11:59 PM.

...

12:00 AM.

A lightness came upon Drade. It was as though his body had lost all weight, yet he still felt grounded. It was a pleasant, calming feeling.

Yet he clutched at his chest as the feeling poured through his body like cold blood. He couldn’t see; everything was dark. So, so dark.

He tried to move, he tried to look elsewhere, to pay attention to something else, to deflect the pain and fear he felt growing in his seldom-shaken mind. He couldn’t. He couldn’t move, couldn’t fight, couldn’t even control his own mind. He could only think about how horribly calming the feeling of lightness was.

The feeling was calm. So calm. His whole being revolted at it, at that alien feeling.

That feeling of finality.

Drade opened his eyes, the descriptionless nothing around him fading into a bright, untarnished white.

He raised his hand. He was alive. Or it at least seemed that way. He was inside what almost looked like a waiting room. It was small, with two couches surrounding a glass table. One couch was white. The other was black.

There were two doors. One appeared real at first, but after some observation, was, in fact, painted onto the wall. It was a black double-door gilded with gold and an illustration of what looked like a sun. The other was a stark white similar to the walls and unlike the other, was quite real. It was cracked open, as though someone...something had stepped through it at some point.

Drade felt neither compelled nor repelled by either door. In fact, as his eyes passed between them, he felt a kinship with both doors.

“Hi.”

Slowly, he turned his head to the voice.

It took the shape of Drade but was completely monocolored, white. Their features were completely indistinguishable except for outlines that only existed in concept, drawn in a color which neither existed nor was a color.

Drade opened his mouth, but his voice couldn’t come out immediately. He felt stunned, unable to move or act except through lethargic, calm movements. “What are you?”

“I am Law.” It then walked to the white couch and sat. Drade walked to the black and sat opposite of them.

“Where is Luuko?”

“She is here with us. In spirit.”

“In spirit? What does that mean?”

“Ask a different question,” they responded, their tone and expressions cryptic.

“Is she safe?”

“That is subjective. Alike you, her theory will soon end.”

“What does that mean?”

“Life. Her life will soon end.”

Drade rubbed his forehead with the palm of his hand. “I think that doesn’t count as safe.”

“Is a person safe if they are dead?” The being retorted calmly.

“I...uhh...” Drade couldn’t find an answer.

“Death defies all logic. Or, more accurately, logic defies all death.”

“Okay...” he shook his head. “You could do with speaking more like a sane person.”

Law lowered an eyebrow. “I had hoped you would understand my rhetoric.”

“Me?” Drade tilted his head. “I don’t do well with complicated topics like that on the fly.”

“I see. Then I will lower my lexile for you.” The being cleared its throat. “You are in the realm between, as is Luuko. I am seeing to you before you become dead.”

“That’s awfully nice of you.”

“It is,” it said matter-of-factly. “Sooner or later, I will open The Gates of Law and allow you to pass on. Then you will be dead.”

“Okay...so, could you help me?”

“Help you with what, gr-” Suddenly, its voice cut out. “Drade.”

Drade shrugged it off and then said, “I have Chaos inside of me. That means that I can survive this, right?”

“Your soul is tearing at the seams. Using it that way would make you even more dead.”

Drade slowly blinked. “Even more dead? How does that even work?”

“The distinction is indeed pointless, I apologize. Should you choose to use yo-” Once more, as the being’s words almost seemed to have a distinguishable tone, they defaulted back to a monotone. “...your soul, you will only die.”

Drade frowned. “Then is there any way I could use it to survive?”

“It would otherwise be possible to survive using Chaos,” Law explained. “Though only in this particular situation.”

“This...’particular situation’?”

“The effect which deemed you ‘dead’ did not kill you. As such, you can say that it did not and choose not to be dead.”

Drade raised his head to the sky, his eyes briefly growing unfocused before he looked back down. “I don’t get it at all,” he said with exasperation.

“There is a difference between dying and becoming dead. One implies that you actively undertook the process of death, and the other implies that you simply were alive and then weren’t. Although they overlap, the difference between the two is highly relevant in this situation. Were you, let’s say, stabbed, you would be unable to revive because you underwent a registered action that took place at a point in time and underwent a cause-and-effect relationship that resulted in you being dead. In the other, you became dead. There was no cause-and-effect relationship nor registered action, and thus, you can, by law of Chaos, veto it, as either interpretation of reality is equally valid.”

