Jessica barely knew she was conscious. The ground was shaking below her and her arms and legs seemed to be bouncing languidly to gravity. She could hear screams, gun shots, yells, and grumbles in the distance, but she had no idea what was happening.

She was most likely dreaming another endless dream. Those dreams where the black in her vision could go on forever but the sounds come and go, loud and quiet; a small terror that she thought she’d be in forever.

She barely remembered a thing about being asleep. The wind on her skin definitely proved she wasn’t in her hell hole. And the thought of it made her internally sigh. Good. She hated it in there. She didn’t deserve to be in there.

The thought of the place caused her memory to click back into place, and she remembered the Daegrent. She felt herself infuriate in seconds, realizing he knocked her out. He put her in so much pain and she thought she was going to end his life that day after tossing him around. He caused her so much pain; so much she couldn’t bear and she had no idea how he’d become that strong. Ludicrous, she thought. Damn ludicrous.

She was going to make him pay. She was going to kill him painfully.

The bouncing of her body grew more violent and there was a loud crash nearby that jolted her mind into coherence. Groggily, she opened her eyes. They felt like they’d been shut for centuries and so sore to see daylight.

With her eyes opened, she looked to see the courtyard passing her by. Everyone was running and the building was falling to pieces. She was so confused and grew even more concerned when she realized she wasn’t the one moving.

  “Oh thank god,” Siwon looked down at her, “You’re finally awake, thank god.”

She blinked, looking up to seeing Siwon in his creature’s blue skin, sternly questioning, “What’s going on?”

Siwon looked back to where he was going, hopping over a few bodies on the ground and look for his next exit, “Gist of it? Daegrent knocked you out. You’ve been in a coma for almost a month. You’ve been in the infirmary with the blonde chick ever since and you’ve been getting better. Daegrent decides to save us all and blow up the place. He let’s us escape. Escaping. There.”

  “Let me guess, he failed, right?” Jessica looked around again, “That’s why you’re running?”

Siwon huffed an unamused laugh, “That doesn’t make any sense; you’re not really awake yet, I guess. Of course he didn’t fail. He’s the reason why we’re running right now. He’s saving us, let most of us go, and he triggered The Prophecy. It’s gonna blow and that dark-skinned woman let me come get you.”

Jessica grabbed on to Siwon with a weak fist, “The Prophecy was here?”

  “Look, I don’t know anything okay, the news just spread like wildfire here a few days ago.”

Jessica clenched her jaw. The Daegrent thought he was so noble. ‘Saving’ them and looking like a hero; like a king. It made Jessica sick with hatred for him. That’s all he wanted, to look almighty and get the attention that came with it. He had no true power; he had nothing. Just a title to his name but not an inch of power to his being.

She still wanted to kill him so badly. She was greater than he was; she was greater than any Daegrent that would live on to this day. She had the will, the strength, and the mind-set to be the ruler of all her creatures. She deserved that spot; that’s why she made it to the top in the prison.

But once the kid came around, he screwed her. He made her look weak. He forced her into a hole peasants belonged in. He denounced her and he deserved death for it.

  “Let me run,” she kept her jaw taut, I’m going to go kill him.

  “I can hear you,” Siwon warned her, “And no—don’t you dare start to object, you’re listening to me this time! I don’t care about your grudge anymore. You go back, you’re going to die there. The dark-skinned woman said you were still in no shape for running—you can barely stand on your legs! The Daegrent’s heat deteriorated the strength of your body and it’s still in effect; you can’t move on your own. We’re getting out of here and we’re starting new lives!”

Jessica scoffed, “New lives. Going back to what we were doing is new?”

Siwon took a sharp turn into a hallway, “Look, Jess, I’ve been thinking about it, and you know what . . . let’s not kill anymore,” Siwon took another sharp turn in the opposite direction, “Sure it was satisfying, but after being in here, do you see how vicious we are? We even hurt innocent creatures in there. . . Look, we can find a better life for us. We basically belonged in a prison for the thousands of lives we have on our hands. Can we just restart?”

