Failure dogged my every step. I constantly heard that voice telling me I was inadequate. To defy it, I did everything in my power. I was truthful when I had to be. I fought when I had to fight to escape failure's clutches. I tried to overcome the fears my mortal body felt, to take risks that exceeded my competence. My body, my body was constantly being wrecked. But I was no longer afraid of ruining it. If it meant silencing failure's whispers, I would not hesitate to turn my body into a ruin. This was also the reason I had now become a mutant body filled with creatures. The desire to achieve something…
Had I ever accomplished anything before? Was there a single trace of hope in any of the scenes my memory refused to show me? If I were to find such a sign, I could swear to hold on to it with my very life.
I was like a ship trying to navigate into a harbor without a lighthouse on a desolate, foggy, and cold night. I was constantly wrestling with the waves. I wasn't even aware the harbor existed. In this dead galaxy where I had awakened, all I could do was try to exist. Because there was no reason for me to be. Even a stone had a reason for its existence. A tree, a sea, and so many other things… But I, whose essence was filled with failures, had no reason for existence.
That's perhaps why I had wanted to make a promise to Rose and Diana. I needed it to give myself a purpose. If my heart was pumping blood into my flesh and bone, there had to be a reason. But what about this promise… if I lost it too, what would be left for me? Would I wander through realms for a purpose once more? Would loneliness once again enshroud me?
Had this universe ever witnessed such a crisis since its inception? A destiny where everything was ordained by a few men from grand corporations… In this universe, neither could a person find purpose nor could they have a future… My human brain could not grasp what might come next for this universe, poised on the edge of the future and the beyond. Just as it couldn't fathom that there was nothing before the universe's beginning...
Technology had reached the limits of need, every planet was brought under control, laws were laid down, rulers were chosen, and policies had been sanctified—what, then, could possibly await us beyond this point? The existence of a person like me, born outside all these systems, perhaps one who couldn't accept them… What did the existence of such a person signify?
That's why I was searching for a reason to exist. That's why I would cling tightly to the smallest flame I encountered, like a fruit fallen from heaven, to soothe my ice-coated heart. But… But… Now, seeing the metal ship descending from the sky, what I felt once more was the cold in my heart. The whispers of failure in my ear. As I heard my heart's drumming beat, I could feel the pressure of the veins throbbing against my temples. As the sweat on my brow trickled down my body, I could barely stand on my fear-trembling legs. Why? Because… Because I, who had woken from a 400-year dream, was terrified of feeling the nightmare of reality. Perhaps this… this fear was the dread of losing my reason for being. This fear was the horror of realizing I might have to remain in a cold room with failure for eternity. This fear… This fear was the terror of a torment that would never subside.
"For one who regrets, eternal life is a hell! Immortality is an eternal torment!" I had said back when I was Arthur Vale. This word… This was the word I was afraid of.
As I saw the ship descending between the buildings, I was walking slowly towards where the ship landed with my trembling knees when a laser from the middle of one of the buildings rose to the sky, turning the building into a wreck. This must have been Jose's laser… That's why I stopped walking and started running because I couldn't fly due to my ruined wings.
"I'm coming… Wait for me!"
The mutants were fighting with each other as if they had gone mad. As I ran on the dirt ground of the cowboy town, I could see the mutants flying above my head tearing each other apart, and the torn flesh and body parts falling in front of me. Where were they? Jose's laser was shooting a very long laser beam. If I saw the end of that laser beam, it meant they were a few streets away. I had just turned the street when a mutant appeared in front of me.
"Mehmet! Stop!" It said.
I, out of breath, put my hands on my knees to catch my breath and said, "Diana! It's you… Are you okay? What's going on there?"
"The bastards have been able to track my neurological movements from the very beginning. They were pretending they didn't notice me. When I contacted Rose, they attacked. They had a plan to catch both of us at the same time."
"Don't worry, I'm coming there…" I said and passed the mutant and started running again. I had taken a few steps when a mutant in the sky glided down slightly and said, "No Mehmet! Don't come to us!"
"Get out of here…" I said and ran past that mutant as well.
"Go back! You can't do anything!" Another mutant said while gliding in the air. Most of the mutants were gliding in the air like monstrous angels in the sky and looking at me. Each one was saying something different.
"You have a chance…" One said.
"You can escape…" Another said.
"Rose, watch out!" One shouted.
"Jose, help Rose!" Another said.
"Wait, almost there!" I said and started running more furiously when I suddenly felt something grabbing my wrist. The thing that grabbed my wrist was a mutant. It was crying, but what was flowing from its eyes was not tears but another liquid as black as tar.
"We were glad to meet you, Mehmet. But… But you have to go."
"Stop talking nonsense, Diana. Please… Please don't do this to me…" I said, crying. I pulled to free my arm, but the mutant wasn't letting go.