Drade’s eyes wandered, his expression blank with confusion. Slowly, he moved his gaze back to Law. “So...if my interpretation is only equally valid...”

“The interpretation which sacrifices more becomes truth,” Law said.

“Hmm.”

Suddenly, something shifted.

Drade’s eyes moved left, and sitting there was Luuko, who locked eyes with him.

He raised a hand in greeting. “Hey.”

She nodded. “Hi, Drade.”

“What happened to you here?” He asked.

“Umm...this guy asked me to sit down, then confused me a bunch with weird cryptic answers,” she said with a nervous chuckle. “I, uhh...I don’t know what’s going to happen.”

“Neither do I,” Drade agreed, his eyes narrowing with worry.

“You...” Law began. “...will become dead.” It sat up, and Drade and Luuko suddenly stood as though at attention, then began walking with it, not even noticing that they were until they each stood before the white double doors, which had shut closed at some point.

When she finally came to her senses, Luuko cringed, holding back tears as she blindly grabbed for Drade’s hand, the door filling her with abject horror. “Drade, I-I’m sorry.”

“Sorry for what?” he slowly said, his voice low with melancholy.

“I-I made so many mistakes. I never helped you, not once. And I...I don’t matter. I’m not part of your story, I’m just...just someone. All I ever did was cling to you,” she shook her head, her head falling. “I just wanted to be like you, like...like someone who did matter, but all I did was get in your way. I never improved, I just gawked and laughed, and I had the audacity to yawn when I had the chance to think, to do anything but just be extra. I...am just sorry I couldn’t be as good a friend to you as you were to me.”

“Uhh...” Drade idly mumbled. “Was I really ever that good a friend?”

“Of course you were.” She shook her head. “You’re so patient, and you’re really helpful, and you always listen, and...you’re just a lot better than me.”

“I mean, if you say so, I guess,” he said uncertainly. “Didn’t we already have this conversation?”

Luuko leveled an annoyed gaze at him. “What do you mean? We’re about to die, I’m just telling you my feelings so...so at least I’ve acknowledged how stupid I am before I do!”

Drade looked back at the door. “I mean...it’s my fault things turned out this way for you. You wouldn’t be dead if we had never met.”

“I wouldn’t be dead because my dumb ass wouldn’t have gotten us both killed!”

He clicked his tongue. “Did you kill me? I can’t really trace any of it back to one specific event. Technically, we wouldn’t be dead if you hadn’t shot Kai’Vra, but that’s neither here nor there because we did get out, and that did save that one guy by proxy, but at the same time, I had every opportunity to avoid getting into danger, and I didn’t take them.”

“This is dumb...” Luuko muttered. “I’m about to die, and I’m arguing about stupid shit like this. Does any of it even matter?”

“I mean, probably not. Death itself kinda just said to me, ‘yeah, fam, u gonna die cuz you ain’t got no soul energy.”

She sighed. “Why am I so calm, anyway?” she said before letting out a chuckle beneath her gritted teeth. “I’m about to die.”

“Death...” Drade began, “Is a lot less scary when you know you’re going to die.”

Suddenly, the doors clicked open, and Law stepped aside.

“Goodbye,” it said.

Drade and Luuko’s feet were pulled off the ground, and from the bottom-up they began to be dragged toward the door by an unrelenting force. They skidded across the ground as the doors opened to their full extent.

Their legs passed into the nothingness beyond the door; something beyond sense or logic.

They grabbed onto the end of the door as they slid, holding on with all their might. Slowly, the doors closed, then as their angle began to shift, they began to close faster and faster until, Drade and Luuko’s bodies had been consumed, leaving just what lay above their shoulders.

Then, time seemed to stop. A chilling silence overwhelmed the room as Law strolled to the remaining crack in the door.

And he said two words.

Time resumed, and their heads fell into nothingness, leaving only their outstretched hands to inevitably be consumed.

Drade’s hand moved, reaching for another.

Gripped tightly, the words which were that of life and death run out to him.

REJECT REALITY

The Gates of Law clicked as all light vanished between its cracks, leaving nothing remaining behind it.

Law frowned as the end arrived. "So you failed, grandson. And here I was curious to know what would happen." It turned toward the black door painted upon the stark white wall. "I suppose all things lose meaning as time moves." With a dejected expression, Law opened the gates once more and stepped into the nothingness.