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A grayscale world is an empty world. A grayscale world is one that lacks emotion. A grayscale world has lost all hope in redemption. A grayscale world is pure.
The switch had been flipped. The Batter had completed his task of purifying the world, but he found himself wandering through the empty zones.
His gaze was directed at the white ocean made of plastic. Suddenly a voice from behind caused him to jump.
“Buenos días amigo,” The familiar voice of the usually cheerful of the merchant greeted.
The Batter turned to face the masked figure. He was wearing his cat mask with it’s permanent smile.
“Zacharie,” The Batter murmured in acknowledgment.
“What’s wrong?” Zacharie inquired.
The Batter lifted his bat and rested it against his shoulder. His attention was suddenly drawn to the small amount of skin the showed from under Zacharie’s mask. There were several very faint tear stains.
“I could ask you the same thing,” The Batter responded.
Zacharie was visible surprised, “W-what?”
“You’ve been crying,” The Batter said simply.
Zacharie laughed, “What gives you that idea?”
The Batter leaned forward and carefully pushed up his mask slightly.
Pulling away in an instant, Zacharie exclaimed, “¿¡Qué estás haciendo!? Don’t touch my mask!”
With a grunt of apology, the Batter backed away.
Zacharie adjusted him mask and rubbed his sweater sleeve.
The Batter eyed his hand suspiciously, but dismissed it, “Are you the only one left?”
Zacharie shook his head, “There’s an Elsen left, but I don’t think it’ll last long.”
The Batter faced the ocean once more and Zacharie stepped beside him.
“I’m going to Zone 2,” The merchant began, “Do you want to come?”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. I just can’t help hoping that maybe if I go there enough I’ll find Pablo on the roof of the library.”
“The Judge is gone,” The Batter informed him.
“I’m not stupid,” Zacharie hissed through his mask.
The Batter looked away, took a few steps back, and began walking.
“Where are you going?” Zacharie asked, following him hurriedly.
“Zone 2.”
The merchant faltered, but ran to catch up when the Batter made no attempt to wait for him. Zacharie followed the Batter to the monorail and boarded it with him. They sat in silence until the monorail stopped and the Batter led the way to the cube that transported him to The Nothingness.
“I’ll meet you there,” Zacharie said as the Batter disappeared.
When the Batter reappeared he was in a new Zone. Zacharie stood near the cube and greeted him with a wave of his hand.
The Batter walked onward, Zacharie followed suit. They trekked up the many stairs in the library until finally reaching the ladder to the top.
Just as the Batter expected, there were no pitiful, desperate meows coming from the roof, but he climbed up anyway. When he reached the top he turned around and watched Zacharie clamber to the roof.
Once Zacharie stood up, he took in the area around him. The sky was dull and gray just like all their other surroundings. Zacharie released a sigh.
Out of nowhere a strong gust of wind came from behind. The Batter stood steady, but noticed as the wind caused Zacharie to wobble on the edge.
Before the merchant could fall to his doom, the Batter launched forward and grabbed Zacharie’s forearm. As soon as the Batter made harsh contact with Zacharie’s arm he cried out. The Batter pulled him to safety and watched him slide to the ground gripping his arm.
The Batter stepped towards him and, making no effort to be gentle, yanked up Zacharie’s loose fitting sweater sleeve.
Zacharie pulled back immediately, but he wasn’t fast enough to keep the Batter from seeing the crimson lines dashed across his skin.
The Batter, who’s face was still as emotionless as ever, spoke, “Why?”
The merchant’s eyes refused to meet those of the Batter as he responded, “I’ve lost everything and I suppose I just wanted to feel like the script wasn’t the thing controlling my actions.”
The Batter heard Zacharie’s voice crack, but instead of pointing that out, he sat down beside him.
Zacharie tried to hide his faint sniffling, but failed miserably. He turned away from the Batter and lifted up his mask to wipe his eyes. He pulled his mask back down and lifted his knees to his chest.
