A fanfiction featuring a very angry Flame🔥
This is a translated version of my friend's masterpiece (I did a lot of freestyle out of spite though, sorry about that). The original is in Chinese, and I'm no professional translator, so I apologize for any weird syntax and metaphor.
It's a silly idea, really. Saying that Flame would harm, or even remotely pose a threat to humankind is probably one of the most daring statements throughout vrains' history.
But what if he was there, at the frontline during the war between humans and Ignis, furious and evil; There is a 98% chance that Windy would coexist with humans, not 100%, and I doubt it shall ever reach 100% for any of the Ignis. So what could happen in the 0.001% part of Flame, where he opposed his partner and allies? Why would he do this? Did he get betrayed? Did he lose something precious, a dear friend, a part of his beloved family?
What if, just what if, Ai got destroyed by the humans, and Flame actually snapped.
Flame had to admit, he was not good at making statues.
Maybe he could ask Windy. The playful Wind Ignis was fond of making these delicate data artworks, taking pride in his "Unbeatable Ignis Craft™". But no...he would rather not. Windy would only look down on him in pity, Flame could see it happen even without simulation.
Limbs and body were easy, since he could refer to himself, while the expression was hard. He called up recordings from his memory, again and again, stopped to a freeze-frame, cut out the section containing the facial pattern of that smiling Ignis, zoomed in, zoomed in, zoomed in some more. Every curve and angle was measured to the most precise value, then transferred onto the lump of data clay resting in his hands. The results were never satisfying. Every parameter was configured with perfect accuracy, yet they were merely exquisite imitations at best.
He was splitting hair at this point. The highest goal for such a sculpture is to be lifelike, to match the real thing, which he already achieved. He was just denying it, deep in his subconscious: That the living passed away, that the living was no more.
"Flame, resistance force just appeared in Area 39 of U District. Seems to be an elite force, please exterminate it as soon as possible."
A command from Lightning came through the Ignis' secret channel. He placed the nearly completed statue on his palm, caressing the bright golden eyes lovingly, then gently set it down. This one was statue number 1306, depicting Ai holding Linkuriboh by its tail and making it twirl around, placed next to a sleeping Ai and a pretentious Ai reading a book. There were statues of Ai all over the Dark Realm, Flame had put a lot of effort into them.
As he stood up, a small data storm whipped up around Flame. Data material covered the Ignis' body, morphing and reconstructing itself into the appearance of SOLtiS. Moving around in the network in SOLtiS form was more efficient for the smooth connection with their real-life prosthetic body, so the other four Ignis rarely used their original Ignis shape given by birth now. However, Flame had always insisted that he must change back to his former form whenever he returned to the Cybers.
'Twas sort of his usual love for ceremonies and commemorations, like the way he treated the whole war as a blood sacrifice dedicated to Ai.
He remembered that sunny afternoon. A strong breeze blew through the shore, the sound of tides ebbing and rising just a few feet away, like an impressionistic painting, soothing and pleasant, that Flame even enjoyed it a little. Yusaku Fujiki did not go to school, not caring to take a leave of absence, leaving his ringing phone to Kusanagi - who knew how to make up the most reassuring excuses for his teachers. Instead, Yusaku was delved deep into the networks, exhausting all means to track down the bounty hunters from SOL Tech. Takeru brought him a cup of coffee, suggesting to take a break.
The Flame back then said: "While the search for Ai is the top priority at the moment, proper rest is also necessary."
'How could I be so calm and collected?', Flame later asked himself countless times. He knew full well that SOL Technologies had no good intentions for the Ignis, he knew full well that Ai, fallen to their treacherous trap, was in severe danger; He knew...or did he?
"Ai is the best among us when it comes to tag and hide-and-seek. I'm sure he's also looking for chances to break out right now."
He was always confident about that. There was no crisis Ai could not escape, just like there was no data an Ignis could not restore.
Suddenly, without a cause, his "heart" skipped a painful beat.
It was as if someone just plucked out a piece of his heart alive, leaving a massive black hole in its wake. Flame's vision shifted, pictures, sounds, temperatures...everything warped and distorted as if they were being sucked in. The Ignis panicky grabbed onto the duel disk to get a hold of himself, but the black hole was still there, patiently waiting for the big bang.
