"Please come out."
The words ring through her head.
"...come out."
More maddening with every second.
"...out."
Out is not a possible direction. The darkness of the depths is the most comforting feeling, nothing can match it.
But is that true?
Pondering, pondering, walking around in the sheer black surroundings, nothing material seems to matter anymore.
After centuries of smelling the thickness of iron in the air and stepping into the puddles and piles of rubbish that litter the floor, is it possibly time to come out?
"What is this feeling?" she asks herself.
With just that thought, the seering light shines through a crack far off and somehow envelops the entirety of her being.
A voice comes from it, "Please...come out, little sister." it says.
No response, she just curls in discomfort to avoid the request.
Eventually, the light fades, and the young girl reaches for her sister as it does, just missing the chance. And alone, she waits for another while.
While she wallows in misery, so does her older sibling.
"Mistress, does it still trouble you?" asks a loyal servant.
"It's none of your concern, Sakuya." the mistress replies. She waves her hand to send the servant off and leave her alone. As par the usual, she stares off into the fading day with a pinch of jealousy wrapped in hatred; certainly not a desirable emotion. She then particularly recalls, "'What is it you desire?' I remember you asking that of me...now I ask the same question of my own kin. How ironic..."
The burning sun may spread across her vision, but it does not seem to pose any real problem, just discomfort.
She sips from her cup that barely hangs from one finger. "It's become cold and bitter now. I wonder sometimes why this beverage is so popular..."
She simply sits and stares wondrously into the distance with just a hint of concern looming over her face.
"How many years have passed since her last appearance?" Asks a soft-spoken girl from not too far away, shrouded in shadows.
"There has never been a year, nor a day, not even a minute that she has loved another outwardly since that moment." The mistress answers her; she seems sullen to speak of it.
"That moment?" the shrouded girl questions.
"I think you know what I mean." the mistress explains.
"I don't believe I even know her name anymore." The shrouded girl then remarks after a few seconds' pause.
The mistress sips from her cup again and answers, "Flandre. That is what she is called. I don't know if she knows her own name by now, much less mine."
"Flandre Scarlet…what an odd name. It's a bit enchanting, don't you think?"
"It is, just as expected of my sister…"
The two continue their conversation for until nightfall.
"Patche, leave me alone now, the queen of the night wishes to roam again." requests the mistress.
The frail shrouded girl nods to her and backs away, "Don't forget to come back, Remi."
Remilia then spreads out her wings and jumps from the balcony and into the darkness…
"The final stone is complete. Should it be added now?" asks a familiar voice in a dark room.
"Yes. Do it now." another voice answers her, sternly and strongly.
What proceeds is a the glow of a bright circle, one surrounding both of the beings, then another glow of 16 multi-colored crystals that illuminate the darkness to show the bloodied and shallow, pale face of the lonesome little sister, smiling.
"Is that better?" asks the other girl.
No answer, the sister just sits and admires the glow before looking down at the dirty, bloody floor she sits on. Moments after seeing it, a sinister chuckle of her voice fills the dark room and echoes within it. Not really the kind of laugh that a normal person would make, but more like an odd mix of joy, self-resentment, and disbelief.
"You can leave…I'd hate it if you dirtied your dress down here." Flandre tells Patchouli while still giggling a bit.
Patchouli, however, bends down to her level and tells her, "There's no need to be courteous with me. I know that's not how you really feel."
"Then should I treat you like them?" Flandre asks her, staring down at the stained floor.
"You shouldn't. Treat me like you would a good friend." Patchouli insists.
"You want to be?" Flandre asks.
"You could say that-" Patchouli begins to say, interrupted by Flandre.
"Maybe you already are…" She vaguely says. A silence ensues for but a minute.
Patchouli finally asks, "Are you ready to face your sister again?"
"Not yet." Flandre quickly answers.
"Still, are you not calm?" Patchouli asks her with a worried face. Flandre simply nods, and with that, Patchouli leaves her there with a departing remark, "Don't hold yourself more than necessary."
Of course, that was a year prior to now.
"I warned Remi that she would piss off the shrine maiden. She's become a bit cocky recently, no?" Patchouli asks Sakuya as they both watch their mistress and the red-and-white shrine maiden fighting ferociously with bright and fantastic displays of danmaku.
"She's always been a little like that. I think it comes with the age." Sakuya replies. "Where is that useless gate guard, anyways? I feel like giving her a 'treat' for the work." She then asks.
"Knocked out somewhere, I bet. She got hit point-blank with a master spark from that witch." Patchouli answers.
"Is that what it's called? It figures she'd be dumb enough to get close to a laser." Sakuya says, waving her hand.
"We all got hit by it at least once." Patchouli argues.
"Be that as it may…" Sakuya begins, but is interrupted.
"She's using 'Scarlet Gensokyo' now." Patchouli points out.
"Oh, she's really mad then. Then again, the red-and-white is going to be mad too once she finds herself unable to navigate through such a thick storm of danmaku. We should probably look out now." Sakuya comments and predicts, now a bit calm in tone.
