Chung: Tactical Trooper

Eve: Code Battle Seraph

Rena: Wind Sneaker

Aisha: Elemental Master

Chapter 1

~ Ephemeral Time ~

Eve walked into the classroom, her long silver locks of luscious hair flowing out like a river behind her. Her porcelain skin was struck upon by a stray ray of sunlight as she presented herself up in front, her back to the electronic board.

"Introduce yourself," the teacher called out to the figure.

"Eve," she said gently, her voice smaller than she had expected. Slightly surprised at herself, she said louder, "Eve Alteria. I am the daughter of a CEO that owns a rich company by the name of Cyborg Crown, or C.C. My hobbies are reading, taking notes, observing upon questionable contact, and completing paperwork. I do not spend my time frolicking out in the grass fields, nor do I sit idly and waste it by playing such video games on the interwebs. I will do my best to help anyone within this classroom, and I hope that all of you will accept me to your best extents. Thank you." Without even the usual bow of a student, she strode with an air of calm, rightness, and purpose back to her assigned seat at the middle of the classroom.

She didn't take interest in the rest of the introductions; hers was finished, therefore the knowledge of other classmates' names was not required. Her machinery whirred silently within her mechanical brain, cranking gears as she attempted to get used to her new functions. The effectiveness and quietness of her circuitry was why she had gotten admitted into the school in the first place. Eve Alteria looked human, acted passable enough for human, and functioned as properly as one. No one would suspect that this fragile vessel was full of metal and crackling wires.

The days were relatively fast for the girl as she gained new knowledge everyday. School was an entertaining thing to attend to; in fact, it was now listed as one of her top priorities. With the limited amount of information uploaded into her brain, she yearned for more. Therefore, attending to school let her desire be fed with satisfaction.

Her ability to cope with huge amounts of new information intake was one of the biggest reasons why she was succeeding as a prodigy in class. Throughout the whole school, the silent girl was infamous for her smarts, fragile appearance, and alluring amber eyes. But she had dismissed this all; as long as she was able to continue intaking data, then nothing else mattered.

She was sitting alone in one of the tables that everyone avoided, unable to feel the hunger that everyone else was complaining about when someone moved towards her general direction. Her sharp eyes instantly snapped up; most humans that approached her immediately shrunk back once they saw the cold hardness within those innocent-looking depths.

"Hello, Eve!" The boy waved happily at her, even though noticing the uncomfortable stare. He returned it back with his own cerulean gaze, not even flinching. Eve's observation instincts kicked in at that; was this human indifferent to such tactics? She would have to search more upon this later, perhaps ask some questions. The inevitable gnaw of wanting more data bit at her, but she managed to stay silent and continue staring at him.

"Hmm...why is it that you don't eat at lunch everyday? Are you not hungry?" he asked, appearing slightly worried at her lack of eating. Who was this boy? Did he worry often about others?

"Yes," she replied simply, still keeping that stare up. He was not glancing away either; they just looked at each other for an eternity, golden reflecting into ocean blue.

"You're very cute," he suddenly remarked, reaching out a small hand to poke her soft cheek. Astonished at his sudden action, she raised her own and slapped his away.

"Do...not touch me in such a way," she said. Her machinery stopped clicking as all of her body's functions paused for a brief moment. Only the feeling that could be only classified as "confusion" was unfurling in her chest. Over the area where her heart was supposed to be, but was not. Her words finally regained her senses as she inquired, "May I have your name?"

He blinked, as if he forgot to introduce himself. "Oh, haha!" Rubbing the back of his blond head with a hand, he replied, "Chung! My name's Chung Seiker. But, uhm..." He hesitated, then said, "I'm in your class."

She raised an eyebrow. "Please explain further about the significance of your presence within my class."

He burst out in a light laugh. "You're supposed to know my name?"

Her eyebrows knit in puzzlement. "What is the significance in that as well?" she questioned.

"You're so funny, Eve," Chung said instead of answering. His laughs wouldn't stop; instead, they were being linked together, like a chain reaction that had been triggered. After a while, he clutched his stomach and bent over in quiet chuckles.

"What? What is so hilarious about this?" Her bewilderment grew even more as she began to feel her body shake. Her wires jostled as she felt something rise inside of her chest.

"S-Smile a b-bit, Eve!" Chung managed to get out, despite trying to live through the laugh attack.

A gentle giggle escaped out of her mouth, even though she was still being assaulted by bafflement. "E-Explain this, Chung Seiker!" she demanded as the giggles escaped one after another.

"Y-You're having a laugh attack," he said, breathing heavily from his own. "Oh Denif, that was so contagious."