Gently the Batter rested his hand on Zacharie’s back as a form of comfort.
Zacharie looked up at the Batter in surprise, a sad smile appeared from behind the mask as he murmured, “Thank you.”
The Batter made a weak attempt at a smile in return, before quickly returning to his emotionless expression.
The pair found themselves staring up at the sky. The Batter closed his eyes as a breeze blew across his pale skin. When he opened his eyes Zacharie was gone. The Batter stood up and climbed down the ladder to find the merchant.
He wandered through the rest of Zone 2 before searching the rest of the zones. The Batter sighed in exasperation, then suddenly remembered the first zone he’d ever been in. Zone 0.
When he appeared in Zone 0, he searched for Zacharie in his usual spot, but the merchant was no where to be found. So he looked inside the small hidden room where he faced Sugar and sure enough, Zacharie was there, cradling the dead, decaying girl.
Zacharie didn’t seem to notice the Batter, so he spoke up, “How did you know her?”
The merchant jumped at the Batter’s monotone voice. “You scared me,” He sighed, trying to calm his rapidly beating heart.
“You’re avoiding the question,” The Batter murmured.
“Am I?” Zacharie released his iconic chuckle before diving into his answer, “Sugar was my closest friend. She was driven insane by the sugar. Pablo and I were forced to keep her isolated for the safety of both her and the rest of the Zones.”
“When I killed her,” The Batter began, causing Zacharie to wince at his blunt wording, “She seemed to have a small grasp of reality, at least, she remembered you.”
The masked man nodded, “Her sanity was off and on, and that was the terrifying part. She could be fine on moment and absolutely mad the next.”
“I can’t be sincere when I say this, but I apologize for killing her. But I had to, she was impure—“
“I know your reasons, don’t apologize if you don’t actually mean it,” Zacharie retorted, a small hint of annoyance in his voice.
“I want to mean it,” The Batter offered.
“You don’t want anything!” Zacharie snapped, “You’re a puppet, Batter, a plaything for some heartless Player with a god complex! You don’t have wants, you don’t have feelings, you don’t even have a real family! It was all part of a script! A code!”
All at once it was like the strings snapped, The Batter glared at Zacharie, grabbing the merchant by the collar, he hauled him up so they were making eye contact.
“You have no idea what you’re talking about or what I went through,” The Batter was near shouting.
Zacharie was still for a moment, after a few beats of silence he burst into laughter.
“What?”
After the fit of laughter, Zacharie caught his breath before responding, “Nothing, nothing, it’s just… after all that, this is when you get control. After everything you did, everything you put me through—“
The Batter dropped Zacharie, he looked down at his hands and clenched them into fists before releasing them. Under the brim of his hat, Zacharie could see the man’s eyes grow wide with disbelief.
“Did you know this would happen?” The Batter looked at Zacharie.
“I didn’t know, but I certainly hoped,” Zacharie shrugged, “figures it would happen after you ‘purified’ everything.”
The Batter huffed and reached for Zacharie’s hand, pulling him up from when he dropped him.
“Thank you, mi amigo,” Zacharie smiled, though The Batter couldn’t see it.
Dusting himself off, Zacharie straightened himself up and placed his hands on his hips, “Well! Looks like we’ll be alone here for a while, so we better start moving past our grudges.”
The Batter nodded.
“You have control, yet you’re still as quiet as ever, hm?” Zacharie observed, “That’s okay, I can work with that.”
Zacharie winked, The Batter barely caught it behind the eyes of his mask. A light flush spread across his cheeks, “What’s that supposed to mean? Zacharie! What do you mean?”
Zacharie had already begun walking off as The Batter shouted after him, he laughed casually, “You’re smart, figure it out.”
Zacharie turned a corner and The Batter followed, but as he turned the same corner the merchant was already gone.
The Batter cursed under his breath. Deciding it would be better to wait instead of searching each zone for him, The Batter was once again left alone to sit and dwell on his newfound emotions and control…
On second thought, maybe finding the merchant wasn’t a bad idea.