(Author`s note: all text written between asterisks *like so* is narration by Trevor Goodchild)
SANCTUARY
A mysterious man called Gallagher offers peace and illumination to all those who come to his sanctuary. Trevor goes in hope of finding his secret.
Where Trevor goes, Aeon can`t be far behind...
* * *
*For time immemorial, man has sought to understand why he exists. Does he have a purpose, a goal, a focus of some sort? Maybe there is none and the struggle itself is the ultimate truth. Should this prove true, man wil undoubtebly ask for a cosmic refund.*
* * *
---Seven hours twenty-two minutes---
Within the confines of a monican subway car speeding between two stations, Aeon stands ready to cross the border to Bregna. She exits through the emergency door at the back of the car and climbs on the roof; light flashes zoom by at mind numbing speed, it`s almost time. Aeon stands ready, tightening her body like a coil that`s about to break from excessive winding.
The wall wich separates the breen and monican subway systems has a flaw, a large opening where the two subways meet along parallel tracks for roughly two seconds. This breach allows the nimble Aeon Flux to jump from one car to the other and successfully pass over into Bregna. No one has ever really thought of blocking that missing wall section since nobody, in theory, is stupid enough to actually try and jump over the way Aeon just did.
When Aeon disembarks at the next station, no one notices that she`s not supposed to be there at all.
---Six hours fifty-seven minutes---
"Governor Goodchild, your jet is ready" says a breen guard to Trevor, interrupting his train of thought.
"Thank you, I`ll be leaving now." he answers.
Trevor puts on his flight helmet and boards his medium-sized plane. He impatiently looks back and forth between his watch and the empty copilot seat besides him.
"Where IS she?!?" he wonders.
"Wait for me!" says a voice in the distance. A woman dressed in a flight suit identical to Trevor`s is running up the airport`s landing strip in his direction.
"About time you showed up, Lexandra. I almost had to leave without you." scolds Trevor.
"I had trouble with my cyber replacements, they give me coordination problems when I put the suit on." she replies, pointing to her arms and legs.
"Enough time lost, we must leave." Trevor concludes.
Turning on the engines and closing the light-blue glass canopy, Trevor skillfully executes a perfect vertical takeoff, taking altitude quite rapidly. Neither pilots notice that they are taking along an extra passenger. Coming out of a nearby hangar, Aeon Flux shoots a hook gun and punches a small hole in their hull wich allows her to climb up a rope to the rising plane. Unseen, she opens a small pannel and sneaks in a few seconds before Trevor blasts off full speed ahead with the afterburners.
---Two hours fifty-five minutes---
Standing alone in the desert, a citadel not unlike a castle from the arabian nights tales is Trevor`s destination. He executes a superb landing and parks his plane alongside a hundred others.
Many people came at Gallagher`s invitation.
"Remember our objective, Lexandra. Also, remember where we parked, we may have to leave in a hurry." says Trevor.
"Of course." replies Lexandra.
A few minutes after they are gone, Aeon leaves her secret hiding spot inside Trevor`s hull and makes her way to the fortress as well.
---Two hours forty-five minutes---
Immense doors open to let in Trevor and his associate, though no operator or mechanical system is visible. They enter a very large, very dark room. The huge doors behind them close afterwards, leaving them in darkness for a few instants. A smaller door then opens up in front of them, leading to a richly decorated room filled from top to bottom with wild and exotic plants as well as many species of tropical birds.
"It`s beautiful!" says Lexandra.
"Thank you." says a tall man dressed all in black from his shirt and pants to his boots and hooded cape. "It`s been difficult to create my sanctuary and it is even harder to manage as it grows each instant."
"You must be Gallagher, am I right?" asks Trevor.
"Quite right. Welcome to my sanctuary, where illumination is yours for the taking. In a matter of hours, the cleansing light of the ancients will erase the corruption from this place and the secret of existence can be yours at last." explains Gallagher.