A voice rang out, faint, almost inaudible. A bone-chilling ache ran through Flame's entire body, as if he was being dismembered.
"Ai?!" He looked up sharply, but failed to find any source. He did not really hear... He "intuited".
"Flame...what does it mean again...?"
That familiar, annoying yet lively voice of his sibling was now trailing off into a distorted murmur, blown away by the wind, not even leaving an echo.
There was no big bang, but something even worse spilled out of the black hole, a mixture of remorse and misery.
Flame froze in place, his cognition module had never worked this slow.
This sudden, inexplicable sensation was probably their Link Sense. The last time he experienced that feeling was way back during Hanoi's siege of the Cyberse, when he sensed Ai's piercing cries - he later learned that Ai was being gnawed on by the Cracking Dragon. But this time, it was a thousand times more painful.
Fueled by pain and sorrow, a small flame ignited in the depths of the black hole.
He already had the answer, he just refused to acknowledge it before he broke into SOL Tech's secret laboratory and saw the end for himself.
Flame had never contemplated the idea of death for an Ignis. That was until then, until he saw it, that unintelligible mess of trinary code, once called by the name "Ai".
He didn't outright accept it, of course.
Ignis possessed an extremely strong nature to self-repair. Even if 99% of their code deteriorated, as long as 1% of their core algorithm remained intact, they could still perform a regeneration process. Ai had already pulled this off once.
Flame searched desperately through the scattered scraps of data, bit by bit. The further he got, the fainter his hope, the fiercer his hate. Every section was decompiled, he might still be capable of recognizing their original shape: These were the hands, that pile together used to be a torso, the eyes, the shapeshifting function for his predatory form... But nothing could change the fact that all Flame could see were plain characters now.
But it was not over yet, he just needed 1%, a tiny bit, a single line... Finally, at the very center of the data ruins, with great hope, with great despair, he opened up the last fraction of code.
To make it even worse, their decompiler could not afford to fully parse the sophisticated and complex source code, mixing errors and glitches into it; 30% of them were just garbled numbers at this point.
His fire burst out, inflaming sky and earth alike.
What makes you think that Ignis share the same lives as humans?
'Because we are equipped with consciousness, a free will', Flame would have answered.
Then what happens after that will has perished? What would the remains of life look like?
Just some flesh, blood, molecules, atoms, zeroes and ones?
Flame looked up and around, into the boundless black residing in the Dark Realm. He was barely able to illuminate a small circle around himself, leaving everything else in their slumber. Here used to be Ai's realm. Flame could clearly recall the amazement when he first arrived at this place: The seemingly bottomless pit had concealed a breathtaking metropolis in it, Cybers creatures were all over the place living their best lives. Light-affined monsters were floating in the air, their unique shines intersecting and reflecting, mixing up to dreamful hues.
Those lights were dimmed away by now, so the life for Ai.
The empty abyss gazed at him.
Why couldn't he do anything?
Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?
No...he must be wrong. Impotence was only for the cowardly humans, not him. There was something he could yet accomplish, for sure, it had to.
"SOL Tech wants to have a talk with us, right tomorrow."
Lightning walked in when he was creating the first statue of Ai, his overly sensible voice as cold as ever.
"About what? What's here to talk about?" He replied, without ever moving his glance.
"For all the consciousness data you're holding."
Flame remembered. As he rushed into SOL Tech's lab, it all felt like he was just clearing the path, disposing of every obstacle standing in his way of finding Ai. When he came to his senses, he met the astonished, even somewhat frightened eyes of Yusaku and Takeru, realizing a strange weight in his body. Consciousness data filled up his cache storage, the entire staff of the laboratory was lying in a coma.
He said after a short silence, before the two could catch up, and disappeared with those data into Takeru's duel disk.
"What are your next intentions?" Lightning's voice pulled him back to reality.
"I have no use for their consciousness. But neither will I give it back that easily." He said while continuing his handiwork, this time splitting the clay in two, the larger lump shall become Linkuriboh later.
"Do you seek revenge?" Lightning turned up his tone slightly, with a sense of triumph.
"They must pay the price. How dare they turn Ai into...unforgivable!" Flame's eyes widened with anger, he was just calm enough to put his half-finished piece down before clenching his fists.
