Timeless Hero Without a Goal

72nd Tick: Gemini 3

“Go back, I’ve dealt with the criminals.” Angelo said after meeting the dispatched force by Chuck.

“Have you captured them?” Chuck asked.

“Nah, they’re already dead. Got a problem with that?” Angelo said, walking past them. “They weren’t worth keeping alive to begin with.”

The humans there were unable to argue with Angelo or even speak up. They could only take his word and assume the culprits were already dead. They returned to the military area while Angelo walked somewhere else. He was a wandering and free spirit, his actions had nothing off about them. Even still Chuck suspected him. Angelo was one to do everything he wanted, they was no need for him to inform them to return. If he had killed the culprits, he would have left the corpse in the forest until eventually, the group found it. Chuck suspected him for lying and hiding something from them. Chuck went into undercover to figure out what was going, occasionally sending scouts to look for any abnormalities to no avail.

There was a clear reason why he was unable to find the demons, one reason only. Angelo had brought them to an island, without their permission. Normally, anyone would have seen such an act as kidnaping, but for Angelo, such acts were perfectly normal.

He had walked up to her one day. Angelo, in a span of two days, had been vigorously studying the demon language from the book. He tried writing words on the ground, the female demon still wary of him. He wrote down ‘Help you’ and ‘You in danger’.

She seemed to understand, and wrote a reply in his format. ‘Who are you?’.

It took Angelo a minute or two to read it, but he was getting better. He scratched his head and tried spelling his own name out ‘Angelo Ariva’. He then pointed at her question, then at her.

She wrote something on the ground as well. It was an odd name, and Angelo simply decided to call her ‘May’.

Satisfied, she hugged her infants closer. Angelo took a look at the children, small, defenceless. They seemed so fragile, he felt like he needed to protect them. He wrote ‘Can I hold?’.

She gave him a suspicious look before running away again. He sighed and sat down on the ground, reading their conversation again. They were on an island some distance away from the mainland, no one would be able to find them. Angelo returned to the mainland and continued studying the demon language more, hoping to one day speak it. He had never felt anything like he had at that time. He was properly interested and invested, not just passing by as usual. He was putting in time and effort, not just false conviction. Strangest to him, he was excited to converse with the demon, a first for him towards anybody in general.

He spent time alone on the mainland, and spent time visiting May. On his second visit, he tried asking whether he could hold her children again, and unfortunately, she ran away again. The same pattern repeated itself for the consecutive two meetings after. He found it strange how much will and conviction May had, how much she would struggle for survival. No matter how close he got with her, her children were still too important to be entrusted to someone else.

‘Where do you come from?’ Angelo had asked once.

‘Hell’ she had replied.

Angelo read Hell several times just to make sure. Humans always said that He’ll was where all evils gather, but looking at her, she seemed the furthest away from evil. Angelo nodded and started writing something else. ‘How is it there?’.

She thought for a few moments, her children calmly sleeping in her arms. She started writing, she had replied with one word. ‘Alright’.

Angelo found it odd that such a broad and odd question could be answered with one word.

That day, he went back to the human world and walking along the military camp he sometimes hung around. He had gone there for a walk, just to kill some time while thinking. There, he ended up face to face with a certain someone. Angelo faced him and scratched his head, “You’re Chuck, right?”

“My name isn’t Chuck.” He replied. “I’ve said this several times.”

“Well, whatever, I’m going home.” Angelo yawned, walking past him.

“What home?”

Angelo stopped in place and slowly turned, a dangerous look in his eyes. “What are you implying?”

Chuck swallowed his saliva and continued. “I have done some extensive researching the past few days and nights with the intelligence team. We have pieces together the many traces of where you came from. We know, everyone in this military base knows about you now. In a matter of days, your past will be revealed to the rest of the world, and we will see just how free you will be then.”

That was Chuck’s plan, he had found the past of the hero, Angelo. Him and his team were ready to leak the information to the masses, the only way they could actually impact Angelo. If people viewed him poorly, he would be restricted in the places he could visit, he would no longer possess his freedom. There was a cold glare from Angelo, one even Chuck had never seen before. Angelo lifted an arm and grabbed his collar, whispering, “Are you not afraid of death?”

Chuck shivered as Angelo looked above his sunglasses, his red eyes glaring directly into Chuck. Even he knew Angelo was human, one and always human, not a single trace of him was of the demons. But he knew other facts about the hero that no one else knew about.

“You said that everyone here knows, yes?” Angelo whispered, his voice Low and dangerous. “Then that means that I have to get rid of all of you, yes? That is only fair, yes?”

Before Chuck could reply, he died. The next morning, Angelo was found sitting on top of a building, looking down on all. The authorities arrived at the scene to inspect what had truly gone on, but there was no need for explanation. Everywhere around the building was ruined, massive craters, dead bodies and damaged property. Angelo sat on the building by himself, not far away a row of dead bodies, all of them the high ranking officers of the military base. No one dared approached him, no one could. As a last resort, seeing as Angelo could not be captured, the authorities restricted him instead. Angelo allowed them to put a collar on him that would deliver a shock whenever they pushed a trigger. He was surprisingly obedient, staying at the area and serving his time.