Chapter 28: The End

The boulder flew towards Rem, its weight carrying an incredible amount of force with it. She quickly side stepped out of the way. The boulder crashed through the wall of the clock tower, falling to the trees below.

Rem studied Okabe. He said he used the Authority of Sloth, and it apparently granted him the ability to use the Unseen Hands. Rem had no idea what the Unseen Hands were, but she figured it had something to do with the fact that wOkabe removed a chunk of the floor and threw it without so much as lifting a finger. The name Unseen Hands made her think of what the title entailed, invisible hands. That was definitely going to be a problem.

Subaru screamed and screamed, but tape prevented his voice from reaching anyone's ears. Subaru could only watch as the hands that Okabe produced hung in the air, every single one of them facing Rem, she wasn't regarding them. Subaru panicked as one of the hands reached for her arm, but Rem did not react to it. It was as if she couldn't see them for herself.

Rem never averted her gaze from Okabe. He was an opponent that she would have to study very closely if she even wanted the smallest chance of survival.

Suddenly, something grabbed hold of her right wrist, it squeezed tightly. Rem instantly pulled her arm away, but the grip never left. The Unseen Hand.

Realizing this, Rem frantically tried to pry the invisible hand off her wrist. The grip of the hand proved to be strong as Rem was unable to loosen the grip. She tried to even bite it but nothing affected the arm. In an instant, the arm forcefully jerked Rem to the side. Rem screamed as she flew.

Subaru watched in horror as Rem was thrown across the room. Her body flopped in the air until she hit a solid wall. Her body left a crater from the impact, imprinting her into the stone.

"MMMMMMMAAHAHAHAH WWWWEEEEEEMM!" This was all that came out of Subaru's mouth as he witnessed Rem, the one he loved most, violently thrown into a wall.

Her eyes closed, gravity took over and pulled Rem back to the floor, falling flat on her back.

Okabe, for once, wasn't smiling. He turned to the crying Subaru and observed his sadness.

Okabe.

A familiar voice found its way into Okabe's mind. It was a distant memory that he desperately tried to forget. He shook his head and looked back at Subaru, this time with a smile. "Well, Subaru. Did you enjoy your front row seat?"

Subaru looked at Okabe. He had murder in his eyes and mind. As Subaru tried his hardest to shake his bonds, he yelled at Okabe, "MMMMAAAAAAAHHHHHH! IIEEEE WAH MMMAAAGGHNN!"

"I'll take that as a yes." Okabe moved over to the computer monitor next to the orange portal on his side. He typed away at the keyboard inputting new code for a better software. "There, that should stabilize the connection." The hum of the gateway lowered.

Okabe clapped his hands together, "Well, now we're ready." He walked towards the portal, "I have someone I want you to meet, Subar- OOFFF!" Before he could step through the portal, a large wall of ice hit him on the side, slamming him into the wall. When he got back to his feet, he was holding his hip. "God damn that hurt!

Looking for his attacker, he saw the same blue-haired girl standing where she fell, a glowing, white horn was on her forehead. She reached over to pop in the shoulder that Okabe dislocated. A fiery look was in her eyes.

"I tried Oki, but I couldn't do it knowing that what happened to you could have been avoided by just a few words."

Ken had been outside the clock tower, talking to Oki's grave for the past hour. Talking of simple things and personal thoughts, trying to bring a little of his life back, but Ken knew his life would never be the same without him.

"I'm sorry, Oki. Please forgive me." Ken got up, planning to leave Rem and Oki behind forever.

CRASH!

A thundering sound echoed throughout the forest. It's sudden loudness scared Ken and made him frantically look around to find the source.

BOOOOM!

Ken fell on his butt as a huge rock fell from the sky, destroying a few trees that were only a few dozen feet from Ken. It kicked up dirt everywhere, causing Ken to cover his eyes.

"W-What the hell?!" Ken yelled through his arm as the wave of dirt hit him. When the dirt settled, Ken looked up at where the rock came from. The side of the clock tower had a huge hole in it that was near the top, small pebbles were still falling from it.

Only one thing came to mind, "Rem?" Is she in danger?

During his uncertainty, a female's scream pierced his eardrums. This shook Ken to the bones, "REM!"

Ken ran into the clock tower.

"An oni?! She was an oni?!"

