Dream ♠ oo8
Underneath the bandages wrapped around his torso and covering parts of his hands and face, his burns are hurting. His torn military jacket is tied around his waist, over blood splotched pants. He ignores the pain, though. After all, he's just one human compared to the entire world.
If a post-apocalypse world had to look like something, Dominic thinks, it would probably look similar to how his own world does. Then again, it is on the verge of destruction. There's no life in sight, not even a blade of grass. Just broken buildings and ruins around them. Dominic isn't certain how long it's been like this--whether it's the remains of the war so many years ago or the remains of a town just destroyed today. With how quickly the planet is killing itself, it's difficult to tell these things, though he has an inkling that it's the latter. He doesn't even want to know what the casualty count is--he doesn't want to think about all the people the colonel's managed to kill in a single day. No, even less than that.
In the distance, he can see a strange sort of pillar reaching up to the sky, spreading like a flower at the top. Hanging above it is the Coralian core, with two rings surrounding it. Coralians are attacking it, trying to kill themselves--all thanks to the colonel's work. At this rate, they'll all, Coralians and humans alike, be lucky to survive to the end of the week, if even the day.
"This is the world that awaits her," a voice says from behind him, causing him to turn around with surprised eyes. It's the colonel--no, not quite. It's the skeleton on a straw horse, but the uniform identifies whom he's supposed to be. Besides, it's not as if Dominic hasn't seen this figure before, and so he knows what to expect.
"You say it's for the best that she returned here, but is it really?" the skeleton asks, with his hollow eyes and frightening smile. "She would've been much safer in that dream world of yours, wouldn't she?"
That would seem to be the logical conclusion, indeed. In this world, one is as likely to die as one is to survive, a fact he knows all too well. As dangerous as Somarium can be, it's still safer than this place. Not only that, but Anemone is in a coma here, infected. For all Dominic knows, she might never wake up again.
But that's wrong--because she will, and for the same reason that he's all right with this.
"You're wrong," he says, and if there was ever any doubt that she's better off here, it's been erased by now. Somarium is more peaceful, certainly, but with the way she was, that peace alone wouldn't have brought Anemone happiness.
Dominic looks up at the Coralian core, where the typeZERO is fighting off a Coralian horde. Lights and explosions dance through the sky, and at the same time that anxiety runs through Dominic, hope does as well. He doesn't even need to wish Renton good luck, because he knows the boy doesn't need it.
"I have faith in him," he tells the skeleton. "And that's good enough for me."
The skeleton begins to fall apart into skyfish that fly away, their green bodies standing out against the dull wreckage. Then, Dominic's surroundings start to fade away. Rubble turns into grass and flowers, moving gently in the wind. The Coralians, core, and typeZERO are gone now. It's just him, standing in a meadow, with burns that no longer hurt.
He kneels down to pluck one of the flowers, and for whatever reason he's not surprised to see what kind it is: an anemone.
"I could while away the hours / Conferrin' with the flowers, consultin' with the rain."
He looks up, startled. Suddenly, his heart hurts, and even if he wanted to say something, his voice isn't working right now.
"I would be not just a nuffin' / My head all full of stuffin', my heart all full of pain."
Dominic can almost recite the lines from memory, as he smiles softly at the pink-haired girl who's sitting in the field, holding a white creature above her head and surrounded by flowers.
"I would dance and be merry / Life would be a ding-a-derry," Anemone sings. She doesn't seem to have noticed Dominic, but that's all right. He's content with simply seeing her, knowing that she's okay.
"If I only had a brain."
Then she smiles as well--a real smile, one born from happiness. And Dominic's heart is hurting more now, but he's glad. All he can think at the moment is that he'd be willing to die all over again, with all the same pain, if it means making this image--this life--last. If it means bringing about this smile, this happiness that Anemone deserves so much.
Tears are blurring his vision now, and he's dimly aware that he's crying for the first time in a long while. Echoing through his head are familiar words, words that he never got to say to her but hoped would reach her nevertheless.
Be safe, Anemone. And please be happy.
Still smiling, he closes his eyes and walks away.
Goodbye.
---
[Fortunately, when he wakes up, Dominic isn't actually crying. However, the dream has left with him a melancholy, yet peaceful, feeling. He glances at the vase sitting on the bedside table, inside a single flower. Three guesses for what kind it is. There was one good thing that came out of recent events, at least.]