Board Thread:Off Topic/@comment-35691777-20190128034654/@comment-26173711-20190203080347

As Siva was charging Tobias, the latter pulled out his chain whip and held it out in front of him, stopping Siva's axe. Because the chain was hooked on the base of the axe, Siva was able to simultaneously pull his axe away and retract it, ripping the chain whip out of Tobias' hands.

With a smirk, Tobias put his hands up in a surrendering motion. "Heh. You got me."

Siva stared at Tobias with an angry expression, deciding what to say. After what felt like an eternity, he spoke up.

"How are you alive, and what do you want from me?" Siva asked.

"Do you know what my semblance is?" Tobias answered.

"Oh, your semblance. Of course. But no, I don't know what it is."

"I call it Swan Song. Basically, when my aura reaches low enough, I turn invincible and my abilities increase drastically for eight seconds. My semblance activated before the bullet reached my brain, so yeah."

"What happens after the eight seconds?"

"I collapse."

"...I see. What could you possibly want from me? How did you even know I was here?"

"Well, I just wanted to catch up with you. Is that so bad?"

"Wha-? You serious? After murdering my mother and causing me a lifetime full of hatred, guilt, PTSD, and nightmares, you want to fucking catch up?" Siva said, trying not to raise his voice.

"Basically, yeah."

Siva shook his head and facepalmed.

Siva held his axe, pressed the dust activation button, activating the dust and showing some fire on the edge of the blade.

"Tell me one good reason why I shouldn't just end your life right here." Siva said.

"Because doing so would make you a much bigger target than you already are, Siva." Tobias replied, not missing a beat. "Not to mention my semblance..." He muttered.

"Oh yeah? Target to who?"

"ELOR."

"Please, don't pretend like you care about me."

"I'm not."

"Yeah, I bet."

Tobias put on a serious face.

"Siva, if I didn't care about you-"

Siva interrupted. "You don't. You only don't want me to kill you because you want to continue being ELOR's little pawn, don't you?"

"Listen. I know how much you hate me. Perfectly understandable, anyone in your situation would act the same way. But I say this from pure caring: Do not kill me. You WILL become hunted down, and you WILL put yourself and your entire family in danger."

"Like you care about fami-"

Tobias interrupted. "For fucks sake Siva, I'm trying to warn you. Quit acting pretentious and heed my damn warnings. This isn't for me, this is purely for your own safety, as well as your family's safety."

Siva stared at Tobias, a little less angry. He had a point after all, killing a member of ELOR would certainly put an expensive bounty on his head. He sighed and looked at Tobias.

"Why did you kill my mother?"

Tobias was taken aback by the question. He partly expected Siva to ask that, but he didn't know whether to lie or tell the truth.

"I... It's complicated." He answered.

"Is it, Dad? Is it?" Siva asked back. "Because to me, it seemed like you killed her out of pure anger. You guys always fought. I don't know what about, but over the years the arguments got worse and worse. Eventually you got so angry you shot her."

"Well... Skyler found out I was in ELOR. I was in danger, and-"

"And what? You were selfish and you wanted to save your ass?"

"No. I did it not only for me, but for you and Elise as well." Tobias paused, expecting an answer.

"And?"

"And, I knew the repercussions if Skyler told the authorities. ELOR would execute me, and you, and Elise, and any other family members. So I had a choice: either I kill my wife, or I let my entire family die, along with my life. Essentially the trolley problem."

At this point, Siva's axe wasn't in Tobias' face anymore. He had to process whatever his father just told him.

"Why fake your death, Dad?"

"I didn't want you looking for me. Doing so would, like I said, put you and your family in danger. So I played dead. Siva, I want you to understand that I didn't want to kill her. I truly loved Skyler, and it pains me that I had to kill her. I may be working with an evil, authoritarian system, but I'm not a liar, Siva."

"So Dad, since I basically can't kill you now, and you're working for a company trying to kill me, what should I do?"