Rem was on her feet, breathing heavily and looking like a bloody warrior who was ready for battle. In a sense, she was.

Okabe continued his remarks, "I did wonder how you easily shrugged off my first attack, but now I see why!" He seemed very interested, "You know I've never seen one in real life! They were supposedly extinct, dead, all of them."

Okabe shook his head while laughing, "Hehehehehe, but no, nononononono no." He looked up at Rem with a smile, "You, Taylor, are the living embodiment of the Oni Clan. I wouldn't be surprised if you were the last one."

Rem looked down for a second, but then shot her gaze back up.

Okabe said excitedly, "You are! You are that last oni! Hahahahahaha." Okabe wiped a tear from his eyes, then looked at Rem with an amused smile, "It'll be a pleasure to kill the very last oni."

Rem pulled out her morningstar, "And it shall be a pleasure for Rem to kill an Archbishop."

Smiling even wider, Okabe said to Subaru, "I really like, Taylor. Too bad she has to die." He started to walk calmly towards Rem.

All the while Okabe and Rem had been interacting, Subaru had been removing the tape from his mouth by moistening his lips with saliva, a trick he learned online. His saliva loosened the sticky substances from the tape and allowed him to bite it. He began chewing the tape so more of it could be pulled into his mouth. After a minute, the whole strip of tape was in his mouth, he spit it out. Just in time to see Okabe start walking towards Rem.

"Stop, Okabe!"

Hearing his name from Subaru, Okabe stopped walking, his unseen hands wriggling around him. He tutted Subaru, "If you stay quiet, I won't put another piece of tape on your mouth."

Subaru ignored him, continuing to yell and try to get out of the chair, "Rem, his Unseen Hands, they're invisible! There are 7 of them, Rem! You can't fight him!' Run!" He desperately attempted to warn Rem, he knew that if she couldn't see her enemy then she didn't stand a chance. There was literally nothing stopping Okabe from grabbing Rem right now and throwing her out the giant hole in the wall, nothing.

"Rem will not leave her Subaru-kun!" After these words, Rem used a great amount of mana to summon enough ice spears to fill up the whole room. Slowly, the spears rotated to all point at Okabe. One shot at Okabe, which he easily swatted out of the sky with an unseen hand. Next came two spears shooting at him, which he also swatted away.

Having had enough, Rem raised her hand and brought it down, palm down, in a fast motion. Her movement caused all the spears to fall to Okabe at the same time from almost every direction.

Using his authority, Okabe combined his hand to form one big hand. He used this to cover his body entirely and block the spears of ice. Each spear shattered to pieces, falling to the floor.

Using this, Rem lifted all the shards of ice and turned them into fine crystals, keeping them stationary in the air. This allowed the Unseen Hands to be seen somewhat, their movements giving away their location through the crystals.

"What is this?!" Okabe used both his Unseen Hands and his real hands to swipe at the crystals, but they moved out of the way of his hands and moved back to their original spot when a disturbance is not present.

Subaru was amazed, it filled him with a sort of pride that Rem was able to beat Okabe's unseen hands in a matter of seconds, with quick thinking. He had an idea to try to give her an even bigger advantage, he called out to Rem, "Hey, Rem!"

Rem gave a serious look to Subaru, "Yes, Subaru-kun?"

Smiling his ass off, Subaru said, "Kick his ass for me."

Rem smiled, now with more confidence since Subaru was with her, and swung her morningstar at Okabe.

He caught it with his Unseen Hands, keeping a tight grip. Rem took in more mana from the air and tugged as hard as she could on the chain.

Still holding onto the morningstar, Okabe went flying towards Rem, who had her fist ready to meet his face. Okabe morphed his hands back into a big fist and used it to counter Rem's punch. She went flying as Okabe landed on his feet, unhurt.

Flying towards the wall, Rem swung her morningstar at it to send up a cloud of debris. Fading into the cloud, she planted her feet onto the wall and bent her knees, extending them to their full extent, Rem went shooting out the cloud again and towards an unsuspecting Okabe. She again pulled the chain to hit Okabe with the metal ball. Okabe only barely had time to block it with his Unseen Hand an inch from his face, this still sent him flying though.

Okabe split up his hand into the original 7 and used them as anchors to stop him from flying any further. One hand went to grab one of her arms, but Rem was able to see it through the crystals and dodge it. This happened multiple times to multiple limbs, but Rem was able to dodge every attempt to grab her.

