A/N: Remi has to draw the line at cutting people up and cannibalism. At least when it comes to ratings. In all fairness, that there is the reason this is a crossover with Anorexia. A word of caution if you ever decide to read the manga. Warnings outside Anorexia crossover material include some rather callous thoughts of mental, physical and sexual torture, and killing, and different types of abuse in the three chapters relating to the three characters' pasts.
Challenges
The Prompts in Steps Challenge, 5.07 – bloodshed
The Crossover boot camp, #044 – crack
The Diversity Writing Challenge, g24 – write a fic that is M-rated
The Valentines to White's Day Advent (2015), - day 24 - ranuculus (charm): write about a brainwashing/trickery
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She needed a complete makeover. But most importantly, she needed to survive. She needed to wake up.
Her spine had been snapped clean in two, but that could wait. The brake was low down enough that she could wake out without her arms, without her legs. Wake up and do nothing, perhaps. But she'd wake up. The spine was a problem, but not right now. She needed to be up and ready to move before it really mattered.
So…not the spine. The brain and the heart, and of the two, the head had taken the heavier blow. He'd seen the scans. Full of blood. Slowly being crushed. She was drowning in her own head and she'd never even know it. But even if they drilled a hole through her skull and take the blood out, the outer part of the brain was dead.
Funny how blood was poison now. Killing the brain it had nourished for so long, just because there was a little too much.
But he could fix that. He just needed another brain for her.
And soon.
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Massacre
Chapter 1
Sigma
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He was a sad, pathetic child. A brilliant brain, but he hid it behind a mask. If the brain was as plastic as everyone thought, those pathways that led to speech would have died and rotted long ago. Luckily, the brain was more resilient than that.
Of course, he had to make sure first.
It began as a simple game, at first. A simple game to see how clever he really was, beyond his marks. An IQ test, of sorts. Because he wouldn't pick an inferior brain for his sister. But he passed. Except that annoying habit of his to stay silent and hide behind a mask and loose fitting clothes, he passed.
So next became the more difficult test.
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Poor Sigma, who got lost in the strange world inside his computer. Virtual, of course. All of it virtual. And sped up because he didn't exactly have months of time. More like days, before the blood got into the brainstem and that was the end of Rei, but he was going to get this all done before that. One day. Two, tops. Three before Rei was in any real danger.
So Sigma got the express version. And Neo sat at his computer and worked out the bugs in the meantime, in preparation for the next time.
Because a new brain wasn't all Rei needed. There would undoubtedly be a next time.
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So Sigma got his express adventure. And something to help him through it because it wouldn't do for him to become a vegetable or get locked-in syndrome by the end of it all. Especially the latter. That was brainstem damage right there and it would be out of the fire and into the frying pan. And all Sigma will have been good for was testing out the system he'd hastily thrown together.
Or that's a lie, he thought. He'd been looking into that stuff for a long time. Virtual realities. Perfecting the body and the mind. He'd just never thought he'd be using it like this, to save his sister's life.
And Sigma who he didn't even know would be the first of his pawn sacrifices.
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Poor Sigma, who thought he was getting stronger for a time. Sigma who was all alone just how he wanted to be, except for his defending knight who wore a mask just like he. Sigma who fought and fought until he thought he could take his mask off on his own, until it looked like he'd beat the world and maybe rule it one day as well.
But Neo couldn't let that happen.
That was the peak, and now it was time for the cultivation.
And so things rewound. The mask cracked before he could remove it with his own hands. His guard died before he could be the one to protect instead of the protected. He was stripped bare, of all he had, before he could ascend new heights and discard the old self on his own violation.
He broke, and Neo took great care breaking him because he needed the spine in tact.
He got that. The world became flat: not a place for Sigma to leap off and let gravity do the rest. It would have been too easy, anyway, but this was no sadistic will but Neo not wanting to take the chance of damaging his carefully crafted prize.
For Sigma, it was weeks. For Neo, it was a day and a night.
And, finally, it came to an end with the blood dawn, wrists slit and blood staining the dark box he'd trapped himself within, far beyond their game.
Or not a game, really. There'd never been a chance for Sigma to win.
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It wasn't on the sunrise news. It'd take a day or two for them to find him. Or would have, if he couldn't risk them seeing that incision in his skull, when he'd taken the spine away. He'd been so careful, so loving. Dissecting every nerve and vessel, removing every bit of tissue that stubbornly clung.
Perfect. He knew it was perfect.
And now to replace Rei's.
That was the harder bit. The hospital, with their constant watch and his second stage, but he chased them away. He, the grieving brother who simply wanted some time with his sister before she passed away. Not that she would. He wouldn't allow it…but they didn't know that. They would never know, with all the scars already on her body. What were a few more?
So he had his chance, and he could trust the hospital to not be growing bugs in their curtains… no, of course he could not. Everyone knew bugs loved hospital curtains and linen and stuff. But they could still be avoided. Aseptic techniques. Plastic wrapped in so many bundles it probably hadn't seen the light of day before. Fancy new scalpels and needles all sealed in their packages still.
It didn't bother him in the least to slice open that other back: haphazardly too because he set the entire place aflame after that, so they'd never see the scars. But this was different. This required care: utmost care. And this was his sister, where it would matter a great deal and in more than just lost time if he failed. He had time for a second chance with Sigma, and replacements all lined up. No second chances when it came to Rei.
They already had her on all the life support equipment. He kept them there and carefully cut out her brain. Didn't need anaesthetic: she was in a deep coma already, brushing death's river flow. She'd feel nothing as he cut away her broken, bloodied brain and lovingly mopped up all the blood. That took a while. Because new blood oozed in and that he had to give something to stop so he'd have the time to put the new brain in and make its connections there.
Of course, he'd always known it would fit like a glove. He'd chosen Sigma for that very reason.
And they did. Every nerve. Every vessel. And he sew them all gently into place, with that new fancy thread that would dissolve when it wasn't needed anymore, like it had never even been there.