Jessica started pushing away from him, “Where the is Siwon?! You’re clearly a shifter!”

I’m right here! Siwon yelled at her. I’m me!

She looked at him, almost ashamed he’d gone soft. After the years in the prison, acting the same way she had, now he’d become different. It was something she never wanted of him.

  “Look, I snatched your jacket—the one they confiscated when we came in here,” his eyes flickered to the white jacket wedged in between their bodies, “There’s a note in the pocket, but I didn’t open it.”

Jessica saw her old coat and felt basically joyous seeing her favorite item of clothing again after years. She grabbed on to it, looking at the damage done on her skin; the healing burns that took more effort to erase. They were sore, needless to say, and with Siwon running made it no better to grab it.

She looked for a note that was folded and bent in the pocket and pulled it out. Not wasting anytime, she opened it up and read it as she shakily moved.

Look, Jessica, I’m really sorry for what I’ve done to you. That was completely wrong and out of line of me no matter what you’ve done to anyone else or what you’ve done to me. I never meant to harm you to such a large extent. . . This anger that I had in combination with great power I consumed went out of control because I was sick of you.

I know you’ve hated me and you’ll always hate me. I don’t understand why you have to make this a competition over who’s greater. All of our creatures are equal. Right now as I write, no, no one seems equal in here, but once this is all over, yes. They must be. Continue your hatred, it doesn’t matter to me.

I’m burning down this prison and I know you know what that means. The Prophecy. And the only way to light the Prophecy is being a full Royal Daegrent. As explosions set off, it means that I took the title. But I’m not taking the power like a ruler. I don’t plan on abusing anything like that, I just want to free our creatures and save my loved ones. This includes you.

You’ve given everyone hell. But I still think you’re capable of being out there. I know you can live up to a better life. Even get to know the humans that run this Earth. They’re not just something petty to kill. They deserve life just as much as you do. I know you can muster the strength to figure out what the real values of life are. You’re that smart.

But I meant it back there before you passed out. I’m letting you go. But if I find out you’re killing innocent people and creatures, I will find you, and I will end you. Consider that the only warning.

I’m sorry that who I am caused you stress. I was never going to take your title away among the creatures of the prison. I was just here to escape. To be honest, I get why we’d bow down to you. You’re beautiful, you think through (sometimes irrational, but we all do that), and you have so much will and passion for us all to admire. I would’ve never thought you to be so cruel to others. You looked to potentially have the personality of an angel.

I know you can be that. So start over. Make a new life with Siwon. Enjoy it.

I’m not joking either. You’re beautiful, Jessica. Now make the inside of you just as beautiful.

Daegrent

Jessica read it twice before folding it up again and staring at Siwon’s chest.

She wanted to be angry. He still sounded like he was being noble and high-and-mighty. Like he was being the better person.

But the electricity died within her and the feeling of guilt uplifted.

Sure, maybe the Daegrent really was a nice guy and her competitive side wouldn’t allow her to see that. She wanted to blame him for every misfortune that’d happened among the creatures since day one. She wanted to blame all Daegrents.

And just from a small note, she found some light. She hated how stupid she looked about it, but it was true. She wouldn’t have thought some measly note would change her around, but it did.

And Minho’s words shoved the guilt into .

  “Let me down,” she told Siwon.

Siwon didn’t listen, busting through into another courtyard.

  “Siwon, let me down!”

Sore to the bone, Jessica fought her way out of Siwon’s arms and fell to the ground hard on her side. She gasped in pain, but she forced herself up. She was barely able to stand, trying to balance on her two feet.

  “Are you insane?!” Siwon yelled, reaching to grab for her, “Let’s go!”

Jessica slapped him away, “Go! You have every right to keep living, go! I’ve lost that privilege!”

  “What are you talking about?!” Siwon grabbed for her again.

She hit him and wobbled back, almost falling, “I know I can’t change. Once I get out there, I’ll kill! That’s all I’ll do and I might bulldoze you down if you try to change that,” she shook her head, face twisting into guilt, “I have to die! I’ll kill them all and won’t feel a single regret! But you can change, so go on!”