"What are you doing to me?" she exclaimed, unable to control her machinery. Were her systems going haywire? Did an electric nerve gain an outside virus?

"Just calm down," he coaxed, wiping a bit at the corners of his eyes. "Ah, you look so different when you seem like this."

She stabilized her breathing systems, scanning a quick search for any internal damage. The search engine came up with none and zoomed out of sight. "That was an interesting experience. Do you have an idea of what triggers it?" She reached out a hand to slide the cyan panel out, placing her pale fingers over the keyboard. The keys lit up in an ice blue each time she pressed on them. Typing in her newly gained information, she turned to the boy. "Chung?"

His eyes were somewhere else; following them with her own, she saw them locked on a poster with large words of black and white saying...

"'Winter Ball on December twenty-third?'" Her words caught him by obvious surprise; he jerked in his seat next to hers and gave her a sheepish smile. Only then did she see the brown tips of his hair jutting out amongst the dusty golden strands.

"Ah, yeah... It's an event held every year in December, and so far, each year I've gone without a partner."

"A partner?" she echoed. "What is that? A person of the opposite sex to attend with you?"

"Eh..." She noticed his eyes flickering over towards her. "I guess so. Your sense of the world is kind of interesting," he added. "But a partner is supposed to be more of a precious person. Maybe to the extent of, erm..."

"Hm... To the extent of calling it love?" she mused absent-mindedly. "'In tennis, squash, and some other sports: zero score; nil.'"

"Ah, Eve, that's the wrong term of love."

"Then... 'A deep romantic or sexual attachment to another?'"

He flushed slightly at this definition that her systems brought up, although it did nothing to actually explain the word "love" thoroughly to her. What was love, truly? Did it just mean the feeling of pleasure induced after the experience of sexual interaction between a male and female? What was it?

"Chung, have you ever been in love before?" These questions; she had to ask them. All the new ideas that she had been proposed to today were overflowing. She had to get the answers as soon as possible, otherwise she would be subjected to torture of wondering what it was. However, Eve had never thought upon it as a private matter; questions were questions, and all were meant to be answered.

"Have I ever been in love? Uhm..." He frowned a bit, as if contemplating whether to truly answer or not. "I don't...think so?"

She nodded. "Thank you. I thought that I was the only one with lack of knowledge upon that subject."

"You're welcome!" He beamed, glad that he was able to get the usually-silent girl to get such a stretched conversation going. At that moment, the bell blared into their ears, ruining their time together. "Got to get back to class now!"

"Shall we head back together?" she suggested. In all truth, she had more to ask. The answers that he provided to her were prey, and she, the ever-famished predator.

"Sure!" Patiently slowing down for her to put back her binders, pencils, and papers into her book bag, Chung neatly straightened out his school uniform. It had gotten strangely ruffled during his laugh attack.

"Let us go," she said, catching up to him in a few quick steps. She was already huffing slightly at the effort of running a short distance.

"Eve, you're out of shape! Get outside more!"

"That is significant how?" How funny he found her asking that question for the third time.

"Here, I'll take you outside next time. You should enjoy the air more!"

"Do not speak to me," she huffed again as she struggled to keep up with his fast pace. "I must reach the class in time along with you."

"You will, I promise~" he said.

November came as fast as October had passed. Without Eve knowing it, she had become "comrades," as she called it, with Chung.

It was one autumn morning, with the brisk, crisp air bringing the beginning of winter along with it, that both of them sat on a bench in the nearby park. The fallen leaves of the maple trees decorated the ground, perfecting a colorful collage that no human could replicate. Eve had still found the boy sitting next to her quite intriguing; he had revealed more of the world to her so far than anyone else had, and a bulky half of her database was collected because of him.

Another question nagged at her, and she was very glad that Chung had bore with her so far. In fact, it seemed to her that he enjoyed answering her inquiries. More often than she could remember, he called her cute for various reasons she simply could not compute. "Chung, what is life? To you. I have various definitions of the word 'life,' but I have not heard your opinion yet."

Their breaths formed fog-like puffs as both faced each other to speak. "Life?" he mused airily. It was something he had never really thought upon before, but that struck him as the perfect answer. "It's not something that someone thinks about often, and you can't see it much. But you can hear it and feel it."

"Hear and feel?" She cocked her head to one side, letting strands of her hair cascade off of her shoulder. "What is it that you may be talking about? Life is 'the condition that distinguishes animals and plants from inorganic matter, along with the capacity to grow, reproduce, and-'"

"No, Eve," said Chung, whom shook his head at her scientifically-complicated reply. "I mean-I mean..." Trying to find words and ending up holding none, he grasped one of her pale hands and reached for her chest. The area over where her heart was supposed to be.

