We call this place No Man’s Land. El Mariachi Muerte stands alone, guitar in hand, at the place where it all began.
“Oh, mi amore…”
He’s been here many times, lamenting. But today, there’s a certain resolve in his eyes. He begins to strum.
🎵 You always hurt the one you love
The one you shouldn’t hurt at all 🎵
“I’ve sat at this door for months, questioning the choice I made. Wondering if there was another way.”
As he plays, the music in the air shimmers, forming the image of two flower beds.
“Two garden beds are linked by an irrigation system. One holds five rare roses. The other holds one—a rose so sweet and unique, it outshines them all. A deadly chemical is about to flow, set to kill the single rose.”
He pauses.
“But there’s a valve. Turn it, and the chemical destroys the five roses instead, sparing the one.”
“Who would save a single rose at the cost of many? Even if it was the sweetest in Arcadia?”
“I faced this dilemma. I made my choice.”
“I saved the rose, and have been saving you ever since.”
🎵You always take the sweetest rose
And crush it till the petals fall 🎵
“Five roses perished to save the sweetest rose. Five rare blooms of Arcadian Elders: Helios, Drewitt, Vision, Vida, Grimskull.
“I saved the one rose—you. I did what I had to do. What he forced me to do… perro. But I did not kill them. I made a choice.”
“For us.”
He kneels, running his fingers over the petals of the single rose.
“Arcadian history is built on impossible choices. Uprisings, coups, cover-ups… Impossible choices forced upon people in order to lose, no matter the path.”
“Zeus ensured this. Every decision leads to pain. We focus so much on those that we have lost that we forget what they died for. Everything is designed to protect what’s behind that door. And we alone know the truth, mi amore.”
“He wants us to die for what we know. But I have my own truth.”
He looks up, his voice firm.
“I chose you over them.”
🎵If I broke your heart last night
It’s because I love you most of all 🎵
“I chose to make you whole again after they ruined you. Opening that door brought us here, to this cruel stage where love demands such unspeakable acts. But it also brought your soul back together.”
He rises, determination in his gaze.
“I would do it all again. To save the sweetest rose of all…”
“To save Arcadia.”
“Love always brings pain. That’s what a full heart feels like. Everything we’ve ever known, everyone we’ve ever loved, lies within Arcadia, Gemini. Behind that door is nothing but the destruction of the only rose we’ve ever smelled.”
“To save the rose, others must suffer. That’s how it was always designed.”
He steps closer, eyes fixed on the door.
“Will you help me save this sweet rose, mi amore? Or become another impossible choice I must make to stop it from wilting?”