Okabe grew more frustrated, but tried not to raise his voice, "This is a waste of my time." He pointed at Rem. "You are a pain in my ass." He formed his one huge hand and tried to smash Rem. However, she dashed out of the way and threw the morningstar at Okabe.

Having had about enough of her little toy, Okabe split his hand into 2 and used them to grab the chain of her weapon. He pulled the handle out of Rem's grasp. "Say goodbye." Okabe severed the chain of Rem's morningstar, destroying it. To make matters worse, he removed the chain connected to the iron ball and held the ball in one massive hand.

Okabe raised both his eyebrows at Rem, asking, "Wanna play catch?"

.

.

Subaru could only shake in his chair, trying to wiggle his way out from the tight knots. He knew he wouldn't be much held if he was free, but he still wanted to try. His ankles started to bleed from rubbing up against his bonds for so long and hard. He began hoping Michael would free him, but that thought died quickly when he realized he would need the key card that Okabe most likely had. In his current situation, there was no way he was going to get it.

He had just seen Okabe remove Rem's weapon from her possession, Subaru was starting to give up hope on the situation. However, Okabe was human, he had feelings and memories. His actions have what brought him to this moment, to this timeline where he chooses to be the villain. Subaru felt like the only way to win this was to make him see otherwise.

.

.

Okabe threw the iron ball at Rem, but she easily dodged it. Knowing this, Okabe slammed his hand on the spot where Rem should have ran to. However, Rem was slightly faster than he thought, but she did get caught in the small shockwave, knocking her to her belly.

"NOO!" Subaru cried from the portal, shaking his chair furiously as he watched Okabe use an Unseen Hand lift Rem by her neck.

"Finally!" Okabe used one of his 7 Unseen Hands to grabbed Rem from the floor. Lifting her by the neck, he made sure to grab her by the throat. He slammed her against the wall, making it cave in a little. The crystals that hung around room disappeared.

Hitting the wall made Rem call out in pain as she felt something in her chest snap. The hand around her throat began to tighten, not making it hard for her to breathe, but to just move her head. Rem tried to pry off the invisible fingers from her neck, but couldn't. She extended one hand to shoot Okabe with a spear, but as soon as she did, two more hands came and pinned Rem's, arms outstretched them to the sides so she looked like a 'T'.

Okabe….don't.

The same voice within his distant memories. They were in his head, but the problem was that he was thinking them. No one was talking to him, the painful reminders are what remained of his past self. They reminded him of who he once was before, which he thought of on occasions but tried not to.

Okabe was snapped out of his thoughts when he felt Rem kick an Unseen Hand. He forced himself to smile, "Hehehehe, what's the matter, Taylor?" He squeezed harder, "Feeling out of breath?"

"PUT HER DOWN, OKABE!" From the portal came Subaru's loud voice.

Subaru wasn't sure if a good person was in this Okabe, but had to at least try, try and cut him out of this fake identity of his.

Okabe paid no attention to Subaru as he choked the life out of little Rem. Her face was scrunched up and had a scared expression as she felt her airways closing up. Her kicks began to weaken.

Subaru had to act fast. "PLEASE, HOUOUIN!"

This got Okabe's attention. He turned to look at the helpless Subaru and cried to him, "Hououin is dead!" Rem was still struggling to breathe, "You've never met him because he died a long, lo-ng time ago!" Okabe's voice had broken. Subaru took this to his advantage and continued before Okabe could finish.

"I DON'T BELIEVE YOU! YOU'VE SHOWED ME WHO YOU REALLY ARE! THE CRAZY SCIENTIST WHO WANTS TO HELP HIS FRIENDS AND DO WHATEVER HE CAN TO SAVE THEM!"

Okabe grinded his teeth, "That was all a front! A ruse to keep you away from figuring out my devotion to Envy!" He thought of the first time he met Makise, "Even if I wanted to, I'm in too deep. There's no going back from this!"

"THERE'S ALWAYS A WAY!"

"SHUT UP!" Okabe removed Rem from the wall and released her throat so another hand could grab her the back of her neck. He hung her weak body next to him so Subaru could see it, "I'VE MADE MY CHOICES! THERE'S NO GOING BACK! CAN'T YOU SEE SUBARU! THIS IS IT, YOU LOSE!"