At once, she understood him clearly. But another emotion washed over her as she watched their clasped hands get closer. Panic took her over as she shoved her hand back into Chung's own broad chest. For some reason, if it were anyone else that found out she was not a truly living being, she would not have cared. She would have dismissed it without a second thought, despite her orders to not reveal that she was not human. But this was her dearest comrade, and she could not bring herself to tell him that she was simply a robot and nothing more.

A faint sensation spread, tingling from their conjoined hands. It had a rhythmic beat to it, and with each passing second came another one. "This..."

"Yes; life means a heartbeat to me. I can't describe it as well as you, but you said you wanted to hear my opinion, so..." He gave a sheepish chuckle and glanced sideways at her, checking for her reaction.

She sat there, mesmerized by his heartbeat. It was something that she could never have, nor would she ever feel from herself. She wanted to sit here forever and just feel the thump on the back of her hand. "Eve?" she heard him ask tentatively.

"Ah, my apologies. That was...a clearly interesting response. Thank you, truly."

"No problem!" He gave her a smile and suddenly pulled her towards him, pressing her ear against his chest. "You know, you can listen to it all day if you want!"

Heat overtook her systems, invoking the instinct to push him away. She lay in that strange position of him embracing the top of her head with her body sprawled across the rest of the bench before her senses snapped her back to reality. "I-I repeat, do not touch me in such a manner!"

"Haha, I'm sorry, Eve," he said, even though he was clearly not. The smile never leaving his face, he stood up and stretched, his arms reaching for the cloudless sky above. "Alrigh-tee, let's go!"

"Do not go without me," she commanded, fixing the aquamarine blue and burgundy red scarf around her neck. He remembered giving it to her on her birthday, back in the end of September, and her utter shock at receiving the present. The smile widened even more as he watched her loop it around her neck and come after him.

"I really do need to take you outside some more," he commented, earning an acerbic glare. But, unlike what he expected her to do, she stayed silent and assumed the expression of one who was processing a new train of thought. He let her be and waited for her to catch up, wondering what it was that was turning inside of her mind.

In all honesty, Eve was thinking about the warm feeling that would not leave her body despite the frigid atmosphere. Perhaps it was because of Chung's heartbeat?

The day of the Winter Ball had come by faster than either thought would have. Everywhere any student turned their eyes to, decor would be hanging off of the walls. The pure white halls were filled with endless chatters about partners, dresses, and the occasional joke of food.

Eve was disinterested in such trivial matters, and focused on studying for the upcoming exam after Christmas. Chung had explained to her the origins of Christmas and what they did on that day; in fact, it was only two days away from this one. Lightly biting the end of her pencil while pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose, she glared concernedly at the notes that she had taken in class. The words would not seem to stay long enough within her mind to memorize them, or for her database to recognize and copy them into her files either. The excitement that seemed to thrum in the very air was getting to the emotionless robot as well.

Over the past months, she had acquired several more "comrades." Two of them, one amethyst with the other being verdant emerald, were currently making their way towards her desk in the sea of clamoring students. "Eve!" the purple-haired girl called out, struggling to keep up with the blond one.

"Say, you heard about the ball, right?" Rena chirped joyfully. She was always one for social events like these, and even joined student government to arrange some. Doubtlessly here to persuade her to join tonight, her hopeful eyes darted over to clash with her amber ones.

"I do not have time to waste on this," she flatly replied. She had much to do once she returned home; she would first take a short walk outside, a habit she had grown with a bit of Chung's influence. Then she would come back and properly study after taking a breath of fresh air. After finishing her little tidbits of schoolwork, she would write her daily report and send it via interwebs once more. The only reason that could possibly get her to join them that night was if they could find a proper partner for her; that way, she could enter and proceed intaking data for what humans did during such events.

"Hm..." Rena tapped her chin with an index finger before perking up. "I know what you need! You need a partner, don't you?"

Astonished, she looked up at the older girl. "How did you come upon such information?"

"Of course you don't!" she giggled. "Everyone's been telling me that you straight-out rejected every poor guy with that poker face of yours." At those words, she paused before reaching out to pull her cheeks up. "You, smile!"

Eve forced a curve in her lips, just to get Rena to let go of her face. Just then, Aisha glanced up from her clipboard and tucked the mechanical pencil on top of her ear. "Guess what? Chung doesn't have a partner again this year!"

"What?" Disappointment obvious in her tone, Rena bent over the shorter girl to see the neat list printed on the white paper. "He's not going to it again? This is our last year though! But-wait..." The cyborg saw it. The telltale glint in her dark golden eyes. "Our little Eve here doesn't have a partner either! Let's pair them together, hm~?"

