Hello hello! After re-reading a lot of posts, I think your "Faith in Humanity" trilogy is still my favorite to this day! Would you consider doing an in-between for the 0.5 and 1? Where Faith actually dies? Maybe the hero doesn't actually think he has the guts to do it until they see the villain with her from and remembers everything he lost and in a brief moment of anger he just decides to follow through? I'm also really in the mood for a tragic death scene with just as much raw emotion as the other parts if possible :)
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Faith in Humanity 0.5
Faith in Humanity - $1
Part 2
(I recommend reading 0.5 first, and the o.g Faith in Humanity straight after for the full context/full scene).
Everything was not okay.
There had been a brief moment, a brief shining moment when the hero thought it might be – when they thought the villain was capable of developing empathy, when they thought perhaps their differences could be resolved in something other than bloodshed.
And then the villain retaliated against the threat. Merciless. Cruel. So outraged than anyone would deign to threaten what was his. He no longer took prisoners, certainly. He killed the hero’s friends outright when he had the chance instead. And…
Well. The hero could imagine what it was. The villain was killing anyone who knew about the girl, woman – Faith. That was her name, wasn’t it? He slaughtered anyone who might even possibly be a threat to her. There seemed to be no stopping it, no mercy, no reason. No computing that the rest of them were only trying to protect themselves and their loved ones too.
Or maybe the villain simply didn’t care. After all, it wasn’t his person on the line.
And the hero…
It was over in a second, when it came down to it.
One second, the hero had felt the raw grief howling through every inch of their bones. One second, they had seen the villain walking with her across their kitchen, smiling and laughing, one arm wrapped around her shoulders. They’d looked so happy together, so unconcerned by any of the pain they had caused. He kissed the top of her head. He turned away, for a moment, reaching to grab glasses from the cabinet, half his body still half craned towards her like a plant seeking sunlight.
The next second, the hero’s power had blasted.
She faltered a step – a small gesture, a stumble, easily dismissed as a crack in the floor or a temporary loss of balance.
The hero’s ears rang, he couldn’t hear a thing. The howling grief had gone completely and utterly silent. Everything he had. He heard nothing. He felt nothing. He finally, for a brief moment, felt merciful nothing.
He watched her stumble, in what felt like slow motion, catching the edge of the kitchen table. Her other hand went to her chest.
He watched the villain turn – at the sound, perhaps, or maybe she’d murmured his name.
The easy smile on the villain’s lips didn’t falter immediately. It sort of froze, with the dawning realisation that something had gone wrong. Very, very, wrong. The colour drained from the villain's face.
The hero watched as the villain’s gaze moved down, from her expression to the hole gone clean through her chest. Perhaps, their eyes met. The hero could only see the broken, helpless horror on the villain’s face. The way that the villain's eyes widened.
She stayed standing for a second and then –
He lunged for her the same as she collapsed, catching her in his arms, lowering her oh so gently to the ground in his arms.
No no no no, Faith, darling, no. Please.
It's okay, she whispered. You're going to be okay.
There was so much blood. It pooled across their perfectly pristine white marble floor.
The hero walked across the garden, through the kitchen door open to let in the sweet evening breeze, the last of the birdsong, because who would get near the villain’s house? Who would dare?
The hero would.
The villain was still looking at her.
She was already dead.
She was dead.
Full sound rushed abruptly back into the hero’s world with nauseating clarity, enough for him to hear the villain’s quietly hyper-ventilating breaths.
“If I was you,” the hero said. “I would have made you see her die slowly. I would have made you struggle to save her, knowing all the while that there was nothing you could do.”
The villain was still looking at her. He didn’t acknowledge the words. He didn’t do anything except stare down, still holding her, on his knees.
“But I’m not you,” the hero said, a crack in their voice.
The villain stopped breathing entirely.
All the hero could hear was his own, frantically beating, heart.
Then the villain finally looked up.
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A/N: And...leading immediately into the original 'Faith in Humanity' scene.