"NO!" I screamed with wide eyes and put my hands on my mouth. Daphne 2.0 had just killed herself.

More tears sprang from my eyes and rolled down my face. It reminded me of how lost I had felt whenever Apollo would try to flirt with me those last few days. The moment he had mentioned a brain transplant made me feel like I would rather be dead as well.

Apollo stood there, frozen, unexpressive even after a good whole minute.

Daphne 2.0 had preferred to die rather than be chained to Apollo and be forced to love him according to his insane requirements. Her blood smelt like laurel leaves.

"I've... I've lost her," Apollo said with a detached voice as if he was being unable to process what had just happened. Then, he shouted, eventually losing it: "I'VE LOST HER AGAIN!"

His yelling at that moment was an ode to despair. The gun was left forgotten on the floor, close to his feet. His facial features contorted into a nasty, painful portrait of loss and self-hatred. He knelt right by her side, held her and started to breathe raggedly while staring at her. Each of those breaths felt painful even to me, like getting needles stuck in your heart constantly.

"I know how you feel," I whispered then with sadness. "I've lost many loved ones along the way. Because of you."

"Yes, I know you hate me because you've lost your parents, your brother, some friends and your boss because of me!" He got his gun again and aimed at Sigi. "Now, you've killed my loved one with your stupid ideals! So, I'm gonna take your loved one away from you!"

We gasped. Apollo's anger stemmed from his burning desire to get revenge. It was just another painful example of how things could not change if that frame of mind kept governing our actions.

"Apollo, revenge isn't the answer," I said firmly and as calmly as I could.

"Not so daring are you now, huh?!" he added with slyness. "Aren't you afraid, Daphne?! I'm gonna steal more people you love from you. Don't you hate me for that? Or even better: won't you hate yourself for having pushed me to act this way?!"

"Don't pin this on me," I answered as if I was talking to Agape. Our arguments had that same tendency to spiral into blaming me for things. "If you choose to act like this, it's your choice."

"Sure! Keep lying to yourself!" he replied, yelling with pride and defiance while dark smoke kept invading the hall we were in. "Wouldn't you like a gun right now, huh? Come on, be honest! I know you would choose to kill me now before I can kill your boyfriend! Isn't that what you would want to do now?!

"Oh, but wait! You haven't got any weapon now," he added in a tone of mockery. "Now, that's a shame! I would've loved to see you falling prey to those vengeful feelings you hate so much when all this suffering is way too much to bear!"

"No. I might've lost loved ones over and over, but I won't kill you, not even if I had a weapon with me," I explained. I did have a weapon on me, my Kolibri. But it was concealed in a discreet pocket. However, I wasn't planning on using it. "And I didn't get Daphne 2.0 killed with my ideals. She chose to commit suicide. I would've loved to help her."

"You won't think the same after I kill him!" he screamed back at me with fierceness and shaking due to the tension and nervousness. Seeing that gun trembling at the end of his arm made me extremely nervous as a consequence.

"Tell me something," I went on with a collected tone of voice. "Who's to blame for Valentina's or Daphne 2.0's death but you? Don't you see this is karmic justice? You have been sowing the seeds of suffering and disengagement for decades. Now, it comes back to hit you like a boomerang. If you had really loved Daphne 2.0, my words would've caused no effect on her whatsoever. And if you had loved my grandmother truly, we wouldn't even be here."

"How naïve can you get?!" He chuckled in disbelief. "Do people buy this meek act of yours?! For real?! How dumb are your friends?!" He laughed darkly at me. "You're a lot stupider than I thought! You don't understand anything! You won't ever get it!"

Naïve? Meek? Dumb? Stupid? What kind of qualities were those?!

I was being assertive and defended my beliefs to the best of my ability. Why was such an approach to life considered pejorative whenever people didn't agree with me? Why couldn't he have said so? Just the fact that he disagreed with me. That would've been enough. But no: he had to label my ideals as being naïve, meek, stupid. And call my friends dumb as well.

I couldn't take it anymore. I started to hyperventilate with fury. I suppressed that negative emotion as soon as possible, but I was determined to act upon my beliefs and show him how wrong he was.

I swiftly approached him, covering his field of vision and shielding Sigi from getting potentially shot with my body.

Then, I slapped Apollo so hard that my hand hurt and was left shaking. I didn't even fear getting shot. I even believed that a gunshot would hurt me a lot less than his meanness.

