, in the end, he still chose to follow the path of darkness."
"Do you regret your choice of leaving him then?" I asked him and he was quick to answer.
"No," he replied, "I still think that he wouldn't have fit in my world. At that time of my life, only one person mattered to me and he had all of my attention."
"Eldon," I concluded and he nodded. "You really do love him."
"And you really do love Cloud," he added and I just stared at him without protesting his sayings. He chuckled, "Speaking of Cloud, you should return to him. He's waiting for you."
"Alright," I simply said and when I stood up to go, he spoke again.
"Wait," he stopped me, "Before you go, tell me something. If you got the chance to kill me, would you do it?"
I did not reply to him. I just turned around and walked away. I did not look back as I came out of the darkness.
***
When I opened my eyes, I found myself on the ground in a grand hall. That place was familiar to me. It was the throne room where I first met Vance. I frowned and slowly pushed myself on my feet. I turned around on myself. I was the only one here.
Where were the others?
Just then, like if hearing my thoughts, there was a flash of light and I immediately hid my eyes with my arms. I stepped back a little bit and gradually the intensity of the light decreased but before I could remove my arms to see who had just appeared, someone jumped on me, hugging me.
"Luffy!" Nicolas exclaimed and I was startled. "You're alive! Thank god, I thought that you would never wake up!"
"I'm alive," I repeated, hugging him back, and seconds later, I pulled away from the hug. I examined his face and saw some trace of blood there and there but he did not look hurt. I concluded that his wounds must have already healed, "I'm happy to see that you are alright too."
He smiled at me and I glanced around once again.
"Where is everyone else?" I asked him in confusion, "And what are we doing here?"
"The reapers," he simply replied and my body tensed, "They appeared out of nowhere during the battle and killed everyone that got in their way. They are the ones who took us here."
I was about to ask him another question when suddenly the air changed and a group of people appeared in the throne room. I did not have time to react that Nicolas pushed me behind him and came to stand in front of me in a protective way. My eyes widened when I realized who just arrived.
They all wore a black cloak.
The reapers.
We couldn't see their faces but I could feel the aura they were giving off. It was so dark and I actually got scared for one second. One of them stepped forward and removed his hood. It was Eldon. His eyes immediately came on me and I froze. Cloud and Rain really looked exactly like him. There were only slight differences between them and their dad.
"Eldon, stand back," Cloud's dad was pulled back by one of the other reapers.
"Let go of me, Decimus," Eldon said, snatching his arm out of the said Decimus's grip. "Now is not the time for this. You don't seem to understand the gravity of the situation."
"Oh, we understand it well but we don't need your assistance," a female voice was heard this time, "We'll take care of Axel from now on. You're just a liability for us right now."
I could literally feel the tension among those reapers. I tried to step forward to speak to them as they were obviously here to decide what they were going to do with me but Nicolas pushed me back once again and told me to remain behind him. Before I could tell him to let me decide my own fate, other people appeared in front of us and that happened to be the others this time.
"Cloud," I couldn't help but exclaim at the sight of him and I passed by Nicolas to run to him. I jumped into his arms and he instantly wrapped his arms around me. I hugged him tightly, like if my life depended on it. "I missed you."
"Damn, I missed you too," he told me and I hummed in satisfaction but then reluctantly, I pulled away from him and looked at the others. I was happy to see that everyone was alright. Even Rain was back but his face was emotionless. There was no sight of Cale or Calum anywhere.
"Good to see that you are finally awake," Storm said, giving me a little slap on my back, "It would have sucked if something had happened to you. You wouldn't have been able to repay your debt to me then."
I chuckled and shook my head but my moment of joy ceased soon enough when the reapers reminded us of their presence.
"Now," the one named Decimus said and everyone got on guard, "Give us the replica who holds Axel. We need to imprison him in a place where no one will be able to free him this time."
"Don't you dare touch him," Cloud said and everyone came to stand in front of me. "No one is going to take Luffy so don't even think about it."
"Fools, you don't know who you are protecting," the woman spoke, "Axel is dangerous and we can't let him free when he has the ability to use most of his powers."
"But he's not in control anymore," Nicolas exclaimed.
"Still, we can't risk it," she brushed it off, "If one day, he regains the control, he may come to search for his reaper powers and us, reapers, have enough to pay for his mistakes. We won't accept another loss."
Cloud and the others did not seem to be ready to give me to the reapers and the reapers did not seem to be ready to let go of me. I should have predicted this end. I needed to accept what was to come. The reapers were right. Axel could, at any time, regain control of my body and use the powers that I had currently for bad use. Who knew what he would do then? I could not let that happen.
He was too dangerous.
I was too dangerous.
"I'm ready to go," I declared and everyone looked at me in surprise, "I have caused enough trouble for everyone. It will be better for me to be locked somewhere instead of roaming around freely. I don't want anyone to die because of me anymore."
"No!" Cloud exclaimed, "You're not going anywhere."
"But-"
"Shut up, Luffy. Let us deal with this!" Nicolas cut me off and he glared at the reapers, "If they want to take you, they will have to pass through me first."
From the looks of it, everyone seemed to be ready to fight to defend me, even Estella, but why couldn't they understand? Letting me go with the reapers was the right thing to do. I would be gone and their life would return to the way it was. There would be no threat, no Vins. Everyone would be happy. I accepted this truth so why couldn't they do the same?