Siwon stared at her hard, his jaw clenched tightly as she almost started crying.

  “If you make me cry in front of you, I’ll haunt you,” she warned.

An explosion in the south erupted and Siwon didn’t waste time, grabbing Jessica by the wrist and bringing her close, “Hell. No.”

He brought her back up into his arms before she fell over from the shake of the ground and started running again, “Don’t get all noble on me, at least not now! I’m not ever leaving you to die, I promised you that! You were never this stone cold before the prison, now let me show you, you can go back to that!”

Jessica looked at Siwon’s determined face, watching as he looked for the front gate, “You’re so stupid,” she bit her lip.

Siwon, still running, looked down at her and nodded, “I know. But as long as I still have you, I don’t care about you reminding me every day.”

Jessica hid her face from him, trying to let her tears go unnoticed. The last time Siwon said something like that was before the prison.

Don’t cry, baby.

Siwon ran from the front gate and went in a direction he saw no one go in. They grew further and further away from the prison and the both of them felt less suffocated.

Siwon situated Jessica so her head leaned over his shoulder, holding her from the bottom. She moved strands of her hair away from her face as she watched the prison get incredibly distant until she could no longer see it, Siwon moving into the trees.

Minutes later there was a quiet boom in the far distance and the ground just barely shook. Jessica was afraid of how far The Prophecy would travel. It could engulf the whole world . . .

  “Don’t think about it,” Siwon shook his head, slowing down, “If it engulfed this entire planet, it would’ve done it by now.”

Siwon slowed to a stop in the midst of the trees where his direction ended; the only option going left and right as forward was a cliff down.

He sat Jessica down on the bright green grass and took a look at the distance, “The mountains . . . I can barely remember what this looked like,” he smiled.

Jessica got distracted once he let her down. The tall blades of grass brushed against her skin and she tread her fingers through it, “. . . So . . . soft.”

She tread her hands through it, trying to feel every single blade of grass. She didn’t remember how soft the grass was against her skin—whether she was a Rinapture or human, the grass kept completely soft to her.

She was engulfed in the feel of the blades of grass and laid down in it, the soreness of her body forgotten. She rolled a few times and smiled large for the first time in years.

The grass brushed upon her heavenly and her Rinapture vocals formed. She purred softly at first, growing louder and louder until Siwon looked back and laughed.

  “I forgot you much you love grass of all things,” he shook his head, his blue-skin turning back to humanly color.

Jessica laughed and shook her head. She removed her shirt and her pants, leaving her in her undergarments to feel more of the ground below her. She didn’t want to change, but she wanted to feel all of it. Jessica stretched around in the grass more, purring slightly louder as she looked at Siwon. She held her hand out to him, “Come here.”

Siwon took her hand gently, situating himself on top of her, “Well, look here,” he brought his face closer to hers, “After years of being cold, you’ve returned to being cute. I’ve missed that,” he pulled a hand down the curvature of her body.

She smiled and brought a hand to his face, “I missed it, too.”

The two of them kissed softly and innocently. While in the prison, Jessica would barely touch Siwon after being so angry and moody over every single thing. Romance wasn’t quite what Jessica wanted in the prison and at this moment, she hated how she lost it to the prison. Maybe if she didn’t become obsessed with her title, her and Siwon would’ve survived easier in there.

The two of them kept up passionately for seconds with smiles in their kisses. Here and there, they made comments before resuming, sometimes a few laughs.

Jessica backed Siwon up and on to the ground, hovering over him. She liked the cute, romantic factor of all of this. It felt more natural rather than denying it.

Siwon placed his hands on her bare hips, thumbs the rough burn marks of her skin, unfazed by them, “New life sound good?”

Jessica smiled and nodded, gently head-butting under Siwon’s chin,

  “Let’s start now.”

----Note~----

I'm tired. I'll make this quick.

This was another thing I had to rewrite and I'm happy with it. I think the original was three pages and this is six. Woot.

Idk, I wanted to find an end for these two and it turned out cliche and hasty and whatnot but, ey, I'm content.

Thanks for reading. c:

~FlaMinhoe