Crack.
“That sound will echo through my skull until the end of my days. Because for as little time as I have spent with Apokalypsis, I can say I’ve grown to view them as friends.”
“And one of them? One of them had their life ended right before my very eyes. Blood and brain matter covering the floor. I wish it had been me, I wish I could have been brutalized in their stead.”
“But I couldn’t.”
“And I lost a friend.”
“All because unlike them, I was able to be patched up. I could be repaired, revived, and we could continue our quest towards our common goal.”
“You’ve never lost a friend, have you, Felix?”
“No, you’ve spent your life up until this point toying with dolls, playing with your precious puppets who were your only friends. I envy you, you know.”
“To have friends of plush and felt rather than flesh and bone.”
“Say a man were to bring scissors to your favorite puppet? To snip his seams and let his innards spill onto the floor? You may cry, you may bellow and sob, but at the end of the day, you could stitch them back together, couldn’t you?”
“Even with a few new scars and some new thread on them, you could still talk to them, hug them, rely on them. You could never even begin to realize what it would be like to lose someone so important to you.”
“Even now, with your new best friend Doom, you likely never feared him losing his life before your very eyes. He’s got a bag of tricks for everything, a way out of any mess.”
“You’ve never lost anyone near and dear to you like I have. First my beloved Colt lost his life saving me, and now a member of Apokalypsis lay dead on the floor.”
“But that’s just war, isn’t it?”
“Lives are lost, blood is shed, and you learn to move on. You can’t save everyone, and try as you might no one makes it out alive.”
“Yet as much as I mourn those who died around me, there’s something about their deaths that strengthens me, Felix. Because I’ve seen the hells of war, felt the pain of loss.”
“Things that you know nothing about, Foley. You’re Friendly for a reason, and it is that naivety that will lead to your desolation at my hands.”
“Because you too are flesh and bone. Unlike your puppets with their easily stitched together bodies, you are as susceptible to pain and destruction as the rest of us.”
“And I’m going to dismantle you piece by piece until you stay down for the three count.”
“Blow by blow, stomp by stomp, I’m going to turn you inside out because I’ve come too far to fail, Felix.”
“All the loss, the blood, the tears? It only bolsters my resolve to push forwards.”
“I’m bringing War to Olympus.”
“And War? War never changes.”