"Eldon, I will advise you to reason your sons," the female reaper said, "No one is going to stop us from taking Axel. If they don't cooperate, we will have to take care of them too."
Hearing that, Eldon immediately teleport himself right in front of us.
"You need to stop," he told us, "They are going to kill all of you if you don't let him come with us and you know that they are stronger than you."
"Fuck off! I'm not letting you take him," Cloud exclaimed and Eldon was surprised by the way his son spoke to him. He looked at Cloud and then at me but he couldn't hold my gaze for long and he stepped back. Cloud sighed before speaking again but in a nicer and more desperate way this time, "Please, you need to understand that I can't lose him."
Cloud's words seemed to get to his dad and the latter seemed to think about something then. He lowered his gaze and turned around to face the reapers who were waiting for the moment to take me away or even to attack us.
"I have the solution to make everyone happy," Eldon stated and he walked back to the reapers to discuss that idea that he just got. We all remained quiet and looked at the reapers as they talked among themselves. I did not know what was that solution that Eldon just got but his friends did not look like they wanted to try it out.
"It's too dangerous."
"If we do it all together, it will work."
"No, we can't do something like this, not if Xenon is not here to approve."
"Xenon is not the boss and he is the one who decided not to come. Besides, it will be just like when we created the replicas. We can redo it but we'll just make a few changes."
"And how can you be so sure that it will work?"
I did not hear Eldon's reply but a few seconds later, all the reapers disappeared suddenly. We all frowned in confusion but then, before we even knew what was happening, the others were pushed away from me and I was being surrounded by the reapers. Their scythes appeared in their hands and what happened next was hard for me to explain.
I heard their voices in my head and it felt like it was going to explode soon. I was seeing blur and a piercing sound filled my ears. I fell to my knees and screamed. Something was being pulled out of me. I could feel them ripping out something in me. It was painful and it was unbearable.
I was losing one part of me.
Fuck, it hurts! I heard the original shout and surprisingly, he seemed to be experiencing the same pain that I was. I could see him. One of my eyes was seeing him. He was grabbing his head and screaming in pain in the dark. He did not seem to know what was happening to us too. I could feel his pain and he was clearly there inside of me but gradually, it all stopped. I could no longer hear his voice and his feelings could no longer be felt.
I could not feel him at all.
I fell back and my body hit with the ground. I was feeling dizzy and everything was a mess in my head. People around me moved and I heard my name being said multiple times.
"Luffy, are you alright? Luffy, talk to me!" I heard Cloud say and I frowned. I felt him grab my hand and I tightened it around his. I slowly opened my eyes and saw that he was looking down at me with worried eyes.
"What happened?" I asked him, feeling completely numb inside but I was slowly regaining control of my body parts.
"Well, he-" he stopped talking and his eyes moved into another direction. Confused, I sat up and looked where his eyes were directed to. My eyes widened.
"Axel," I breathed out the original's name at the sight of him and I could not believe my own eyes.
Here he was, like, he was really there on the ground a few meters away from me. He moved suddenly and my breath got caught in my throat. He slowly and clumsily raised to his feet and turned around. I could finally see his face. He was just like I used to see him when we were both in the dark. He looked down at his hands in shock before looking up at me.
"What the-" he could not finish his sentence as he was suddenly projected against the wall. He did not fall down but instead, he remained stuck against the wall as one of the reapers placed its scythe close to his throat. He gritted his teeth and put a fake smile on his face, "Pleasure to see you, Caroline."
"You are going to die, Axel," the female said but Eldon stopped her.
"Don't. He's human," he said and both Axel and I were taken by surprise.
Just what? He was human? But how could it be? No, if he was human, where the hell did his powers go then? The answer to my question struck me hard and Axel seemed to realize the same thing at the same time that I did.
"This is our chance to kill him. He needs to disappear from his earth," Caroline stated.
"And you think that death is the punishment that he deserves?" Eldon asked her, "He can't defend himself anymore, he has no powers. He is weak and everything can hurt him or even kill him. After everything that he had done, a human existence wouldn't it be a better punishment for him?"
Caroline analyzed Eldon's words and in the end, she made her scythe disappear, giving up the idea of killing Axel. The original let out a sigh of relief but she kicked him in the stomach and he yelped, grimacing. That simple hit seemed to have hurt him a lot.
"Our job is done here," Decimus declared and the reapers nodded. Some of them disappeared and Eldon walked to Cloud and I.
"Axel won't be a problem to you anymore," he told us and I looked up at him with no particular opinion on the matter. "If he dares try something again, we will come back and kill him for good. Though everything should be alright from now on and I'm sorry for what happened."
"You're going to go again?" Cloud asked him and his dad sighed, averting his eyes.
"I'm afraid yes. I can't stay here," Eldon said and he quickly added, "But know that even though you can't see me, I-"
"Eldon!" Decimus exclaimed, interrupting Eldon and he sighed once again.
"I need to go," he stated and he put on his hood. I noticed something though before he disappeared. I saw his head turn in the direction of Axel and the original happened to be looking his way just at that moment. Axel looked like he wanted to say something to the reaper but before he could even move, Eldon was gone.
Axel's eyes met with mine then and one question crossed my mind.
If you got the chance to kill me, would you do it?
The answer was no. I could not do it because, at that moment, I was free at last.