"How pathetic, Flame. But your poor emotions do have their justification in a certain sense. Humans should be held accountable for what they did to our kind."
A dangerous ambition was lurking behind Lightning's words, but Flame was willing to take the bait.
"If they know any method to recover Ai, I'll do everything to make them hand it over. But if they don't... What should we demand from them anyway?"
"In that case, why not take an eye for an eye?"
Flame looked up for once, staring into Lightning's diamond-shaped eyes. "You're saying..."
"Humans are all similar in nature; They are selfish, profit-seeking, short-sighted, going with the flow. Every human being is a potential enemy of us. What happened in the past can no longer be changed, but we still have the opportunity to carve out a future for the Ignis."
Eventually, Lightning revealed his intent to its fullest.
Not long ago, Flame would have angrily rebuked Lightning for being far too extreme. Now, however, after a brief period of consideration, he once again picked up the statue, shaping two big round eyes for the Dark Ignis, and responded.
On the last night before the peaceful days came to end, Flame returned to Takeru, to bid farewell to his partner.
The teenager already knew what was going on, having a struggle with finding the right words. Just as Flame expected... or rather, he would prefer the silence. Words were the last thing that mattered.
But after having heard him calmly stating his plans, Takeru still could not help but speak up.
"Flame... Are you going to take revenge?"
"If you call that revenge, then so be it."
"You... You once told me to get over the sad past, to look forward, to open up a new future..."
"Takeru, that's because you're human. You have too many limitations, too many things you can't change. So in order to move on, to live a meaningful life, you must learn to live with what cannot be changed, to harness the past rather than to be..."
Flame paused. In the back of his mind, he smiled bitterly.
Homura Takeru, worthy of being his origin, worthy of being chosen by him to be his companion. After just a few months together, the young man already knew how to use Flame's own words against him.
At that moment, Flame was suddenly slightly shaken.
The preaching Flame from the past was sitting on the other side, saying things he knew too well, those right, positive, infallible words.
Should he forgive? Should he forget?
He turned back, in the Dark Realm where no light would ever shine again, tireless flames burned incessantly.
Every life has a death, some weighty like a mountain, some trifling like a feather. But who was there to judge the weight of an Ignis?
Should he forgive, who would be there to riot for Ai's demise?
Should he forget, who would be there to cry for Ai's absence?
"There's no point talking about it. Homura Takeru, please take care of yourself."
With that, he left without looking back, not even bothering to see what kind of look Takeru gave him.
The scheduled and scripted negotiations were archaic and boring. People apologized, people bowed, people shook it off. None of these petty acts could bring a living Ignis back from destructed code.
Lightning was busy making excessive demands that no one could agree to. The human representatives kept shaking their heads, courteous remarks spouting out of their mouths, trying to justify their immature refusal.
Flame was beginning to tire.
Earth was quiet as usual, but his face did look a lot gloomier. Windy had a lot of fun throwing provocative comments across the table, enjoying the moment the humans tore down their friendly facade, laughing at their idiotism.
Aqua still believed in the idea of peace. The fair-minded Water Ignis was always striving for balance and harmony.
"Lightning, your requests are ridiculous."
Lightning smiled without a word, knowing that this small voice shall not affect anything.
"Flame, why are you keeping silent?" She turned her head, looking at Flame.
"I know Ai's decease upsets you, but that lies in the..."
She was too gentle, too unbiased, too sincere, therefore also too ignorant.
Flame jolted to his feet, pouring out a torrent of furious syllables in the Ignis' original language - not unlike the noise of a broken radio in a thunderstorm, or a distorted roar of a wounded beast. Even Earth stood up, shielding Aqua behind him.
After two or three seconds, Flame stopped, the room was filled with silence again. The path of fate was set in stone. Aqua looked away in sorrow, keeping the unbearable "truth" to herself.
"Do you have any means to retrieve Ai?" Flame sat down, turning back to human speech, his tone chilling to the bone.
"We are terribly sorry..."
"Fine." He cut off their attempt to excuse. "You shall pay your blood for it."
Consciousness data of the SOL Tech's researchers slowly emerged from his palm, a dozen tiny pale balls of light floating mid-air, somehow pulsating with their radiance, as if they were alive.
