"Did you kill him?" You appear behind the thirty-five year old Segment one day, tone oddly serious and firm despite the slight tremble in your voice. Omega studies you for a moment before one of his usual smiles curls on his face, as he turns to give you his attention.
"Well, you're going to need to be a bit more specific than that, darling. Who exactly do you believe met their end by my hands?"
"Zandik. The original Zandik, Omega." Your gaze is hard and cold, and yet the Segment just shakes his head and lets out a sigh.
"As I said before, the original 'me' died of-"
"You said that Zandik died by himself. Natural causes. Old age. I believed you. I had no reason not to, and your reasoning was sound, as disheartening as it was," you bitterly finished the sentence. In the beginning, when you had finally woken up from centuries-long rest, it was hard to accept that your Zandik, the original, had long since died. However, you had at least had some peace with the Segments he had left behind. They had treated you with care and respect. You could sense a bit of Zandik within each of them, and you grew to love them. But now...
"You didn't say that you watched him plead for help. You didn't say you could have saved him. You didn't say that you... watched him die."
"And how exactly did you come to this conclusion?" The Segment's hands are calmly folded behind his back as he observes you.
"I saw it, Omega." At that statement, the Segment's smile slightly fell, and it seemed like he was starting to understand what you were getting at. It appeared you had pried into something that was never meant for your eyes. "I saw what you did to Zandik."
"... Then tell me, what exactly did I do?" But Omega seems almost undisturbed by your response, which only makes you ball your hands up tighter.
"You recorded what you did, no, what all of you did. Both on paper and... visually." Your throat runs dry at the memory of the dissection, which you could hardly read and watch a few seconds of before turning away. To see your darling Zandik suffer such a fate... Your time with him may have been cut short, but there was nothing else you loved more than the boy you met in the Akademiya. "... Why... Why would you do that? Why would you lie to me? And- And how many other times have you lied to me?"
And yet the scholar only lets out another sigh as he abandons his work in favor of pacing toward you.
"The original Zandik was already near the end of his life. It was only thanks to the elixir that he managed to surpass the average life expectancy of a human." The click of his heels as Omega strolled toward you made your heart race. "He would have died sooner or later, with or without any intervention. So, there was little harm in speeding things up a bit." Before you could counter, he spoke again.
"You've long known of our nature, of the experiments. Surely you aren't too surprised we took the opportunity to dissect ourselves." But you were. Too much had happened while you were away. Maybe if you were with Zandik, things could have turned out differently, but you weren't. The selfishness and hatred had already taken root and could only dissipate with some drastic measure, like a great tree burning to the ground with the mightiest of fires.
"And as for the last question... I anticipated a reaction of this nature. I knew it wouldn't bode well with your condition. However, do rest assured that I have been truthful in many other matters." At last, Omega stood in front of you, looking at you with a smile that still carried fondness for you. He was selfish enough to think that he was protecting you by hiding the truth.
"Regardless, the outcome would have been the same. The original 'me' would not have survived to the present day to see you again. Do the details truly matter? What matters is that you now have-" He reached to caress your cheek, when-
Before Omega could finish the sentence, a resounding slap echoed in the room, with the clinking of his mask dropping on the floor.
"If you truly think that the details wouldn't matter to me, then you do not know as much about me as you think... Dottore." For once, the Segment seemed to be stunned into silence.
A part of you knew that the attention Omega gave you was real. You knew his affection was real, that he desired to help you break free of fate, too. But yet, in light of this revelation, it felt like all of that had shattered into pieces.
"You forget one thing. The one I first fell in love with was Zandik. The one who would bare his heart to me. You might call yourself Zandik, but you're not him... And you're certainly not mine. You are just... Dottore." The Segment remained quiet as he gazed at you. There was no fear in your eyes. Just anger, sadness, and... pity. Pity for a man who could never make peace with who he was.
As you left, you found solace in the fact that one day, you'd see your Zandik again.
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