Gift of the Goddess

Chapter 71 - Repent

"No."

I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came out. No? Did Vergil just say no?

"What!? Why the hell not!?" Leo roared. 

I looked over to and saw that he was veggie wrapped in Zack's vines. While managing to still hold onto an entire handful of Zack's hair. I decided to just ignore it and focus back on Vergil. 

His eyes were focused on the ground, and I could see his right arm shaking. 

"I-Its because I don't deserve to, I've done horrible things." He held out his hand and scanned over his palm. "This hand is soaked in so much blood."

"But you already made up for it when you slayed Charizard!" Zack croaked, still in pain from Leo's hair pulling.

"This isn't some stupid game! Those people had lives, they had families!" He moved his hand over his face. "I don't deserve anything but to rot in a cell. I deserve to be tortured. I'm a terrible person."

"How is rotting in a cell gonna help anything?" I asked and moved my hand on his shoulder. "In order to repent, you need to live to make up for your wrongs."

Vergil promptly smacked my hand away. 

"And what would you know about it!? I read your file, I know about your mom. Yours was an accident. My victims begged me to stop, and I still did it anyway. Because I was so worried about myself."

Leo blew flames from his mouth and burned the vines off. Then he finally dropped Zack’s hair. 

"Then what about me?" Leo said as he stomped over to Vergil. "Am I not a living testament to what Stryder says? If I decided to rot in a cell I wouldn't have been able to talk to you, and we wouldn't have defeated father."

Vergil looked away.

"Let me ask you, Leo. Do you know what it's like to have nightmares of things you've done?"

"What?"

"I remember them, I remember each and every person I've killed. I remember their names, and sometimes at night I can even hear them." He grabbed his head and started to chuckle. "You were able to turn off how you felt, I wasn't. I don't understand why you're envious of me. My mind is a living hell…"

"Then let me understand, let me help bear the burden, let me walk beside you. I spent years running away from you, and I won't let you be all alone again! This is a sin we both bear, so we should finally bear it together!"

"You're different from me Leo." Vergil stood up, his blue scales consumed his body and bat-like wings sprouted from his back. "You need to be free."

Then he flapped his wings and took off into the sky. Leo growled and quickly changed himself.

"Torna qui!" He yelled and blasted off after him. 

I looked over to Rushon and Jack, who just watched like we did.

"Should I go after them?" Rushon asked.

"Nah, I don't think there's much you can say here," Jack replied.

Zack whistled. "It’s a problem that they can fly now."

"It's a problem that you can talk, but you don't see me complaining," Jack mumbled.

"Rude." Zack huffed. 

'Not much you can say here’, that reminded me of the night Jack talked to Lux. That was something I couldn't help with. Just like right now, this wasn't something I could help with, but I know someone who can.