Human One

25. Ender?

The dark figure stands in the doorway, and this time I know for sure who it is.

Lager.

Then the figure takes a step into the room, and doubts start to creep into my mind as it starts walking closer. If only I could see the eyes. Are they gold, or orange?

"Is that you, Lager? Or should I say End?"

The figure pauses, and there's silence for a few seconds.

"You told her." A voice rumbles from the darkness, Lager's voice. His statement clears any doubt I had left, and my throat goes dry as the heavy truth finally settles on me.

It all adds up. End is Lager, and Lager is End.

"I only told her the history of Dalton." Adviser Cecil suddenly speaks up, snapping me out of my daze.

I look at the many murals all around, before my gaze finally goes back to the area I had heard Lager's....or End's voice coming from.

"Why didn't you tell me?" I decide to ask first, but then that one question releases the flood of questions I had just waiting to burst out. "This whole time it was you watching me, pretending to be friends? Is End even mute, or is that just a ploy so I wouldn't find out who you really were? What would you get from hiding the fact that you were End?"

I stop myself from saying more, worried my frustration will lead me to make some unpleasant accusations. 

He's silent, and I'm tempted to glance to the side to see Adviser Cecil and his reaction to my embarrassing rant of questions, but at the same time I'm scared to move my eyes away from the darkness where he lurks.

Then there's a sound, and I realize it's footsteps and they start to get slightly louder, meaning he's coming this way. I focus my eyes on where the footfalls are sounding, and soon enough I see two golden disks.

I let out a sigh of relief, seeing that it's Lager in his right mind and not the version of End that's been acting oddly. 

My relief is short-lived though....very short-lived, because the gold orbs flicker momentarily, turning a deep shade of marmalade orange. The next mili-second they're back to gold, and I watch with a small anxiety building up as the next moment they're back to dark orange.

Soon he's at the edge of light that the Adviser Cecil's orb reaches, lurking in the shadows and not fully stepping out, eyes still flickering back and forth like they can't decide what color they want to stay on.

"Stay back, Ashley, he's unstable right now." Adviser Cecil warns, and for once I heed an actual warning, taking a step back and closer to Adviser Cecil.

Wrong move though, cause Lager's eyes flicker to orange and stay orange, and he takes another step into the light.

I inhale sharply, looking at his barely visible torso, which is covered in his usual black tunic, cape hooked onto the clasps on his shoulders, but around the torso swirls a darkness, seeming to attach to him in certain places like a second skin. 

"I don't understand." I mumble lowly to Adviser Cecil. "He was purified or whatever you called it. I saw it myself at Mount Lux, so why is this happening?"

"In case you had severe amnesia in the past few minutes or so, I would like to remind you that you obtained a very serious injury and spilled blood into the earth of Dalton. Therefore Dalton's power has significantly increased along with his control on Lager." Adviser Cecil says very stoically.

I exhale, taking my eyes off Lager to look down at my shoulder, and the bandages that are coated in dried blood. This is all my fault. If only I hadn't followed Zero, or called Lager's name. If only the spear wasn't aimed directly at Lager.