The battle between the two doesn't last much longer, the maiden – Reimu – ends up winning, predictably. The rest of the day passes by with everyone cleaning up the mess made freshly in the mansion, the witch – Marisa – was forced to help them as she had lost to Sakuya.
At the end, though, she and Reimu went back home with the incident solved and everything returning to normal. Remilia also finds a way to block the sun without causing country-wide catastrophes.
Not but a day later, however, Remilia begins her now regular visit to the shrine of the girl that had defeated her prior, only to be almost immediately interrupted by a sudden loud explosive sound coming from the direction of the mansion. "Another intruder?" She wonders.
"Looks like another incident." Reimu quickly assumes. "Let's go beat up the trouble-makers!" She then yells out with her fist pumped into the air.
"No need, I'll go and solve this. Sakuya, let's hurry." Remilia says, holding a hand out to stop the maiden from progressing. She leaves hastily with Sakuya holding up a parasol to provide shade along the way.
"I'm going anyways." Reimu says to herself, grudgingly flying off in the direction of the explosion.
Close to a half hour passes before both of them happen to arrive at the same time. "Did you get lost?" Remilia teases.
"No, but it seems like your house is less combustible than a few moments ago. That's a shame." Reimu teases her back.
"What was that?" Remilia asks with an angry voice.
Another explosion occurs and shakes the ground beneath them, forcing them to hurry inside. Right before they can enter the door, Marisa suddenly bursts through the doorway at top speed a grazes right past the three. Remilia raises an eyebrow at the behavior and then gets even angrier. She charges up a giant crimson spear in her right hand and swiftly throws it at the speeding witch.
"Good luck dodging that!" She yells.
"Was that all the problem?" Reimu wonders aloud. In the middle of her thoughts, she suddenly feels an utterly gargantuan force hit her square in the back of her midsection; it causes an explosive force that sends her flying forward, the only thing slowing her being the friction caused by skidding on the ground.
Remilia chuckles a bit and looks behind her, "Flan?"
Surely enough, Flan is standing right behind her with a less than happy expression. "Cranberry trap."
Remilia suddenly stiffens and turns back to Sakuya to yell, "SAKUYA, RUN!"
Sakuya bows just as Flandre spawns two orbs of color that spread out. Just before they can start firing off, Sakuya disappears with nothing more than an afterimage.
Remilia turns back to Flandre and asks, "Can we just talk?"
No response. Flandre just stares at her and activates the orbs, which all begin to fire hundreds of smaller orbs in a constantly changing cube-like shape. The shots all begin to pound against the mansion and leave large dents in them, speeding up their rate of fire steadily. Remilia dashes into the mansion and begins to soar through it at high speed, trying to outrun Flandre who is somehow flying almost as fast, right towards her.
"H-How is this-!?" Remilia begins to question, but is stopped by hitting an unexplained entity. Her and the entity both spin out of control and crash into the floor. Remilia gets up almost immediately and looks at the entity; another Flandre smiling at her maniacally.
"Don't tell me…" She mutters. Just after, she is flocked by three more Flans with radically different expressions. The one she landed on gets back up.
"Flan, don't do this…" She pleads; her heart is absolutely thrashing and throbbing anxiously.
Then, something unexpected happens. One Flandre suddenly grabs Remilia from behind and the other three disappear from sight.
"Onee-sama…" She whispers. Her breath sends chills down Remilia's entire body. She can easily feel a sharp point of Laevateinn poking at her leg and slipping through her dress to dig into her skin.
Remilia quickly shakes Flan off by struggling and failing about powerfully; she jumps back and hears a tearing sound. She falls back to the ground and notices that Laevateinn had ripped her dress in half horizontally by the front. She gets up seconds later and stares at Flandre who hasn't moved another step.
"Onee-sama…" She whispers again, her voice echoing through the empty halls.
"W-What is it?" Remilia asks with a small stutter.
Flandre starts to slowly advance and happens to drop Laevateinn in the middle of doing so. It doesn't take long before they're no more or less than a finger's length apart. Naturally, Remilia backs up a step and gulps. She doesn't notice, however, that Flandre had grabbed her by the wrist. She pulls Remilia back, closer, staring wide-eyed and intensely.
"Flan…you're a bit clo-" She starts to complain, Flandre shuts her up by backing up and immediately sliding her hand into Remilia's mouth. But she starts to slide in deeper…a little too deep. Remilia begins to choke and gag, grabbing Flan's arm and attempting to pull it out forcefully. She starts to tear up, blush, and roll back her eyes from the utter pain. Flandre eventually lets go and Remilia collapses onto the ground, still coughing up spit and a bit of blood.
She looks up at her sister, not sad or scared, but just plain pissed off.
"What the hell is wrong with you!?" She attempts to yell out, but it only comes off raspy. Flandre begins to inch towards her again, with this sick grin on her face. Remilia finds that she can't do anything once she notices the two colored orbs from Cranberry Trap are twirling behind her in the narrow hallway.
Flandre makes her way over to her sister and crouches down to eye level.
"I love you…" She whispers, and then reaches out to her sister to touch her face – but she is stopped by some sort of invisible wall. Flandre becomes visibly upset and starts to pound against the sudden barrier with one hand.
