[87: Purple Rain]
One of the drones started to land. It was shaped like a manta ray, and it didn't have any rotors. The drone landed, and the bay started to open.
Twice and Toga couldn't be more excited.
Once the aircraft opened, they saw her. Eleanor. She was wearing her hero outfit. Well, former hero outfit now. The trench coat, the skirt, the shirt, the cap, the long boots, and the gloves.
"Eleanor! Just in time!" Twice and Toga quickly approached the aircraft. "And how is the thing flying?"
Eleanor quickly got out and approached them as well. She met them just a bit outside of the aircraft. "It uses electrohydrodynamic propulsion systems. It's complicated. Basically, it ionizes the air to generate thrust, but that's a massive oversimplification."
"More of the science mambo-jumbo. I'm glad to be hearing that after what we went through," Toga said. She was finally feeling just how tired she really was. The surge of adrenaline was fading, finally letting her realize what her body felt like.
"Oh man, I feel like I've been dragged through the mud," Twice said.
Eleanor smiled. "You two are okay now. I am here." The smile quickly went away, though, before she got serious. "Did you get the intel?"
"Yeah, we got it! It's right here!" Toga handed the device to Eleanor. Eleanor took it from Toga.
Twice saw Eleanor take the device from Toga. He really wanted to talk about what he saw.
Eleanor looked at it before tucking it into her coat. Eleanor looked at both of them. "Good."
Eleanor went over to Toga's side. She put a hand under her shoulder, helping her stand, and also keeping her in place.
"Thanks, Eleanor," Toga said.
"Yeah, that's one less loose end to worry about," Eleanor said.
"Huh?" Toga was confused.
BANG!
Toga let out a gasp of pain. Her stomach. She felt something in her stomach. Eleanor let Toga go.
Toga fell to the ground. Her vision was going in and out of focus. She looked down. Blood. Blood stained her clothes. She held her hands to her stomach.
"NO!" Twice shouted, stunned at what happened. He froze for a second before he turned to Eleanor, raising his gun, but it was a second too late.
BANG!
A clean shot through his head.
Toga, through her blurry vision, saw Twice fall down. Her entire world seemed to slow down as she saw Twice fall. He was dead.
His body fell and tumbled. It rolled over, letting Toga see the hole in Twice's head.
She was having a harder time breathing, letting out gasps of air as her body struggled.
Eleanor walked over, looking down at her.
Eleanor leaned down, looking Toga in the eyes. She had a neutral expression. No smile, no frown; her eyebrows didn't have a hint of movement. Only her eyes showed something. Her eyes looked over Toga's body. Few blinks.
Eleanor grabbed Twice's leg and Toga's leg. She dragged them to one of the holes made by the explosions. She threw Twice's body in the hole, followed by Toga.
Toga's eyes were long and watery, tears falling in droves.
Eleanor looked down at her.
Toga looked back at her. Finally, Toga smiled. The large smile she used to hide herself from the world, the mask that Eleanor had helped remove.
Drops of water started to fall. Not tears. Rain. It started as a small trickle before it turned into a downpour. Even with the rain, the colors of the purple sunrise could be seen from the break in cloud cover on the horizon.
"I'm sorry it came to this, Toga. Truly," Eleanor said softly.
"My…quirk. I…can't use it," Toga muttered.
Eleanor was calm. "Yeah, I know, Toga."
"W-why?"
"It was in my best interest, Toga. Some things are better off not known."
"I…see. Were you…always going to do this?"
Eleanor was silent. Toga was on the verge of taking it for an answer until Eleanor finally spoke up.
"Toga…you are…someone tragic. But it's not your fault. It never was. You are simply the product of systemic bias and stigma in society and how they perceive quirks. Your quirk was immediately viewed with suspicion. Your fondness for blood made those who were supposed to help you and guide you throw you away. You were told your entire life to repress your feelings, hide your urges, and put on a fake mask to fit the 'normalcy' of this society. However, this society never gave you a healthy outlet, so you had to suppress your true nature for years, creating a psychological pressure cooker that eventually shattered. It's tragic; this labeling creates a self-fulfilling prophecy. Society only sees a bloodthirsty killer, but what you wanted was the freedom to live normally as yourself, without hiding your quirk or apologizing for what you find beautiful."
Eleanor continued.
"You needed someone to take you in for who you were. Someone who would allow you to be yourself and make genuine connections with. Someone who would help and give you a genuine way to express your nature brought by your quirk. What you needed was someone to tell you, 'This is part of you. Let us teach you how to handle it.'"
When Toga heard those last words, her eyes widened. She remembered. She remembered the first time meeting Eleanor. She remembered finally having hope that someone wouldn't treat her as a monster to be eliminated just because of her quirk. She thought she could've made a friend.
And she did.
She did make a friend. Three of them.
Toga's breathing had slowed down considerably at this point. Her body was getting paler. Her blood mixed with the rain.
Toga knew this was it.
"It's…such a shame our friendship had to end." Toga looked at the sunrise.
"I know, Toga. I know," Eleanor said slowly.
Toga took her last breath.
Himiko Toga…was dead.
Eleanor looked down at the bodies. Drones flew in, dropping gasoline on top of the bodies. One of the drones lowered, letting out a small spark, lighting Toga and Twice's corpses on fire.
Eleanor stood there as the bodies burned before turning around and getting back on the mantaray-shaped drone. The bay closed before lifting off and heading back to her base.
⁂
End of Chapter
(A/N: I'm so sorry. I delayed releasing for like a week because even I felt something when writing this. In my mind I was like, "Damn, why did the author have to do this? This sucks." The author can be kind of mean sometimes to characters.
In my defense, I did put what I think was obvious foreshadowing and other hints from all the way back to when they first met. I think there were some chapter titles that were also hints.
Anyway, the next few chapters will transition into the MLA stuff again, but not before Eleanor gets a "tiny little boost." It's not much. Or is it?)