"Daphne!" Sigi yelled with worry.

"NO! YOU DON'T GET IT!" I shouted at Apollo as I imposingly towered over him.

The high level of stress was making my heart hurt, but I chose to ignore it.

"You have witnessed this scene between Sigi, Momo and me," I went on daringly. "Didn't you feel anything at my words? I've freed Sigi from rage, a rage that would've made me dislike him.

"If you murder him now, I won't love you. No other clone you might make from my DNA will either. Not because I might tell them, but because of who and how you are. You might kill me too. Like I care. Creating life isn't a game. You will keep making the same mistake over and over. Forcing people into doing your bidding, no matter how insane your demands are. They will see how shallow, how despicable, how ill you are.

"Clones respect and adore you, but they don't love you. You'll always be alone. You keep looking for love after hurting or killing people. You never look back. You believe yourself to be a god over the rest of the world. Your existence is empty. No justice, no revenge, no cloning can ever fix that. YOU WILL ALWAYS BE ALONE... for the rest of your dear immortal life, Apollo. Is that what you really want?"

A whole minute of silence came and went while he was still kneeling and pondering about what I had just told him.

Eventually, he closed his eyes, the hand which was holding the gun trembled with self-doubt, and he let his arm fall.

"How detached from reality have I been?" His gun fell on the floor with a clatter.

Bitter tears flooded his eyes and stained his cheeks while he held Daphne 2.0 tightly in his arms as if he was regretting everything he had done in his entire life.

I felt unsure about what to do or say then. I could relate to the pain, but not to making such huge mistakes in my life.

The floor beneath our feet trembled, then. A loud echo of rubble falling filled the silence. A large flame surged a few feet behind Apollo, by the end of the hall, where the staircase and the railing were. The flames danced between the bars, deforming them into wicked, melting-metal smiles.

"We should flee. This building could go down any minute!" Sigi exclaimed.

"Okay," I said seriously to Sigi, and then I told Apollo with pity: "Come on. Let's go."

He didn't even look at me. His deep, teary eyes were suddenly focused on his smartphone. He was unlocking it and looking for something with a facial expression that denoted determination and awakening that I had never seen on him.

"What are you doing?" I asked him with a frown. "Calling for help?"

"I'm fixing my mistakes," he whispered back with a creaky voice. He sounded delusional but as if he was willing to let go of all the hatred in his heart once and for all.

"What?" I asked whispering.

"I'm an ill man. I'm gonna cure myself. Now," he added with a tone of voice between hysteria and assertiveness. "I'm shutting down all the cloning processes, as well as all life support in the containers where I've kept the palaeoviruses trapped all this time. You don't have to worry. No more Daphnes will come to life. No more enhanced clones. The viruses I've kept here won't roam the Earth and poison it even further. It's over."

Should I thank him? What does one say on such occasions?

"My personal helicopter is on the heliport on the roof," he added then, not waiting for me to say anything. "I was about to use it to flee, but..."

The floor started to give in, beginning with the staircase. I saw the railing disappear from my field of vision. Then, the first large white tiles on the floor gave way and fell noisily from that seventh floor down below.

They kept falling in a domino effect. It was like a tongue briefly bulging, only to fall and fade out of sight with a loud crash.

Apollo was staring at the downfall of his beloved BioBank, giving his back to me while still kneeling on the floor and holding Daphne 2.0 in his arms.

"WE HAVE TO FLEE! THE BUILDING IS FALLING DOWN!" I urged Apollo while I extended a hand to him.

He simply turned his face to Daphne 2.0's to softly kiss her on the lips and sweetly comb her hair behind her ear.

Then, he looked at me with tenderness, smiled and slowly extended his right hand to take mine. He was accepting my help, I guessed. But before relief could surge through me, he withdrew his hand with a mocking smile on his lips. Next, he combed his amazing blond hair backwards with his trademarked gesture. Yes, that one I used to hate so much, and then, he giggled as if he was completely delirious.

"Thank you," he whispered so softly that I could barely hear him.

That was when the floor beneath him and Daphne 2.0 collapsed. The raging red flames devoured their bodies while Sigi was pulling me away. We ran down the hall to the emergency stairs leading to the heliport shortly after. I still couldn't believe that Apollo had refused my help like that.