Subaru tried not to show anger in his voice, he wanted to keep a calm composer so Okabe didn't feel his hostility, "SO DO YOU!" He began to loosen the rope around his arms, "DON'T RUN FROM THE FACT THAT SHE'LL DESTROY EVERYTHING YOU AND I HAVE LIVED FOR!"

Okabe had thought of these words before, but never actually spoke his own answer. Saying it out loud wavered his emotions to something different, "THIS WORLD HAS ALREADY TAKEN EVERYTHING FROM ME! IT LEFT ME WITH NOTHING, ENVY GAVE ME PURPOSE! SHE GAVE ME A REASON TO LIVE! I LIVE FOR ENVY! SHE IS MY LOVE!"

Time to drop the bomb, "THEN WHAT DOES MAKISE MEAN TO YOU?! WHO WAS SHE TO YOU BEFORE YOUR WITCH!"

Okabe was frozen for a few seconds before answering, "YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT ME! AFTER I'M DONE WITH REM I'LL TAKE YOU TO THE WITCH!" He threw Rem to the floor, she loudly took air into her lungs and tried to feebly crawl towards Subaru. "THEN SHE'LL HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO LOVE ME!" Again, he grabbed Rem and lifted her by the throat, preventing her from breathing.

"YOU'RE WRONG! SHE DOESN'T LOVE YOU! AND SHE NEVER WILL! OPEN YOUR EYES OKABE, CAN'T YOU SEE SHE ABANDONED YOU?! SHE SENT PEOPLE TO KILL YOU!"

Okabe knew this was true, and it hurt. He helped her so much, but she refused to see his devotion to her, "SHE GAVE ME A SECOND CHANCE!"

"BECAUSE SHE NEEDED YOU! YOU'RE HER LAST CHANCE TO BECOME REBORN! SHE DOESN'T LOVE YOU, SHE'S ONLY USING YOU!"

Okabe again thought of Makise as he said, "S-SHE IS MY LOVE!" He wasn't sure himself who he was referring to.

"SO WAS MAKISE, BUT THE WITCH TOOK HER FROM YOU!" Subaru tried to pull at Okabe's heart, tried to get him to see his mistakes, "THE WITCH MADE HER DEPRESSED, LEADING TO HER SUICIDE! HOW CAN YOU LOVE SOMEONE THAT KILLED THE LOVE OF YOUR LIFE?! HOW, OKABE?!"

Okabe's grip slightly loosened on Rem's neck, he looked at her and said sadly, "I-It wasn't her fault...!" He didn't correct Subaru on Makise being the love of his life because deep down, he knew she was.

Subaru saw Okabe change, but wouldn't stop until Okabe submitted to the truth, "WASN'T HER FAULT!? IT WAS ALL THE WITCH'S FAULT IN THE WORLD! SHE KILLED YOUR FIANCÉ AND ALL YOU CAN DO IS DEFEND HER?!"

Okabe closed his eyes, a single tear fell down. As of now, he was forcing himself to say words, "THE WITCH HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH MAKISE! MAKISE WAS JUST A D-distraction!" His voice broke at the end.

Subaru kept yelling, "FROM WHAT?"

Okabe stuttered "...I.."

"FROM WHAT, OKABE!"

"...I...I DON'T KNOW!"

"YOU HAVE TO SEE…..YOU HAVE TO SEE THAT SHE'S JUST USING YOU TO GET WHAT SHE WANTS! AND WHEN THAT HAPPENS SHE WON'T NEED YOU ANYMORE!

Okabe looked empty, his eyes dim and his face hanging, "That, that's not true."

I love you, Okabe.

"SHE WON'T NEED YOU! YOU'LL JUST BECOME A PAWN ON HER CHESS BOARD, SMALL AND INSIGNIFICANT!"

"IF YOU DO THIS, THERE WILL BE NOTHING LEFT FOR ANYONE! THE WITCH WILL TAKE OVER OUR WORLD TOO! SOMEONE LIKE YOU WOULD JUST BE A CRAZY FANATIC TO HER!"

Despite all the things Subaru said to him, he tried to keep faith in Envy, "You, you speak of lies."

"THEN WHAT HAS SHE DONE FOR YOU?!"

Okabe opened his mouth but soon closed it. Nothing

"KIDNAPPED YOU, CORRUPTED YOU, ABANDONED YOU, TRIED TO KILL YOU, AND HAD YOUR REAL LOVE KILL HERSELF!"

