"Lighten up, kid. Look around ya! You have onion rings in your hand and we're in a giant-ass city with so many people that wouldn't even bat two eyelids at us. Just enjoy the moment."

I feel him kill the engine once we landed in an open deserted carpark that was partially covered by big thick trees. As I open the door, I could hear the wind brushing against the branches. It was hot, but was still better than the still muggy air.

Seth led me to a normal park table and benches, not backwards in sitting on top of the table and resting his feet on the seat. He immediately helped himself to the food, pulling everything out and began munching on it all hungrily.

I stare at the fries and paper wrapped cheeseburger. When was the last time I even did this? I think it was when Cody snuck out because Mum refused to even feed us fast-food. That was part of the allure...it was so long ago but now it feels like what I've been doing for the last ten years was the dream...or this was the dream...? It's getting confusing.

I saw Seth watching me while drinking his soda. "Hurry up and eat it before I get it all," he smirks as he pulls down my hoodie, revealing my face which I immediately pull back up. "Don't think too much, kid. Take that from someone who's learnt that the hard way."

I nibble on the thin fries before making my way through the cheeseburger and the addictive greasy taste which I could kind of understand why some people could eat this forever but...it didn't hold much appeal to me. It felt empty.

I look down out in front of me and notice that there was a body of water. But there wasn't any sound, like the water wasn't moving. Looking further along this inlet out towards the distant horizon, I saw that it was the same lake that I've always seen but this time it wasn't putrid or twistedly dark...it just existed, like that giant goddamn tower that still looked massive, even as a "speck" on one side of the sea-like lake.

I looked around everywhere and saw that we were the only ones here. It was isolated and somehow lonely. It felt synthetic, like I was staring at a lie but it was peaceful, quiet and for once, the hatred and heat in the air wasn't as intense. I could almost breathe.

Just then the wind picked up and I could smell the rain coming.

"Feeling any better?" Seth's voice brought my attention back.

I look at him and back out to the lake, "It's nice to be outside," I'll give him that.

Seth chuckles, "That's what I like to hear. That and being told how awesome I am."

"Don't hold your breath."

"Ouch. But seriously though, I understand how you feel, being cooped up. Half of us that are with Siem do."

"And yet I'm met with pitchforks and torches."

"You're an obvious target there, buddy."

Everyone's a critic.

"After everything that's happened to you, tell me I'm wrong. By all accounts you should be a Hexer."

Or dead.

"And hate to break it you but at first glance, you look like a Hexer or a demon."

"It's the nails, isn't it?"

"Add in your background..."

"Yeah, yeah bona fide monster."

"But instead you have all rationality and still have after facing not one -but two- Queens."

I am jumping up and down with joy.

"You even 'cured' Rain."

That is still up for debate. He's still terminally an asshole.

"Tell me that all of this put together doesn't even make you the slightest bit freaked out."

"...The whole world has been freaked out for a decade." I'm sure I ain't that much of a freak-show compared to crystal zombies and flying cars.

"Let me put it this way. We are used to be on the 'inside' of the fence. Safe in the city. Everything 'outside' is outside...and doesn't exist unless you go outside. But you are from the 'outside' and you exist 'inside'."

So the 'out of sight, out of mind' mentality doesn't work so long as I'm around. Fan-fucking-tastic. It's not like I chose to be like this.

We both let the discussion die. But as I took the last bite of the burger, Seth opened his mouth again with, "So, you and X, huh?"

I cough trying to dislodge the half-chewed lettuce and bread from my windpipe, my vision cloudy as tears almost run down my face. "What?"

"...Not exactly blind here. X is not someone who holds any attention with anything on this plane of existence in any normal circumstance. But his fascination with you is something not 'normal' for X."

"...I don't understand it either..." I really don't.

Seth shrugs before grabbing the paper bag, looking for more things to eat, "It's not something to think over, Kae. ...But I'm sort of glad in a way that he has that obsession over you, even if it does go into an almost unhealthy level. I have never seen him like this and it's...comforting to know that the guy can be a little human instead of the hard-wired killing machine that we've seen until now."

"And how long has that been?" I've never really heard anything from X.

Seth contemplated while munching on some bag chips. "...I knew him before Siem, back when we were Subject Ten and Epsilon...But he has been with Siem for about...I dunno...seven years now? He was way more robotic when I first met him about ten years ago though but it's only since you've been here that I've actually witnessed facial expressions."

"What about you?"

"Me? Ahh you mean 'Epsilon'. ...Not much to tell, my program was similar to X's but I was kidnapped off the streets, rather than bred in a lab. They wanted to see what their Child Solider Program would do on children who weren't exposed to Miasma at all during infancy or initial developmental stages. Back then they were desperate for new bioweapons that worked and wouldn't result in monstrosities like Syndrome R but still had the same capabilities and act like a good dog that would bark and bite on command."

I look at him stunned, not fully digesting what he was saying.

"It's ancient history. I was lucky that Ozzy was so adamant on finding me that they didn't get to the stage of actually wiping out what little 'human' that was left in me. I still remembered my name, who Oz was when he found me... I lucked out compared to a lot of other victims."

I was speechless. I knew that he and X were experimented on but to know that it was dark and...horrible, how could I even compare the ten years of complete rejection from this so-called utopia that picked kids up off the street specifically to inject them with shit and make them living weapons? It's sick.

Seth looked out over the water towards the tower, "This island shot up when the tower randomly appeared eleven years ago."

I blink, almost thankful for the change in topic, "We're on an island?"

"Why do you think it's so deserted?"

"No one likes the outdoors?"

He smirks, "You need a flying car to get over here now...I kinda destroyed the bridge a few years ago and no one bothered to fix it. The tower obviously didn't want it fixed," he shrugged, "So it's kinda a hideout."

This guy keeps surprising me, "You what?"

"A lot of anger built up over the years and I snapped one day while hunting a certain group through the forest and flattened them on the bridge...while destroying the bridge accidentally on purpose." He scratches his chin before looking in his jacket for a cigarette, "It's very interesting how a city is shaped based on the tower. Bolin has a very neo-technological feel to it with the congested city vibe."

More like Sauron looking for his ring to me.

"While Bellasera was more gardens and artistic."

"Why is that?"

He shrugs, "Can't answer that for you. All I know is that towers feed the city so I guess the city takes on the tower's preferences."

"You speak as though they are alive."

"Doesn't it feel that way to you?"

They certain feel like...something... "It feels..." my brows lower in concentration, "Like...the flying car or the Kite...but it's oppressive and hot, like smothered in a blanked of humid pressurised air. But I didn't get that feeling in the car. It feels alive but not so...resentful."

"You're about as descriptive as X, though less cryptic," He takes a breath from his smoke that I don't even remember him lighting before dispelling a cloud into the air.

"Have you even gone inside of one?"

He shakes his head, "That is the biggest mystery of the world. Well that and giant tears in the sky that calls down monsters and shit."