Looking around at the many clocks strewn left and right, Trevor is puzzled to notice that they all run counterclockwise.
"Why are the clocks running backwards?" he asks.
"A countdown to illumination. Pretty damn convenient, if you ask me. Now come, join my other guests and enjoy yourselves in my sanctuary. You may also try to find the secret before the time comes as I have, but remember..." says Gallagher, pausing his words dramatically, "...should you try to discover the secret truth of existance on your own, you will have to face your innermost selves."
"What does that mean?" asks Lexandra.
"You already know the answer to that, you just don`t realize it yet. If you`ll excuse me, another guest is about to drop in." answers Gallagher as he turns his back to them and leaves.
"You think he`s on to us?" whispers Lexandra to Trevor.
"Who can tell?" he replies.
---Two hours thirty-five minutes---
Aeon, armed with metallic catlike claws, has already climbed a great deal of the desert fortress` height; she`s almost on top. Using a small unidentifiable tool of her own conception, she jimmies a locked window and enters a maintenance room of some sort, filled with varied equipment.
"That`s funny, I could have sworn there was a command control module in here somewhere." she says as she looks around and unsuccessfully tries to locate a control panel that she remembered to be in this very room.
Before Aeon has a chance to move around, the floor cracks under her feet and gives away, throwing her down through the floor and towards the ground level. On her way down, she crashes through one floor after the other, each floor radically different from the previous... a medical lab with surgery in progress, a classroom for young children in the middle of a math course, a storeroom of computer parts, a library full of old tomes and dust, a japanese-style dojo, a lavish bedroom where a couple is making love, the church of a catholic cult, a painter`s studio and finally a tall, tall room full of giant trees like those of a rainforest.
So tall is this room that it takes Aeon several seconds of freefall before she touches the treetops; the thick leafy branches break her fall and drop her on the grassy ground virtually unscathed. Sitting on a nearby rock, Gallagher is smiling.
"Welcome back to my sanctuary, my dearest Aeon Flux. You`re right on schedule, I might add." he says as Aeon picks some leaves out of her hair.
"You`ve redecorated, haven`t you?"
"Is it to your liking?"
"Very eclectic, though a bit large. Overall, you`ve turned this place into something nice."
"I can`t take all the credit, actually. Most of the things you`ve seen in here are extrapolated from people`s minds... those who come to my sanctuary add their own mental landscape to the mosaic. The end result can sometimes be quite unpredictable, especially when someone like you shows up."
"Unpredictable? You sound a bit out of control, Gallagher, that`s not like you at all." comments Aeon.
"Oh, I`m very much in control... in control of my own psyche, at least." says Gallagher as he looks at a shadow moving slightly inside a nearby bush tree. A loud growl comes from that shadow.
Aeon feels her stomach twist in fear at the sight of a huge manwolf moving out of the bush tree into the light; she moves her hand slowly to her dart gun, but Gallagher silently motions her not to. Instead of attacking, the manwolf simply cuddles to Gallagher and purrs in delight as he caresses him behind the ears.
"This is the sum of all my angers, frustrations, anguishes and fears put together over the years. I chose to give it a form and a name; this way, I can feed him my pain and in return he gives me strength. If I didn`t, he`d eat me alive." explains Gallagher, caressing the beast as though it were an ordinary pet dog.
"Cute. What`s his name?" asks Aeon as she slips her fingers through the seemingly gentle beast`s fur.
"Fenris, after the mythic wolf from scandinavian lore. Careful, Aeon- sometimes, he bites without reason or provocation." warns Gallagher as he rolls his sleeve to show a nasty bite mark scar. "Not much of a wound, I must say, but it hurts like hell when his fangs are sunk in your flesh."
"So somewhere out there, there`s a tigerwoman with my name written on her?"
"Not necessarily, it could be anything, really."
---Two hours sixteen minutes---
With the sound of grinding gears emanating from her mechanical arms and legs, Lexandra walks over to the only door that wouldn`t allow free passage in all of the sanctuary, a large armored door locked with an intricate computer system. Lexandra takes a small communicator from her pocket and places it on her ear, pulling out a thin wire microphone.