"Ingenious, Rena," Aisha muttered, scribbling something down. "Okay, I think that's everyone!"

"Eve, you'll come with us after school to buy a dress, am I right~?" she sang. The evil intent permeated the space surrounding her, even with the innocent sing-song voice she was talking in. "Right~?"

"...Alright. Just this one time." The silver-haired girl took her glasses off, shaking the hair out of her eyes. Tucking them into her blouse, she packed up her studies and carried her bag. "After school at what precise time?"

"Three-thirty~"

"...Understood." With a sigh, she left the room, alone.

She had been waiting outside of Chung's house for over an hour now. She had not once thought that he would already be at the ball, but instead, faithfully stood outside.

Her feet started aching from the white high heels she was forced into, along with the tight-fitting gown of snow. Quartz and crystals adorned the dress, gleaming sadly in the setting sun. The wind blew a forlorn breeze towards the lone figure, causing the high-low dress to display a flowing effect. Detached sleeves of midnight black started at her arm, then widened past her pale fingertips. A glittering necklace of sapphire was nestled between her collarbones.

One foot was slightly less balanced and less coordinated than the other, for she had to repair it. Waiting for a new one from the laboratory would take an inconvenient week. She had sprained her foot, or more precisely, broken it, since metal did not work well with the word "sprained." Using the limited knowledge she had on mechanics, she attempted to fix her body herself in the span of a single hour. Eve came up with a bulky foot that worked well enough as a substitute, but she worried about it unhinging itself from her ankle if she moved too fast. With limited knowledge also came with limited materials, and she had run out of screws for a few more holes. But, nonetheless, it worked.

A void gnawed at her, even though she had no idea what it was. Even as she waited for him, the questions would not stop coming like a current of rushing water. Was this the emotion "loneliness?" Or was it the feeling of being "lovesick?" She did not chase these strange thoughts away, thoughts that she would have never had if she had not felt so utterly devastated from the lack of his presence. She didn't even bother to ask herself why she had such emotions; the flickering flame of hope, dimming with each second, held no space for anything else.

Night would fall soon, her calculations told her. She waved them away, but at last, when the sun's last rays of light disappeared beyond the horizon, she left his dark house and for the dance. Even though partner-less, she could wander on the premises of the academy to look for him. For Chung.

Seven o' clock, her internal systems whispered.

She stumbled along in the falling night, being torn apart by something unseen. Something she could not see, but could feel. Like...life.

Had Rena not told him that she was going to the ball with him? The pain in her foot increased gradually as she blindly ran around in the school. She heard the music in the dance somewhere in the background, but did not waste time pinpointing it.

Eve panted, it being the farthest she had ever run in her lifespan. Her lifespan of a single, precious year, before she was shut down. She had to-had to find Chung. It felt like something would burst inside of her if she didn't find him tonight.

Then she saw. Saw that familiar outline of jaggedly-styled hair, a shadow against the gloomy light that lingered from the half hour before. Her first smile, true and honest, broke across her face in that moment. "Chung!" she exclaimed, before all the screws collapsed and she along with them.

Her foot clattered across the cement, skidding a few feet before coming to a complete stop. The hunk of metal came apart all at once, until only scraps remained. At the ends of her body, near her ankle, she both heard and saw her wires crackle and spark.

There was no pain, just a second of shock. There was also silence, and nothing more than the cold, cold wind.

The stone beneath her sank its fangs into her delicate skin, marking the pale surface with pebbled grooves. Pushing herself up, she stared into those cerulean eyes again. And once again, both held each other's for an eternity.

In the span of that time, Eve noticed it. There was no surprise at her being a creation. There was no hatred directed at her for hiding her origination as a cyborg the entire time. There was only calm. All of that was not said in words, as those were not needed to convey these feelings. It was only his eyes that portrayed the truth, that he had known all along and that she had only assumed that he didn't.

"You have done extremely well, Project 0999. You have been our ultimate experiment." That voice... She held back the sudden heated sensation in her eyes and blinked rapidly. The tide of questions that once battered at her eager mind was now still as an undisturbed pond. This was fate; harsh as it was, crueler than the most frigid of ice, but it was fate nonetheless. "'Eve Alteria...' I bade you farewell."

There was a click. Or was her hearing system shutting down, creating unheard sounds for her to hear? Her sight was slowly dimming, dimming, until she could not see anymore. Or was it all that it was? A dream deferred, prolonged until it finally diminished the light by itself?

There was nothing more.

