Burn the World with Me

"If you fight fire with fire, the whole world gets burned."

Excalibur breathed heavily, her hero cape singed and her body pummeled with heavy wounds. Her face was battered with scars, but it wasn't like I was any better. Her silver armor was now melted and torn. The Silver Sword Hero was now no more.

Blood seeped from my fists, my fingers skinned raw and tips burnt as patches of fire bloomed on my injuries at her words.

I, the Scarlet Harvester of Flames, was also no more.

Aria la Rosenne, better known as the hero Excalibur, was my archenemy. When I first started out as a villain, she had first started out as a hero. After our first fight, it had been hate at first sight.

If I had one word to describe her, it was raw.

Raw power, raw potential. Raw emotion.

She didn't cower under a disguise like most of those so-called heroes did. Undisguised emotion. Unmasked hatred. Untainted, in a way, by the world, despite her painful past.

I hated it.

I hated her, so badly.

Her words could've been interpreted as a playful pun, as both of us had fire powers.

Excalibur's silvery ice-fire, and Clarent's scarlet fire flowers.

When Excalibur had named herself, I had done the same.

Clarent. Excalibur's twin blade.

The villain.

"Well, that's a good thing, isn't it?"

I panted.

Pain seared through my veins as Excalibur's ice-fire crawled up my throat. The flames froze my insides, and it felt like hell. The fire that bloomed on the frostbitten patches was a feeble attempt to warm myself from the immovable suffering. Excalibur's powers had married half of my face, and the ice burns had nearly gouged my right eye out.

Pain. Pain. Pain.

I looked like a walking corpse, and felt even worse.

I struggled to get the words out. My throat was ravaged, vocal cards almost beyond repair.

"It's always been a dream of mine to see the world burn."

The structures around us were either consumed by fire or ice, and I could hear sirens in the distance.

I could feel it.

This is our last fight.

I wanted to collapse, to faint, to summon the fire flowers that had been gifted to me since birth again, to let the adrenaline course through my veins like when we had fought the first time.

I wasn't a villain anymore.

I was Claire, the human.

"Ha." I laughed, a throaty sound like a knife scraping against ice. I couldn't feel my lips anymore. "It's been ten years, Ari."

I had never used her real name before, which was why her eyes fluttered in surprise.

Her delicate, golden eyelashes.

"Yeah."

Aria's voice was equally hoarse.

"It's been a long time, Claire."

Never before had I felt fire inside me when I fought with someone. All those plastic, surface-level heroes that reveled in being hailed as such had never ignited the same feeling Excalibur - no, Aria - did. At her touch, I would shudder out of excitement.

The next fight.

The next punch.

The next rush.

She left me breathless, almost like I was riding an ever-thrilling rollercoaster.

A thrill. That's why I had started fighting.

And that's exactly what Aria had provided.

In the mess of a life that I had lived, she was stable. Safe, almost.

Have you ever heard of a safe roller coaster?

I felt safe when I was fighting her. Stable. Warm.

Whether it was the fight or the person I was fighting against, I didn't want it to end.

If one lost, the next time they would win.

An open rivalry.

“I think…I don’t hate you.” I said slowly, the words like gravel.

Aria blinked, her blond bob now ragged. She really was quite pretty, with curved, upturned features and big green eyes. I had seen her on the news many times, the top hero Excalibur. The world’s savior.

Now, her face was ruined, a patchwork of blood and bone.

“I don’t hate you either,” she admitted. “It’s not hate I feel when I see you.”

It was never hate for you too?

“It’s a strange feeling, isn’t it?” I tried to smile, but ended up looking like a grotesque zombie. “Looking forward to seeing someone.”

“Mmm.” Aria swayed, and fell to her knees. “I don’t think I can stay up any longer.”

“Me neither.” I followed her, collapsing right next to each other. I crawled closer to her, almost desperately, reaching for her hand just as Aria folded to the ground.

We held hands.

Safety. Finding comfort at the brink of death.

I didn't want to die alone.

Our raw, battered, bloodied fingers interlocked.

Heavy breathing.

“I don’t think I can stay any longer.” A small voice that barely seemed like Aria’s. “Hold me.”

Human warmth.

“Alright.” I obeyed, my arms stretching around her. I could feel a liquid tracing down my cheek.

When had I started crying?

“I’m sorry.” I didn’t know who I was apologizing to. “For everything.”

My dad, for abandoning him when he needed me most?

My mom, for turning both her and my dad away? 

My brother, for failing to rescue him for my parents?

Aria, for falling in emotion for her? 

The world, for tormenting it?

The countless people and heroes I had slain?

“I’m sorry, too.” Aria’s voice grew smaller. “Maybe we can catch a movie; if we see each other again.” I could feel her breathing slow, her limbs limp.

Her breathing finally stopped.

I didn’t let go of her.

I could finally feel my systems shut down.

I don’t hate her.

This feeling...might be the closest thing to love.

The thumping of my heart, the longing for more. Perhaps, there would be a future where we could be together. Not as a hero and a villain. I felt as if I could stay in her still embrace forever.

But she’s gone.

I felt an empty hole. Loss. 

She had left the world before me.

Ha, you always did have to beat me.

“Maybe we can burn the world together, next time.”

A pause.

“I’ll see you again...my Excalibur.”

--Fade to black--

Excalibur, the Silver Sword, and Clarent, the Scarlet Harvester, Die in Each Other's Embrace

"They did have feelings for each other," says an anonymous source. "Whether it was love or hate, there was passion. But one of them loved the world, and one of them hated it, and that was enough. Villains cannot love heroes, like heroes cannot love villains."

We mourn the death of two figures tonight.

Two who died of heavy injuries in the battlefield tonight.

In their last moments, they embraced each other tonight.

A unlikely tragedy of two who realized their love too late.