"Trevor, I`m near the heart of the fortress. I`m ready to start." she whispers in the microphone.
"Good." says Trevor`s voice in the earpiece. "What kind of lock are we up against?"
"Triple duranide bolts backed up with a dual AI security digipad number 42. Pretty solid measures for someone who`s supposed to be so open." she answers.
"We don`t have time to discuss Gallagher`s true motivations. Begin by removing the digipad`s cover and locate the power distribution node." instructs Trevor.
Removing her leather gloves, Lexandra reveals her metal hands. These replacements look human by shape only, their shining metal composition proving to be anything but flesh. She touches the four corners of the touchpad`s surface, emitting faint magnetic pulses that loosen its cover out of place.
"I see it, it`s in the top left corner; it`s not that well protected, must be an old model for sure." observes Lexandra.
"You`ll have to short it out one connection at a time. Be careful not to overload the secondary nodes or you`ll fry the entire system at once and seal the door shut." says Trevor.
"Don`t worry, I`ve done this before." replies Lexandra.
"Not since you stepped on that land mine last month, so be careful, for crying out loud!" urges Trevor.
Lexandra`s left index lights up with a golden spark; a miniature wielding torch has been integrated in her new hand as well as many other multifunction tools. One by one, the relays are cut until the node is disconnected.
"I`m done." she says.
"Now cut out the digital recognition circuits, then the redundancy chips." says Trevor.
Following his advice, Lexandra moves her hand forward further into the small maze of wires and circuits, seeking the specific part she needs to cut out. To her great surprise, the digipad snaps itself shut on her hand like a venus flytrap.
"NO! IT`S GOT ME!!!" screams the shocked Lexandra.
"What`s got you?"
"THE SYSTEM! IT`S GOT MY HAND!" screams Lexandra as the circuits and wires begin to cover her arm like a climbing vine, spreading all over her body. She lets out one last shriek of terror, then speaks no more.
---Two hours two minutes---
"Lexandra? What`s happening? ANSWER ME!" yells Trevor in his transmitter.
It`s no use, he thinks, she won`t answer. She`s probably dead by now. What to do? Go there yourself, that`s what.
Trevor picks up the communicator on his ear and drops it on the marble floor of the reception hall from where he directed his cybernetically enhanced assistant. He crushes it under his boot.
"Technology always reaches a point where it becomes useless. I feel that this breaking point has been reached, both for transmitters and cyberware." he comments.
He walks out of the reception hall.
---One hour fifty three minutes---
"So you`re determined to find the secret on your own before the revelation?" asks Gallagher to Aeon as they walk down to the heart of the citadel.
"I have to. I never waited after anyone to give me the answers I seek, and I`m not about to start now. There`s simply no alternative." says Aeon.
"Not much free will on your part, it seems. I don`t remember you being played by circumstances like this." comments the man dressed in black.
"You can`t understand what I`m doing; you never have. Can`t you see that`s why I left the sanctuary in the first place?"
"In the sanctuary, it matters not what I understand of you... rather, try to understand yourself, be in touch with your own psyche." advises Gallagher.
"I`m in touch with myself, you better believe it."
"I`m not talking about how much you masturbate, Aeon! This is about understanding the inner workings of your own being! If you can`t figure that out... you could die." argues Gallagher. "I don`t want that to happen."
"It won`t happen, trust me. You always worry too much." replies Aeon. She gives Gallagher a tender kiss charged with emotion.
As she opens her eyes and looks at the door that will lead her to the heart of the sanctuary, she notices a strange cocoon made of metal and wires right next to it.
"What`s this?" she wonders.
"Someone else`s symbol." simply answers Gallagher as he leaves Aeon Flux to her quest.
---One hour twenty-two minutes---
The sanctuary is so much more than a simple palace. It is a collection of nearly infinite visions of the mind`s eye.