The tears slipped down, one after the other as he carried the limp form in his arms. Over and over, he replayed the scene within his mind: of her wide, innocent eyes, of the silent plea spoken across her face, of her last shivering breath taken in, exhaled, and gone forever. He had known that she was going to his last ball together with him. He had known from the very beginning, when "Project 0999" was only a thought, a theorem.

"Eve, Eve," he heard himself keep saying, as if her name itself would keep her alive.

The old-fashioned oak door of his room burst open, swinging crazily by its hinges as he gently set her down on the bed. He took one look at her and didn't resist, especially with no onlookers; bending over the girl, he brushed his lips against her own and hurried away.

The panic building up like pressure inside of him left no room for blushing. The tools and equipment were left scattered all around his worktable where he had fiddled with them several hours earlier. Pushing them away as far as he could, he searched through a mass of more tools beneath the table and scrambled for the select few he required.

He had gently extracted the memory chip from her while he had kissed her. The black square piece of metal lay freezing in his palm, and his heart was weighed with despair as he kept staring at it. It was, perhaps, the most important thing in all of Eve. She had spent so many days collecting information, storing part of it into this chip. And her memories...

He had a sudden urge to look into it. Sliding out a panel from the air, he placed the chip on the empty space and watched it sink into nothingness, rippling as it did. Then, the screen lit up in a flash of what seemed like video clips and pictures, along with words labeled beneath them.

Unlike Chung had expected her to, Eve sorted her information from most valuable to least important. Any other bot would have sorted their files by date, alphabetically, or even by subject. But, to him, the silver-haired girl was not just a bot. To him, she was as real as torturous reality was.

With a trembling hand, he pressed the folder of "Most Valuable" and waited for it to load.

The bar filled up to the end.

It was just a picture taken by her sight system when it happened. Of two locked hands pressed against someone's chest, right over their heart.

He kept looking through them all, and found that all of her most valuable moments had been with him. A video clip of when he presented her the scarf. A typed entry of their shared laugh attack. Then, a recording of his promise to her.

It was titled "Promise," but he had no recalling of promising her anything. He tapped the "Play" button and she was saying, "I must reach the class in time along with you." He heard himself say, "You will, I promise~"

The tears rushed down, no matter how much he tried to stop the flow. The warm liquid slid past his cheeks as he realized what Eve wished for.

She had wished to live past her time limit of a short year, to attend to class along with him once more.

He reached the end of the folder and tapped open the options. The "Delete All" button shone back at him. It required the password to discard all of it, which he typed in. Wiping futilely at his tears, the lingering words of the CEO managing Cyborg Crown, his father, were said in his mind again.

"Delete the data within the memory chip and return the emotion circuitry once you're done."

With an unheard cry, he pushed "Enter."

The same park. The same bench. The same time, the same month. But not the same person.

Chung glanced worriedly at her. He had rebuilt her damaged systems enough for her to function properly again, but her...her memories...her ability to feel...

She sat emotionlessly next to him. "What do you require of me, asking me to come here?" Eve returned the glance, and what came back to her new memory system was a smile.

There was something off about it. Smiles, she had searched, were displays of happiness to one another. But this one...what was it portraying? There were so many things she did not understand, especially the concept of "emotions." There were only a few she could detect without trouble, but the rest she struggled with. Perhaps this was...sadness?

"Just one quick question. What do you think life is? I have my own definition, but I want to hear your opinion."

"Life: the condition that distinguishes animals and plants from inorganic matter-"

"Eve," he breathed. "That's not it." Using his hands, he guided her own to rest over her chest, where her heart was supposed to be.

Both of them were silent for a moment, then felt it.

A beat answered them.

This is the first of my series of one-shots for the Elgang~ Hope all of you enjoyed also my first piece of intended fluff! :3 Dang, this was 5k words, that's the most I've ever written for any chapter... =w= I'll explain some things to clear the confusion up, because there's ALWAYS questions, no? x3

Chung is, indeed, the son of the CEO managing Cyber Crown. He fixed Eve's damaged systems and gave her a heart; a real one. But she's still, very much, a cyborg/(ro)bot/machine/Nasod.

This setting takes place in the distant future, as you can tell from all the advanced technology. Eve included, of course. xD

The end takes place a year after Eve was shut down.

So sorry for the lack of detail in clothes, certain surroundings, and humans and such. Dx

Hey, I actually explained her loss of emotion as Battle Seraph without making it all magical and such. o 3o Just noticed. xD

"Alrigh-tee," I hope you all found this one-shot interesting! :D More is coming up; either Ara or Aisha should be up next.

..."should." :'D