"This world is not for you, old human. Run, save yourself… Go to space now that everyone is here. Live out your retirement… You can't… You can't save us." I gritted my teeth and punched the mutant hard. As I hit the mutant's face repeatedly, my hand was getting covered in tar-colored liquid.
"No! No! No!" As I hit it repeatedly, the mutant finally lost consciousness. As soon as I freed my wrist from the mutant, I started running in the street once more. Another laser beam exploded. When the rubble of the building in front of me fell onto my path, I threw myself over the rubble by creating a flame from behind, but the stones in the rubble had cut my leg. Where I fell, my leg was covered in blood, and I was lying face down. I punched the ground to appease the anger inside me… Even though I was in pain, I got up and tried to walk.
I couldn't move my bleeding, scraped-to-the-bone knee, so I put my hand on that leg and started dragging it behind me. My bleeding leg reminded me of my helplessness. What would I do when I got there? If a pile of rubble could take my leg, how could I save Rose and Diana? And what about Jose? How was he? Could I be more than a burden to them when I was this inadequate?
"Go back…" A voice said. This voice was my mother's, and I could see her image a few steps away from me.
"Boss… Run and save yourself…" Another voice said. This voice belonged to Hulk. I knew I was seeing all these people because of Diana. She was getting into my mind and doing everything she could to make me turn back. But… But I was going to go there. I was curious to see what would happen when I exceeded my limits for once, what kind of a scene would be waiting for me.
There was a battlefield in the town square. A battlefield of mutants. Some mutants were flying, while others had their feet on the dirt ground. The mutants tearing each other apart had turned the surroundings into a pile of dust. As I entered the mutant-filled battlefield, I heard another voice.
"Are you going to keep me waiting?" This voice belonged to a blonde woman.
"Yorleny…"
"Jose hid the personality simulations under a statue at the exit of the town. He hid me there. You… You're not a man of this world, of this time, Mehmet. Take me and let's go… Let's create our own world. Here… There is nothing but lies and pain here."
"But…"
"Please…" The beautiful woman said with tears in her eyes. "…I missed you so much. Didn't you miss me too?"
A scream began to rise from the mouths of the mutants. This scream sounded like Diana's voice. As the scream subsided, the mutants suddenly knelt on the ground. The flying mutants fell to the ground. Yorleny's image was disappearing, and I was reaching out my hand to touch the woman.
As I slowly walked through the mutant-filled ground, a gigantic three-meter-tall mutant caught my eye ahead. The blood flowing in the veins on that mutant's body was very clearly visible. It had a cage in its stomach and pumps on its arms… As I approached the mutant, I noticed it was kneeling. Rose and Diana were under its two gigantic hands. Jose was lying on the side, short-circuited and trembling.
I didn't know what to do as I walked towards the mutant with my bloody leg. Yes… I was finally there. I was where Diana and Rose were, but what could I do? What could I do?
Rose was writhing, trying to get out from under the mutant's hand. Diana was looking at me with tearful eyes, full of regret. "Mehmet!" Diana shouted, but the mutant grabbed Diana with its hand and pressed her hard against the ground. The blood she vomited from her mouth flowed onto the dirt ground.
"What… What is happening here?" I said, advancing with heavy steps. Just then, a man climbed down from behind the gigantic mutant, holding onto metal bars.
The man's wavy, shoulder-length hair was slicked back. An advanced technological monocle covered his right eye. The cables coming out of that glass went into his hair and disappeared. He was wearing a green overcoat, the kind pilots of his time wore, with emblems and medals on his shoulders. Under the overcoat, a rusty green shirt was snugly fitted to his potbellied body. He was wearing elegant gray pants. This man, dressed like a wealthy nobleman, was a cybernetic human, as could be understood from the metal visible at his throat. A laser gun was attached to the brown belt of this arrogant-looking, slicked-back-haired, nobly-faced cybernetic human, and the tip of the gun moved as he walked. He extended his black leather-gloved hand to me, greeting me with a sincere face.
"Ah… Really, one more! Welcome, brother." He said, extending his hand to me. As I focused a little more on the man's chubby face, I realized that he resembled me a lot.
"No reaction, huh? Just as I thought… Look at your state. What have these mind weavers done to you? No problem…"
I swallowed. I glanced at Diana. She couldn't breathe because of the weight on her, and she was scratching the dirt ground with her nails to ease her pain. Even when she tried to scream, her breath was cut off, and she could only spit out some saliva.
The man in front of me pointed at Diana with his hand. "This isn't the problem, is it? Your mind is still in their hands… Don't worry, brother. We will save you from this torment."