Aeon is currently walking down one of them, a tunnel covered with something soft, warm, moist... could this tunnel be alive?
"I don`t even want to know what this is supposed to represent!" she tells herself out loud.
The tunnel suddenly opens under her feet, throwing her into a pit full of dark half-formed zombies. All of them she knows. All of them she killed at some point in her life.
"You killed us, Aeon, killed us all." they whisper.
"Leave me alone! You`re all dead, you don`t exist!" protests the monican agent. The many hands grabbing Aeon seem to disagree.
"Aeon, take my hand, quickly" says a voice from above. Desperate, she blindly reaches up and holds on to the helping hand that pulls her out of this hell pit of her own creation.
"Trevor?"
"You look surprised, Aeon. Did you really think I`d let you rot in your own nightmares?" asks Trevor.
"Sometimes I wonder." replies Aeon.
"Your faith in me is touching, but we`ll discuss that later. For the time being, there`s a secret to be discovered." says Trevor.
---One hour three minutes---
The seemingly endless trek through the meaningless images is beginning to take its toll on the two explorers. No one could possibly face so much senseless decors and not be affected somehow. The familiar living room they stumble upon is a welcome relief for the both of them.
"Well, well, this is nice. I could use a drink." says Aeon.
"This living room is modeled on my own. I think it comes from my mental landscape." comments Trevor.
"Remind me to visit your mind more often." says Aeon with a smile as she pours drinks for herself and Trevor. "You know, there`s a good possibility that you`re not really here, that you`re just a facet of my mind whose shape is one I recognize as Trevor Goodchild."
"There`s also an outside chance that the same is true about the symbol I like to call Aeon Flux." adds Trevor.
"Then we`re both hallucinating each other, so to speak." suggests Aeon.
"That`s a good way to put it in words." agrees Trevor sipping his greenish drink.
"So, in theory, if we were to have sex on this imaginary couch in this room we hallucinate, it wouldn`t matter at all?"
"Quite correct. We could enjoy the moment regardless of our political differences." says Trevor, putting his glass on the table and cuddling up to Aeon.
"I thought so, but then again, our differences never stopped you before..." observes Aeon as she removes her leather clothes and drops them on the floor.
---Fourteen minutes thiry-six seconds---
Aeon wakes up alone on the couch. The only sign Trevor might have really been there at all is an empty glass on the table. She gets dressed in a hurry and leaves the strangely located living room and runs down the corridors in search of the heart of the sanctuary. As she gets closer, the corridors come to be less and less strange, leading to what might be considered a fairly ordinary looking chamber, though very ancient.
It is huge, containing something she had always hoped to never come across., an immense machine that had been building up in power for who knows how long. It is on the verge of blowing up sky high and make a whole lot of damage that would send the sanctuary`s real estate value down the toilet.
"Oh damn, a Delta wave fusion reactor! That would take at least an entire day to deactivate..." says Aeon.
---Six minutes twelve seconds---
Gallagher looks at the wire cocoon and gently presses his hand on it; as though it recognizes the gentle touch, the metallic shell opens itself slowly, releasing its prisonner. Lexandra has been transformed, her legs restored, her arms regenerated. She is healed and completely human again.
"You came for me..." she whispers, still weakened from the experience.
"Of course I did. The sanctuary is a place for all to find inner peace, and this process always begins with the healing of old wounds, be they physical, mental or spiritual." explains Gallagher as he helps Lexandra out of the withering cocoon.
"Will you stay with me until the light comes?" she asks as she holds on to Gallagher.
"Certainly, one should always share his moments of joy with others he cares about."
"What will happen now?"
"Look at the clocks, there is little time left until the revelation." observes Gallagher. "We must join the others."
---Three minutes forty-one seconds---
Blasting out of fortress`s front doors, Aeon runs out into the desert, but to go where? She can never escape the impending annihilation without some kind of vehicule and it would take much too long to hotwire one of those parked around her.
