The Gray Garden: Game On [eng]

The Ending Lake was quiet as always. No sound, even wind, was hearing. Only silence, heavy and kind of… final.

There, in the shadows, something was hiding. It was there at the very beginning, long before war started. For most of the time invisible, it patiently waited for an opportunity to take an action. It was there as well, and was returning time to time, just in case the other one made a decision.

Fate heard laugh. Sound seemed to come from every direction and was like an echo that resounded only in the mind. It rolled its eyes, then looked up at the gray sky.

"Cut it out. It's not impressed for me from a long time", it said without care.

"Whatever you said."

But it stopped. This time the voice sounded more normal, almost like a human. Fate felt a presence, and it was pretty sure that its companion was standing right behind there, but it didn't care. There wasn't need to fear. They never fought that way.

"And here we are again", noticed Fate, to break the silence. "You never gave up that world, aren't you?"

"So do you", said in reply.

Fate smirked.

"I guess so. For your sake."

"How kind of you."

It pretended not to hear that.

"I'm curious, you know. You tried it one and failed. Aren't you tired?" Fate shrugged. That question didn't need an answer. "However, I'm kinda impressed. I predicted you are going to try to start another war, even if he stopped to listen to you long ago."

"It sounds like the state of this world is normal to you."

"No way." It laughed. "But tempting him started to be boring."

"Said the one who wait for god to be fall."

This time Fate was serious. Pursing its lips, it slowly turned around. The shadow was there – like a mist creature without a certain form.

"No, no… You're wrong", Fate said with calmly voice. "I never want her to fall. It's… just a fate. The wheel of fortune keeps turning and can stop anywhere. Even god can't predict it."

"You and your habit of talking about yourself in the third person..."

"Wrong again."

"So made it clear", it groaned. "You're always against me. And then you're the one who want this world to be doomed as well me. You're bored or what?"

Fate only shocked its head. Any of this wasn't correct. It had more serious reasons, way different from brought pain from the others or destroyed any world just for fun.

Everything depended on fate, and it was fickle. That's it. The god of this world seemed to don't understand that, and that's made Fate pissed off. But it wasn't going to explain this to its companion.

"What are you about to do this time?", asked instead. "You picked someone else for your puppet, aren't you?"

"How did you…?"

"I just know. Get used to it." Fate shrugged. "I'm interested in her as well. She's the nuance."

"She'll become their fall."

"We will see."

It groaned in frustration. What did its plan? It was clear Fate was going to interrupt somehow. It always did.

"Fine. Do whatever you want, I don't care", it said and stepped back. "She'll be mine anyway. Any balance could be easy to interrupt."

That's it. It was certain about that. Even now, it could felt power buried in the soul of its new chosen one. She was dancing around shadows, even she didn't know that yet. That was in her veins. Maybe she just needed… some kind of impulse to understand that.

But Fate didn't look worried, quite the opposite.

"Bring it on. I'll wait", said with a grin.

"You…"

"You know me, Raven. Or maybe I should say…"

"I'm not let you ruined this. Not this time", it interrupted her with anger. "Wanna fight with me? Fine. But I'm not going to play by your rules."

It vanished after said that. Fate sighed and turned back its eye to the sky. The Ending Lake again become deadly quiet, but that was just right. And so it was not known how long this state of affairs would last.

"Well… Like I said, the fate is fickle", it whispered to itself. While thinking about things will come, it slowly turned away. "Game on."