Makise. "You don't know that."

"I know enough to say that you don't really love the witch."

I love Makise. "You have no idea what I feel."

"You're right, I don't, but do you wanna know how I feel? I feel~~~,"

Okabe began to drown out Subaru as the words he spoke dragged him to a moment he spent with Makise. The moment they fell in love.

She had looked so beautiful that day, Okabe couldn't not tell her. Standing in the side of the road, he confessed his love for her. He spilled all his feelings into that one confession he was sure Makise would say yes right away, but she didn't. Her red hair flowed in the slight breeze as he waited for her answer.

She thought about it, weighing the pros and cons of dating Okabe….like a scientist. In the end, she leaned close to him.

"If you really wanna know how I feel….close your eyes."

Her soft lips touched his and the world disappeared as nothing else mattered but her.

Everything that had happened led up to this point, Okabe had to make a decision, commit to the witch, or commit to Makise.

Before he could make a decision, a giant, sharp rod of ice ripped through the left side of his body, puncturing his heart.

In the doorway of the room stood Ken. He was on his hands and knees, a long crack led from him to Okabe. At the end of the crack was the stalagmite that impaled Okabe's heart.

Blood filled Okabe's mouth, his Unseen Hands disappeared. Rem fell to the floor, again gasping for air. She looked up at the coughing scientist. He was looking up at the giant crystal up at the top of the tower.

He coughed blood up, which fell onto his own face. He heard Rem gasping and looked at her, he weakly said, "I'm….I'm sorry."

Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

As a beeping sound came from the gateway, a text box on the computer in the gateway room appeared on screen that no one noticed.

WARNING!

Please shut down to prevent destruction of parent gate.

Hearing the beeping, Okabe reached out with a real hand to move her, his voice quiet as he started to die from blood loss, "Rem….the portal….go through."

Subaru had the same idea, as he finally freed himself from being bound by his arms, he yelled out, "Rem!" The gateway on his side started to spark, the humming was getting faster and louder.

Rem got to her feet and tried to run, but couldn't. A few ribs most likely broke when Okabe slammed her multiple times. Slowly making her way to the portal, she yelled out desperately, "Subaru-kun!"

Subaru began to work on the bonds around his hips, ripping at it the best he could, "Ahhhh grahh!"

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

Subaru worked faster, finally tearing away the rope around his hips, "REM!" He began on the ones around his ankles.

She was so close, "Subaru-kun!"

15 feet.

Subaru freed one ankle, "REM! Please hurry!"

10 feet.

"Subaru-kun!"

5 feet.

"Rem!"

The gateway shut down just as Rem reached the portal wall and Subaru removed his last ankle.

The humming of the gateway died and slowed to a stop. The interior of the gateway was smoking, its insides being melted from overheating.

In both worlds, Rem and Subaru fell to their knees before the gateway.

Subaru put his hands to either side of his head, repeatedly muttering, "No….no..no, no, no, nonononononononono." After a little while of this, he grabbed a hammer nearby and slammed it into the gateway, causing a loud bang. "NO! NO! NONONONONONO!" With each 'no' Subaru delivered a blow to the gateway.

From the elevator came Michael, "Guys!?" "Sorry I'm late I had a-." He heard Subaru yelling, "Subaru?!"

He went to the control room and looked through the little window to look into the gateway room. What he saw was Subaru beating the gateway while screaming his head off.

Michael banged on the door, trying to get Subaru to stop. What the fuck is he doing?!

"Subaru, stop it! Why are you doing that?! Stop!"

Subaru heard his friend, but did nothing as he thought of how his life would be nothing without Rem.

Rem put a hand to her mouth to stifle her cries, but made no attempt to stop the tears from falling to the floor and creating a puddle. She had almost gotten her Subaru back, but it seemed fate wanted to keep them apart.

An unconscious and mana depleted Ken laid at the doorway, but Rem made no attempt to help him yet.

She reached into her pocket and pulled out her metia. With shaky hands, she found the icon and pressed it.

This metia is no longer available or in service.

Rem and Subaru cried in unison.

"It hurts knowing you tried doing your best and it still wasn't good enough."

-Unknown

AN: Thanks to JDUBZ for being my Beta Reader for most of this amazing journey up until now.