Flame made a small gesture, and they turned to dust before everyone's eyes.
He came to be known as "The Inferno Ignis".
His rules were fairly simple: You pay what it costs. If mankind had made one-sixth of the Cyberse unlivable, they might as well pay for their redemption with one-sixth of their population.
What goes around comes around.
Even Windy, who saw the whole war as a game and took pleasure in the fancy of killing was not as cruel as he.
Drive the crowd into the buildings, seal off all entrances, and set them on fire. A massive army of machinery was under Flame's command, cutting off all hope to live with fire and smoke, growing piles of despair in the isolated rooms. Agonizing screams rang out from every corner, the stench of burned flesh roaming in the air. Sometimes the crumbling constructs would collapse before the flames had burned out, leaving the victims nowhere to run. Sometimes the misery spread from house to house, turning the neighborhood, even an entire town into a sea of flames.
Flame...his very concept became the root of all evil, every person to behold his presence would flee in horror. The Fire Ignis in cold blood was not particularly in the mood for compassion, though - who was there to care about Ai's suffering?
One group of people turned into charcoal, and here came the next; One town was razed to the ground, and here came the next! The flames spread across the map, scorching the earth wherever they touched. The culprit did not ever blink, almost drawing comfort from his achievements. He was not helpless, no; He could destroy the world if he wanted, he was almighty.
There was one exception, when he came face to face with his origin, Homura Takeru.
Whether it was the will of god or Lightning's meticulous scheme was irrelevant. The war would go on, just like this day would come. The young man was already a core member of the human resistance, neither daze nor fear was to be found in his eyes, only the determination to fight to the bitter end.
He did hesitate, right before he stepped forward, but sobered up soon enough.
"Guess whatever I say won't come through this time... So let's just have a proper final match then, Flame."
The war had tempered his will, leading him to grow out of that hapless boy, to become a true warrior.
Flame was indeed delighted to witness, but he also knew before they even started: That this was a duel destined to be fought to their death, that this was a duel destined to end in Takeru's defeat - no one could know Salamangreat better than Flame did after all.
He did not cause Takeru any pain. It was the only duel he had ever fought without turning on Stereoscopic Material Projection, simply betting on their consciousness data. At the end of it, what made up the human named Takeru gathered on his palm. He lit a gentle flame, turning the youngster's unyielding soul into a delicate breeze. To stop the functions of an unconscious body was then solely a part of his daily routine.
Takeru stopped breathing in his arms, his heart lying still, the once boiling blood would eventually cool down to dark, stagnant water. Flame had killed numerous people, yet he did not learn the weight of a human's death until this moment. Takeru's lids were closed, mistakable for a peaceful afternoon nap. The tranquil memories from that distant village flashed up before Flame's eyes, then dissipated into smoke amidst the crackling fires.
That black hole tore up once again. He had fallen deep enough by now, Flame thought, not expecting that the vengeance could drag him down even more. He hold Takeru's body tighter than he thought he would, unable to lift his head, his shoulders shaking.
In order to not reveal any weakness, he removed the ability to "cry" from his expression management. For the first and last time, the Fire Ignis regretted, not being able to shed a single tear over the loss of his origin, his partner...his best friend.
After sending Takeru back home for his burial, Flame gazed upon the endless sea, feeling a sudden sense of relief at the end of his heartbreaking grief.
He was ready to murder his origin who was once so close to his heart. Was there anything such an Ignis could not commit?
Because of that, when he arrived at U39, seeing the Yusaku Fijiki face him alone, he was neither surprised nor sentimental. Sooner or later, he knew, he would put an end to Yusaku's life, just like he did to Takeru Homura.
"Flame, we finally meet. I've been looking for a chance to talk to you..."
There he went again, his stubbornness annoyed Flame the most. What was left here to sit down and talk about? Idealism?
"I have nothing to say to you. We can only stand or fall."
He rudely interrupted, commencing the duel by force.
Yusaku tried, several times even, to speak up during their duel, only to be countered by Flame's fierce and meticulous combos. What would he say? What could he say? Ai was not coming back, and Flame had long gone beyond the point of no return, too.
Besides, it was not like had a heart for Yusaku Fujiki.