"Aeon, over here!" yells Trevor from his plane, the cockpit still open as he waits for Aeon to arrive.
"How did you know I wouldn`t stay in and wait for Gallagher`s purifying light like the others?" she asks.
"I know you too well, you`d never do that. Are you coming with me or not?"
"I`ve never been one to look a gift horse in the mouth." she answers, jumping in the copilot seat. Trevor immediately closes the canopy and takes off while Aeon buckles her safety belts.
---Thirty seconds---
Thousands of people await in an immense reception hall with superb marble floors and richly decorated walls. They all look upon their guide, Gallagher, standing next to Lexandra who eagerly awaits to see the light at last.
---Twenty seconds---
Gallagher picks up a smashed transmitter on the floor and observes it leasurely. He drops it back on the floor and addresses his audience.
"My friends, the time of revelation is at hand. In but a few seconds we will all see the light, BECOME the light..."
---Five seconds---
"...soaring high in the blue skyes..."
---Two seconds---
"... and into eternity!"
---DETONATION---
Far behind the speeding plane taking Aeon and Trevor back to Bregna, the fortress known as the sanctuary is instantly engulfed in a growing sphere of blinding light powerful as a dozen stars; it is disintegrated into nothingness as well as those still inside. Upon reaching its maximum radius of nearly six kilometers, the energy sphere brutally collapses unto itself and is converted in a serie of faster-than-sound shockwaves that screech away much faster than Trevor`s jet powered plane.
"Brace yourself, Aeon, it`s going to be a bumpy ride!" warns Trevor, seeing the incoming menace on his radar.
The first shockwave to reach them hits pretty hard without making much damage, the plane riding the shockwave like a surfer rides a ten feet wave. Then the next one hits, then the next.
Aeon made a small hole in the hull earlier that day when she used a hook gun to hitch a ride on Trevor`s plane. As each shockwave hits, it gets a little larger until a whole panel of the hull collapses and leaves the rear jet engines exposed and unprotected to the crushing waves of energy. The next one rips the engine apart, leaving them without propulsion.
"Hold on, Trevor, I think we`re going down!" comments Aeon.
"I`ll try to land without killing us at the same time." dryly replies Trevor.
The plane goes down in the desert sand, though Trevor`s skill are more than enough to assure a good belly landing. Fortunately for the both of them, the previous shockwaves knocked the sand dunes flat and cleared an improvised landing strip.
"Nice landing, Trevor."
"Don`t thank me yet, Aeon, there`s still one more coming our way." says Trevor as he points to his radar.
Half a second later, it hits at an unimaginable speed, kicking the plane into a mad roll as it is dragged over several thousand feet on the desert sand.
An undetermined amount of time later, Aeon wakes up. Her arm is hurt seriously and she has several broken ribs. Still strapped in her seat by the safety belts that have just saved her life, she checks Trevor`s pulse and is relieved to see he`s alive as well, although unconscious. Through the shattered canopy, she suddenly sees something she hadn`t noticed before. Out there in the cool desert night, thousands of people stand huddled around the destroyed plane, all of them she is sure to be the denizens of the sanctuary. Out of the crowd step forward Gallagher and Lexandra who walk towards the wounded pilots.
Lexandra kisses Trevor. Gallagher kisses Aeon.
In an instant, the entire crowd turns into a large sphere of glowing light hovering above the ground. The man dressed in black and the healed woman join in silently, leaving Aeon and Trevor by themselves as the spheres speeds into the dark night and disappears in the sky amidst the shining stars.
A tear rolls down Aeon`s cheek and she joind Trevor in his unconscious state.
* * *
*As more and more of us discover truth in this unscrutable universe, even more are those who can only pray to attain that blessed state of serenity. In the meantime, we continue to struggle, unaware of how close we really are to this truth.*
*And so we ask for a cosmic refund.*
* * *
concept created by Peter Chung
"Sanctuary" written by Yohann DeSabrais