We reached the roof, where a helicopter was waiting for us. There was no pilot.

"Do you know how to fly one of these things?" Sigi asked me nervously.

"Of course, not!" I shouted as if I couldn't take any more stress. "I've never even seen one up close!"

Suddenly, I saw partly burnt fragments of Oyster's ad flying away from the façade.

"What do we do?! The building is about to collapse!" Sigi exclaimed.

I assessed our options. On the BioBank's back, the nearest buildings were too far away. I didn't feel confident I could jump that far. The suspension had been designed to help cover vertical distances, not horizontal ones. On the building's left and right, the office buildings were also far and higher. Our best shot seemed to jump down over the façade and land down in Victoria Square.

"Agape made some last-minute tweaks to the exosuit!" I explained in a hurry. "The legs now include the technowolves' suspension. Allegedly, I can jump from high buildings and land safely down below."

"Are you absolutely sure about this?!" he asked as if I was being mental. Well, it wasn't an everyday request to insinuate that we needed to jump from a roof of a high building – and blindly trust a new feature of that gadget.

"We haven't tested it," I told him, regretting my poor choice of words. But it was the truth. "Now it would be a good time for that, actually."

I couldn't help but smile like an idiot.

"You're killing me!" he replied after a hysterical kind of chuckle. "But it's better than nothing! Come on!"

"Let's do this!" I took a deep breath. "Since you're taller than me, let me carry you on my back."

We were about to do it when I froze. I stared deeply into his eyes and said:

"Sigi, before we jump. I love you. I'm proud of what you've done. You've outdone yourself tonight."

"I love you too," he replied with a sweet smile of his that I adored. "You're the greatest. I didn't think Apollo would wish to change. But you managed to do it."

I was smiling at him when he leaned on my face and kissed me on the lips. Despite the current state of affairs, I returned the kiss, though briefly. We had no time to lose.

"Come on. Let's do this," I urged him.

Sigi climbed on my back. I felt his hectic heart beating through his skin and my exosuit.

I took a deep breath to ease some tension. Then, I took a running start before jumping from the roof. Sigi let out a grunt-like sound, while I released a high-pitched shriek. My long, wavy hair floated around us until it cascaded upwards as gravity took its toll on our bodies.

Eight floors felt like nothing while we fell. The wind rushing past us felt exhilarating.

There was a large crowd gathered in front of us.

I saw all the hydrogen tanks being transported away from the site, the emergency services working their arses off, the people they had rescued so far –and those they were still rescuing from the crumbling building–, and our friends in the distance, hiding behind the statue of Victoria and spying on the scene before them while waiting for Sigi and me with a baffled expression on their faces as they saw us freefalling in front of the BioBank's façade.

A loud, soul-shattering crash reverberated in Victoria Square when I safely landed on the asphalt on both my feet. I felt a huge impact on all of my bones and muscles despite the suspension, but I felt whole.

The crowd was staring at Sigi and me with bewilderment. No one dared to move or say a word. That was why the soft exhaling I let go then sounded too loud.

I smiled a bit nervously because we had survived the fall.

Beneath the boots of the exosuit, two impressive craters had been formed. I loved how badass the cracks on the asphalt looked.

"We're... alive," Sigi whispered into my right ear. I giggled with relief.

"Thank you, Agape," I whispered into the sky.

Sigi climbed down from my back as I took a couple of steps forward. My legs felt weird due to the impact, but I could still walk. Those enhanced hydraulic shock absorbers that Agape had taken from that technowolf had done the trick.

We started to briskly walk away from the building because it was obvious it wasn't safe to be near it. I bet both of us looked epic with the fire outlining our running silhouettes in contrast with the darkness of the night.

In front of us, the crowd was still staring at us as if we were either ghosts or gods.

Then, behind Sigi and me, the burning BioBank eventually gave in with a loud series of cracks. I instinctively turned my head to see the scope of the disaster. It was stupid of me, but I wanted to see it.

The fire was mesmerising. The helicopter falling over the debris only made the crisis even more eye-catching. I felt the heat burn my back and pass by me. I turned to go on running away from the BioBank, just like Sigi. However, we didn't run far enough. The expanding air made us fall face down on the ground.

So much for looking epic and cool, by the way.

"Are you okay, Daphne?" Sigi asked me as he helped me stand up a few seconds later. He looked fine.