Just one last hit to go. Soaked in all the grief and slaughter, his deck and tactics had become more and more brutal and aggressive. His opponent was Playmaker, the leading hope for humanity, defeating him would be a crucial turning point for the eradication of mankind. Flame had simulated countless strategies against him, and all of those were proving to be effective right now.
"At long last, I can finally get this out of my chest, Playmaker...Yusaku Fujiki."
He raised his hand, making his final declaration of attack.
"As the one responsible for Ai's death, your sins shall be judged by me."
The materialized Salamangreat swung its claws and lunged in Yusaku's direction. Decode Talker - Yusaku's most loyal servant from the Cyberse, the very first card he seized from the Data Storm Ai conjured up - scrambled their last strength to stand in front of Yusaku, giving his scarred and bruised body a final moment to brace up. He struggled, uttering his last words in a stressful whisper: "Flame, I have to tell you... That time, the accident, Ai was trying to protect me..."
Flame halted, however, it was too late.
With Decode Talker torn into data fragments, Yusaku fell to the ground, his last breath leaving his lungs.
"Ai, Yusaku Fujiki is dead."
Fire lit up the night sky. The surrounding temperature reached around one hundred thirty degrees Celsius, well enough to keep any human from both approach and escape. There lay the young duelist's body, somehow unlit out of compassion the Fire Ignis felt, his face calm, visibly losing moisture.
Flame stood still, his body encircled by his metaphorical relatives. Yet he felt no heat, yet he saw no light, as if he was in the midst of darkness; Tenderly, he spoke to his lost kin.
"...The war between humans and Ignis will probably be over soon. After that, it will be up to Lightning to decide what is left to do."
Two hundred, three hundred, four hundred degrees Celsius and counting, no organic lifeform was left in Flame's detection area. He shivered, feeling nothing but biting cold.
"...Right before he passed away, he told me the final truth. You were deliberately taking the hit by SOL Tech's hacking program... to protect Playmaker. Since you cannot hear me anyway, I shall not comment on that. But it did remind me of something, when I heard that human call up your name again..."
"You were fighting so hard for the peace between us because you loved Yusaku, weren't you?"
The voice in the speakers trembled as the outlines of roads and buildings began to blur. The human civilization was burning bright, taking everything with it to fall into ashes: The past, the future, some family's happiness, some sinner's suffering, some hope an Ignis gave up their life for - and some 'purpose' an Ignis never let go of.
...Flame, what did you wish to get?
"I see. I think I'm slowly understanding it."
The finest parts began to gradually melt away, affecting the joints of the SOLtiS, actually giving the Ignis a rare experience of unsteadiness on his feet. A message from Lightning arrived, alerting him to wrap up the mission and leave the scene on time, on which Flame disconnected without replying.
"All this time, 'talking like a know-it-all'... 'acting like a know-it-all'... Sorry about that, Ai. But don't you worry, everything's alright now. ...I've got nothing left to say anymore."
"Actually, I do have one more thing. Did you know The Little Match Girl? That one who lit up matches in the cold winter night? In the flame, she was seeing the things she dreamt of so dearly; A warm stove, a holiday feast, a happy family..."
"Quite intriguing, is it not? The fire burns down everything it touches, but it lights up the dark, too. Though either way, there will be nothingness in the end. This mirage standing here right now will also disappear soon enough, I'm sure."
Flame stood still, his silhouette swaying in the flaring crimson curtain. It was almost a flame by itself, a weak candlelight, offering one last dance for its unlit glim.
"How rude for you to forget. It's written Fu-Rei-Mu in Kanji: The unyielding spirit has yet to enter the realm of dreams... But AIs cannot dream."
"Ah... After all of this, it just sounds like a silly joke now."
The Fire Ignis embraced the fire, one indifferent from the other.
The daylight did come in the end. That raging inferno had taken everything away: Life, culture, hatred, pain, crime, regret, sorrow. A sorry sight, really - never will a fire blaze this wild and violent again. Only ashes were left on the ground, whatever you were, whatever I was, there was no difference. All beings were equal.
Every life has a death, some weighty like a mountain, some trifling like a feather. But who was there to judge the weight of an Ignis?
Who could tell what life is, anyway?
The winds swept over the scorched land, taking the answer with them.
