Lyrics taken from the rock opera Hunchback, by C. Rainey Lewis
Nothing changes, everything stays the same
Nothing changes, all that once was, remains
Nothing changes, everything stays the same
Xelloss Metallium leaned back in his plush office chair and breathed deeply through his nose, resting one foot against the neatly kept mahogany desk before him. Shelves surrounded him on three sides, filing cabinets filled with dividing folders and precisely arranged records lining the walls. The air smelled of leather, of crisp sheaths of paper and wood finishing, and the floor beneath him was carpeted in a thick, soundproof navy blue. Clean. Professional. That was just the way he liked it. Or rather, that was the way The Boss liked it. He glanced to the adjoining office door, its tinted glass window clearly reading the inhabitant's name in bold, almost offensive print. So different. So changed from what the decor of their stronghold had once been. Wolfpack Island? No, not anymore. Those days were gone.
Nothing changes, everything stays the same
Nothing changes, everyone craves their chains
Nothing changes, everything stays the same
He tugged at the collar of his too-tight designer suit and stared blankly at the computer screen in front of him. The cursor blinked dully at him. On. Off. On. Off. It never stopped. Never changing. What was this new program he was using? Microsoft Office 5.7? 6.9? 7200018652B.1? It didn't matter. The cursor blinked.
And he tugged at his collar again. This was too close, too confined. The bars on the windows and the deadbolt on the door didn't alleviate this feeling. He felt caged. Trapped inside a neverending cycle of humanity.
Humanity. Who would have thought that they'd become the dominant ones? The Mazoku and Ryuzoku had fought so long that they'd annihilated each other.
It's such a comfort for us all to know
That when we die, it's all gonna go
On, just like it's always gone on
Well, not all of them. The few that had survived, namely Xelloss and his mistress, still existed, holed up in the places most obvious, yet least obvious, for evil to be.
Evil? There were humans who put Xelloss to shame with their deeds. The world didn't need Mazoku to make it suffer. When they were gone, humanity compensated for the loss. Sort of. The balance had been forever shattered, and no ostensible Band-Aid could fix it. Humans tended to love evil more than they did good, but they failed to understand the true nature of the substance, preferring more to let it run rampant in a selfish display of weakness. It suited them to be cold and calculating, to ignore emotion and to grasp what they thought was control.
And when we lay our heads down at night
The dreams we dream will fade with the light
Man can stand the known more than he can the Unknown
And which would you prefer to be?
The chaos of imagined reality
Or the everyday horrors you can call all your own?
Juuou-sama had changed. She had changed, and quite frankly Xelloss was finding it difficult to continue serving her. Evil had to change it's face with the times, she'd said. Humans produced enough pain and suffering themselves; the two Mazoku would never go hungry from want of the darker emotions. If they could be called that anymore.
Cold. And calculating. Colder. This wasn't right.
It wasn't practical to go out and randomly destroy, Juuou-sama said. The humans wouldn't know that a Mazoku had done so. They would come up with some fantastic scientific explanation for the phenomenon, told to the public through the indifferent words of some emotionally bankrupt minority newscaster. They didn't believe in Evil. They didn't know what Good was. It was useless to terrorize those who would not understand why they were being punished. Or so his mistress said.
Xelloss pressed the Enter key and watched the computer cursor blink.
It's not enough to want just to change
Only the most immediate pain
True altruism's an incomprehensible code
He missed the hunt. The blood. He missed the intense scent of fear and a prey that actually cared whether it was to live or die.
'Cause nothing changes, everything stays the same
Nothing changes, all that was, will remain
Nothing changes, everything stays the same
Nobody felt anymore. Nobody cared to. It was better to be cold. For them. They had created such a hell for themselves that they would never be able to escape its effects. His mistress...she had been caught up in it herself. And he was not far behind. Ever there, sitting in the pristine environment society demanded, he could feel the claws of an unspeakable depression grabbing wildly at him.
The wolf inside him begged to be let out. Perhaps the humans of this technological mess could survive on mentality alone, but he could not. Cold.
They were all so cold.
So this is what damnation is
The replay of a million years
Of hating, fighting, fearing, lying
Torturing each other, and then
Dying
He was an animal. Unlike these frigid machines, his instincts screamed and his wildness clamored for that which no longer existed. He felt. Perhaps his mistress didn't, but he did. He was Mazoku. And a Mazoku's blood ran hotter than any river of fire, than any lava flow. Thousands of years of stifled passions churned inside of him, boiling just beneath the surface of a seemingly calm exterior.
Blood on his hands. The cries of a million tortured souls echoing in his ears, fueling his desire to kill and take and destroy. Oh, how he missed those days.
But if he had know what would come of all that...
Are we cursed to continue on making the same
Despicable errors again and again
Till nothing of goodness or mercy could ever exist?
Xelloss hadn't really minded the Ryuzoku. They were playthings for him, toys for him to dispose of whenever he so pleased. He missed them. And he hated them for making him miss them. But he missed them all the same. What might have happened if they hadn't all been killed? Where might he be now? Where might the world be now?
So cold. Sometimes he thought it might be better if he just went out and killed them all. Kill them like he killed the Golds. At least that way they couldn't keep up this unbreakable record. They put all Mazoku to shame. And yet Xelloss was glad his way hadn't been like theirs. Cold. He didn't like it. There was something wrong about it.
Juuou-sama said he was behind the times. What was an archaic villain to do in a land where the victims broke all the rules? He hated this new way.
What's worth protecting? Our own worthless hides
As greed, fear and hatred eat us up inside
Can somebody tell me, what have we become?
Xelloss sighed and picked up his coat. It fit badly, too tight in all of the wrong places. It was constricting. He turned off his computer without bothering to shut it down, ignoring the insistent beeping noise his fax machine made as another useless message came through. He wanted to do...something. Something. He couldn't. His orders were to cause suffering in a more subtle manner than previously explored. His hands were tied.
For now. This charade couldn't go on forever. Even a Mazoku loses control every once in a while.
Turning the knob on the expensive office door, he stepped out into the hospital-clean hallway and sighed again before donning his usual impassive and businesslike expression. The door closed behind him, rattling the identification plaque that read, "Xelloss Metallium: Internal Revenue Service."
He turned away and walked aimlessly down the hall.
Nothing changes, everything stays the same
Nothing changes, everyone craves their chains
Nothing changes, everything stays the same.