"Yes, let's... let's go before they can ask us any questions..." I whispered back at him, "or figure out we're rebels."

"Good morning, dear audience," a TV news presenter said on the news the next morning. "An update on the BioBank's incident last night."

All the surviving rebels had come back home that night, in the building in front of Amanita, including Eros. I couldn't bear to leave him alone and wounded in that huge mansion of his.

K8 became a nurse until I told her to take care of herself. She also needed it.

She had extracted the bullets with enviable precision. When she was gone to fix her weirdly bent leg and customise her brand-new faux leather skin, I took her place as a nurse. I spent the night and the early hours of the morning checking on my friends' wounds and giving them painkillers.

My legs still felt a bit wobbly that morning. We were watching the news on TV in the living room while having some breakfast.

"It appears that the rebels saved all of us when they took all those hydrogen tanks out of storage last night," the news presenter said with genuine amazement while I took a sip of my coffee. "If the fire had set them on fire, Thalis would have been wiped from the face of the Earth, together with all cities and towns in a 160 square mile radius."

"Wait," Sigi whispered with puzzlement, "are they saying we're... good?"

We went on listening intently.

"It is still unknown what they were meant to do last night at the BioBank. Some witnesses have shared their stories with us. Apparently, something about poisoning Apollo's DNA base, which was eventually not done. Our correspondent on ground zero has more. Julianne."

"As you can see behind me, there's still a dark cloud over the BioBank, Patricia," the news reporter called Julianne said. "But the fire is completely gone."

The scope of the devastation we had caused was blood-chilling. It was a much more deplorable sight than the result of bombing that same building a few weeks before, by Sigi and Gabi, the afternoon my nanochip was hacked. Not a single wall remained standing.

"You're certainly right," Julianne went on explaining with enthusiasm. "A drastic turn of events took place here last night. Rebels had come here to defy Apollo personally, but... none of the witnesses have been able to clarify what happened, and why that aim changed. During the attack, a fire spread. The hydrogen tanks were transported out of the BioBank in a desperate attempt to save all of us from a gigantic explosion that would've sentenced all of us to certain death.

"Several clone officers who were still conscious after fighting against them, but locked in a nearby storage room, vouch for their generous actions and compassion. They heard them talk and try to put out the fire until it was too wild to handle it themselves. That was when they extracted the tanks and called the emergency services. They could've left them there to die, but they didn't.

"But not only that. Apollo has been retrieved from beneath the rubble only a few minutes ago. And he's alive!"

"What?!" Sigi exclaimed after spitting his coffee due to the startling.

To be honest, all of us were at the edge of our seats.

"Fuck!" Taro exclaimed in a foul mood.

"Wait for it," Sigi replied seriously.

"He is being taken to Mercy Hospital as we speak," Julianne continued. "His whole body is severely burnt. Besides, he is said to have fallen from the seventh floor of the building when it crumbled down. The paramedics aren't sure if he will survive, Patricia. I have briefly interviewed him before they would put him in the ambulance. Apparently, he saw me and the camera and motioned us to come to him. He clearly had something urgent to say.

"You may proceed with the recording, Patricia. This is all for now."

"Oh, my God..." I whispered as I glued my gaze to the TV screen.

Apollo's body was badly burnt. His right hand and arm were extended to the camera and the reporter, but not without pain.

"Oh, dear..." Kono whispered with dread. "Now I can't unsee this."

I agreed. He was in a truly miserable state.

When the reporter put the mike close to his mouth, he said with a gruelling voice that didn't sound his own:

"It's over. I command no more pain. No more discrimination. No more forced transplants. They are good... She is good. She was kind to me. She gave me time to fix my mistakes. Cloning is over. This dystopia is over. Tell her... I... I still love her. Please, forgive me... I..."

The way he was articulating those words sounded odd. I guessed it was due to his severely burnt lips. His throat must have hurt as well.

"Wow," Eros said with hope. "Is he for real?"

"Yes, I think he is," I replied whispering with sadness.

Right after those words had been said, the images showed how the paramedics blocked the reporter's arm and the mike. They swiftly put him into the ambulance, closed the back doors and rode away.

Tears went down my cheeks. One fell into my mug. It was bitterer than the coffee.

Hello, my sugar cubes!

How do you feel about the antagonist surviving?
Only the epilogue and a "thank you" note remain! ;)

XOXO

MS