"Please… Stop…"
A mocking smile and a snap of a finger… Two mutants went to Diana's right and left. "What do you want?" I asked. "Who are you? Please let them go…"
"I want to save you from this captivity, brother." The two mutants went to Diana's sides and tightly grabbed her arms. As they pulled the woman's arms backward, Diana, with eyes full of blood and tears, looked at me, gritting her teeth. I could swear she was in pain with screams full of help, but… I wanted to lunge forward for a moment, but what stopped me was the gun the man in front of me pointed at my neck. As Diana's arms came off from her joints, and the skin on her arms stretched like chewing gum, Rose was screaming.
"Do something! Mehmet! You son of a b*tch! Stop them!"
"Don't listen to him, Mehmet! Don't let him get into your mind…" The man in front of me put his hand on my shoulder and came to my side. As I watched Diana die in pain, he watched with pleasure with his arm around my shoulder. As blood poured from Diana's shoulders, Diana was trying to endure the greatest pain of her existence. As her face contorted in pain, I could see the blood accumulated between her white teeth flowing from the corners of her lips.
"Diana! Sister! No, don't do it! Please don't!" Rose shouted. But all she could do was shout. As the two mutants carried Diana's severed arms in their arms, Diana got into my mind one last time and said this.
"Don't be sad, Mehmet." Then she fell face down into a pool of blood on the ground and returned to her eternal sleep.
"Ah…" The man said and patted my shoulder. "...Isn't it so good? You must be out of the effect now. Ah… Is that a tear in your eye, brother?"
I put my hand to my eyes and wiped the wetness under my eye. I looked at Rose and then at the man in front of me. I did the only thing I could do at that moment. As I wiped the tear from my eye, I swallowed, put a smile on my face, and extended my hand to the man in front of me. "Ah… Thank God… You really saved me. Thank you for killing that b*tch!"
"You traitor!" Rose shouted. "You fake hero! You great son of a b*tch! You are a disgrace worse than even John Crowrift!"
"Finish her off, too…" The man said, gesturing with the back of his hand.
"Stop!" I said and intervened. My intervention surprised the man. "Don't kill her because I want to deal with her myself. Just… Just shut that idiot's mouth."
"As you wish, brother…"
The mutants came with a metal helmet in their hands and put that metal helmet on Rose's head. Neither could Rose see us nor could we see Rose's face… As Rose was being tied with ropes, the man next to me was looking into my eyes.
"Ah… Look at that. I wasn't expecting to see one of my brothers on this cursed planet. Ha… By the way, I think I forgot to introduce myself…" He put his hand on his chest and said, "My name is Arthur Vale. It's a pleasure to meet you."
"My name is Mehmet."
"Mehmet? A very interesting name for a clone… Not easy to forget."
"I'll make sure you won't forget this name." I would have loved to say that, but I clenched my jaw to keep myself quiet.
Arthur continued to speak. "If Lord John deemed you worthy of this name, there must be a reason. Look at your state, man! My leg is bleeding, maggots are coming out of my body, and many other things… I don't know how you ended up on this planet or in their hands, but they really used you badly. That helmet trick of yours was brilliant. I couldn't hear you, but the visual feed was good. When we connected to the helmet, 210 had come down from the ceiling to save you, but I guess these two women got into your mind and indirectly led both you and 210 astray." He pointed to Jose, who was still short-circuiting and trembling. "I'm sorry… I might have damaged your assistant a little. But my 210 will help you with this." He snapped his finger. "Gourmet… Would you introduce yourself to Mehmet?"
A mutant came from the back. There was a yellow box that had entered the mutant's back. This yellow box resembled Jose's old form. As the yellow box was covered with veins and pieces of flesh, it spoke with the mutant's mouth:
"Hello, Lord Mehmet. If you wish, I can examine 210 for you."
I couldn't speak. I had clenched my jaw so much that I couldn't even speak normally anymore.
"Ah!" Arthur said and put my hand on my shoulder. "Let's host this friend of ours. I'm sure we both have many stories to tell."
As a gigantic flying ship, flapping its fly-like wings, descended, a mutant threw Jose's body onto a handcart. The gigantic three-meter-tall mutant had thrown Rose's body onto its back and was carrying it to the flying ship with one hand. As the steps of the flying ship opened in front of me, I glanced at Diana's body. The back that the mutant had pressed was almost flat, and I could make out her ribs sticking out. Her severed arms were a few steps away, and some of the mutants were coming there to gnaw on her corpse. I wouldn't be able to give her peace even after death. I… I was such a failure of a man. But at that moment, I noticed something that made my hair stand on end. As a mutant took Diana's severed hand into its lap to gnaw on it, I noticed that Diana had clenched her hand into a fist, and had raised her little finger before she died. This… This was the promise I had made, and Diana had died with the hope that that promise would be kept.
And I... I would keep that promise. Even if it cost the last drop of my blood, the final shred of my soul, and the very last piece of my humanity!