as written by Saarai
John screamed himself awake, shocked by his sudden existence in the world of the living. He remembered everything that happened to him. Everything that happened around him. He just couldn't remember how he had gotten into the medical facility he found himself in. There he sat in a hospital bed and a hospital gown, machines all around him making noise and the smell that only a hospital could have. He survived?
No. He was tough, but he wasn't like Anodyne, or Yukiko, or any of those types of people. He'd been saved. Someone arrived in the nick of time. Likely the Invictus. John tried to stand, but once his feet hit the ground he noticed that they didn't work. Muscle atrophy. It was the first time he ever experienced it. He was in a coma. Had to be why he didn't remember being taken to a doctor.
The young man laid himself back down into the bed, opting not to take any chances until he was fully healed.He waited for nearly an hour for a doctor or a nurse, a friend to come and see him. Phinx, Kazen, Fatin. Someone. They never came. There were no windows in the hospital room. He didn't know if it was night or day. Maybe it wasn't time for visits, he thought. That was until the door to the room began to open.
"They said you had awoken." A familiar man's voice said to John. The bedridden man sat up, uneasy because the voice belonged to a man he hoped he would never see until again alive or outside of a cage. In stepped a tall man dressed in a dark blue suit and long coat. Stoic was the best description of his facial expression, or lack of, as he approached John.
The man, Lochlyn Haley, was a killer, a terrorist, madman. John preferred to have nothing to do with him. He no longer had a choice.
"You my not be able to speak very well or loudly. All you have to do is listen. Your friends. Your allies. They've set back my plans in a few unexpected ways. They revealed me. They escaped me. They keep my children from me." Lochlyn said, "In the past..." He began, only to pause and lower his eyes to the floor. "In the past, I have tried to reason with people. To change hearts and minds with just words alone. Words, apparently, were my gift." He continued.
Lochlyn brought his gaze back to John, inching closer and closer to him with each word. "I have seen things in this world and others that mortal men only dream of. Gods, death, Heaven, Hell. I have been a king, I have been a slave, I have been a soldier, I have been a commander. One thing I have neever been is who I am. Who I really am. Lochlyn Haley is sixty-five years old. Elias Crowley is thirty-seven. The man I was before both, he would be ninety by now."
"The point I'm making is that I have been in this existence for much longer than anyone, anything, else and I have learned that sometimes you have to be someone different to get things done. You are not John Izumi. You are his clone. One of many. But, you are the first. You can not be John Izumi. You have to be someone different. You will be someone different. You have kept his memories, his feelings, his skills, his knowledge. Do you wonder why?" The ancient man asked of 'John'.
'John' nodded, a look of despair obscuring his previously relieved face.
"Because, I need you to kill them all. His friends. His family. His allies. The Invictus. And then kill more for me. And then, when it's all over, you can live a normal life." Lochlyn told the young man before he began to walk towards the exit.
"I can't wait to see you die." 'John' told Lochlyn as the man left the room.
John screamed himself awake, shocked by his sudden existence in the world of the living. He remembered everything that happened to him. Everything that happened around him. He just couldn't remember how he had gotten into the medical facility he found himself in. There he sat in a hospital bed and a hospital gown, machines all around him making noise and the smell that only a hospital could have. He survived?
No. He was tough, but he wasn't like Anodyne, or Yukiko, or any of those types of people. He'd been saved. Someone arrived in the nick of time. Likely the Invictus. John tried to stand, but once his feet hit the ground he noticed that they didn't work. Muscle atrophy. It was the first time he ever experienced it. He was in a coma. Had to be why he didn't remember being taken to a doctor.
The young man laid himself back down into the bed, opting not to take any chances until he was fully healed.He waited for nearly an hour for a doctor or a nurse, a friend to come and see him. Phinx, Kazen, Fatin. Someone. They never came. There were no windows in the hospital room. He didn't know if it was night or day. Maybe it wasn't time for visits, he thought. That was until the door to the room began to open.
"They said you had awoken." A familiar man's voice said to John. The bedridden man sat up, uneasy because the voice belonged to a man he hoped he would never see until again alive or outside of a cage. In stepped a tall man dressed in a dark blue suit and long coat. Stoic was the best description of his facial expression, or lack of, as he approached John.
The man, Lochlyn Haley, was a killer, a terrorist, madman. John preferred to have nothing to do with him. He no longer had a choice.
"You my not be able to speak very well or loudly. All you have to do is listen. Your friends. Your allies. They've set back my plans in a few unexpected ways. They revealed me. They escaped me. They keep my children from me." Lochlyn said, "In the past..." He began, only to pause and lower his eyes to the floor. "In the past, I have tried to reason with people. To change hearts and minds with just words alone. Words, apparently, were my gift." He continued.
Lochlyn brought his gaze back to John, inching closer and closer to him with each word. "I have seen things in this world and others that mortal men only dream of. Gods, death, Heaven, Hell. I have been a king, I have been a slave, I have been a soldier, I have been a commander. One thing I have neever been is who I am. Who I really am. Lochlyn Haley is sixty-five years old. Elias Crowley is thirty-seven. The man I was before both, he would be ninety by now."
"The point I'm making is that I have been in this existence for much longer than anyone, anything, else and I have learned that sometimes you have to be someone different to get things done. You are not John Izumi. You are his clone. One of many. But, you are the first. You can not be John Izumi. You have to be someone different. You will be someone different. You have kept his memories, his feelings, his skills, his knowledge. Do you wonder why?" The ancient man asked of 'John'.
'John' nodded, a look of despair obscuring his previously relieved face.
"Because, I need you to kill them all. His friends. His family. His allies. The Invictus. And then kill more for me. And then, when it's all over, you can live a normal life." Lochlyn told the young man before he began to walk towards the exit.
"I can't wait to see you die." 'John' told Lochlyn as the man left the room.
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