"Patche?" Remilia wonders aloud as she looks behind her.
"That's me." She calls out, standing right behind the glowing colored orbs. Remilia smiles at her appearance, but the smile is short lived when Patchouli mocks her, "Can't you protect yourself from your own sister?"
There is a small pause and silence, broken by a monotone buzzing.
"Wha…?" Both Remilia and Patchouli mutter, looking behind the barrier at Flandre, who has taken Laevateinn in both hands and activated it. Remilia quickly dashes to the side and clings to the wall; Patchouli attempts to prepare the barrier.
Her preparations are futile, Laevateinn crashes against the barrier and slices right through it, causing it to deconstruct automatically. Patchouli is actually shocked by the blade's power and steps back. "What a blade…able to cut strait through a magical barrier." Patchouli remarks. She then suddenly feels a huge wave of heat blow past her from the blade. "Alright, plan B. Lava Cromlech." Patchouli holds out both hands and flies up into the air at high speed, stopping almost immediately a dozen meters up. Giant fireballs the size of herself then shoot out and start circling around her wildly, they swarm everywhere and crash into the walls and floor in every direction while chunks of earth are flung in a buckshot directly at Flandre.
Flan, however, just uses Laevateinn to destroy the rocks and then charges strait through the flames with no regard for her own safety. Patchouli gasps at her unreal endurance and willpower, and hesitates to do anything. Flandre takes her by the head and flings her into the ground savagely.
"Don't interfere." She softly says.
Right afterwards, Flandre turns back to Remilia and rushes back to her as close as possible, grabbing her by the back of the head. Laevateinn is deactivated by now.
Then Flan does something unexpected, she tilts her sister's head upwards and kisses her on the lips, eyes half open and staring down. At first, Remi is left trembling and shocked at what is happening, but then slowly calms down and accepts it, going as far as to rub Flan's back lightly.
Patchouli happens to get up at around this time sarcastically complaining, "That was really nice…" only to notice what's happening. She jumps back a bit and holds her hand over her mouth. "Oh, so that's how it is." She mutters. It lasts only for a minute, the kiss, before Flan stops without stepping away but instead, coming even closer if that's even possible. The two might as well be one person with the sheer proximity to each other. After a moment of standing together, Remilia asks her sister, "Why…? Do-" And just before she can even begin the second word, Flan shuts her up with another kiss that is head on instead of at an angle like the first.
Patchouli simply watches the two for the next minute or two, or until Sakuya appears behind her without any warning and asks, "What is that?"
Patchouli jumps up and looks behind herself at Sakuya, "Ho-How should I know?" Sakuya does not look satisfied by that half-assed answer. "I'm serious, but whatever it is, don't interrupt."
Sakuya puts a single hand on her head and asks, "Enjoying the show?"
"I don't want to die." Patchouli suddenly scowls at her. Sakuya steps back from her, surprised by the aggressive tone, and disappears a moment later, leaving patchouli standing there carefully. After a minute, maybe more, Flandre finally stops and lets her sister go gently, laying her on the floor. Remilia tries to sit up and grab Flan again, but she takes off before that can happen. Patchouli approaches Remilia hastily and asks, "Remi, are you alright?"
"I'm fine…I think." She replies with a small sigh, though it's unclear whether it's of relief or disappointment.
"I didn't expect that to happen." Patchouli comments.
"Yeah…" Remilia agrees while looking off into the distance, wide-eyed "…excuse me, I think I need to lie down."
Patchouli leads her to her bedroom, still worried for Remilia's shocked and nearly emotionless expression. She seems to be just trying to understand what the hell just happened.
"Patche…" She begins to ask "…how is she stronger than I?"
"That's what you're worried about!?" Patchouli retorts.
"Wha…?" Remilia starts to say, but trails off.
"Your sister kiss-raped you. Does that not worry you at all?" Patchouli argues in uptalk, obviously upset. Remilia just groans in response. Finally after a while of slowly marching through the hallways, they reach Remilia's bedroom which is about as pitch black as every other room with no windows, if not more.
"Stop, I'll just go in myself." Remilia commands. Patchouli lets her go and takes leave without another word.
As soon as Remilia enters her room, she finds herself in some unescapable thick atmosphere that gives a sick, creepy feeling of being watched. "Hello? Is that you, Sakuya?" She calls into the darkness while scattering clumsily to find a lamp, to no avail. "Come on, this isn't funny." She begins to sound rather desperate. Suddenly, as soon as she touches the lamp on her bedpost after mere seconds, the atmosphere vanishes.
She sighs in relief this time and climbs into bed, lying outstretched.
She begins to relax and fall asleep accompanied by the dim light, until it suddenly blows out, and a large force pushes her arms and legs down onto the bed forcefully. All that is able to be seen is a quick swipe of two glowing red eyes and the symmetrical glowing of 16 colored, dim lights. The shock of being attacked so suddenly shoots Remilia strait into panic and hyperventilation.
"Is that you, Fla-?" Remilia starts to ask, but is yet again interrupted when Flandre pushes her deep into the bed and kisses her again before moments later leaping backwards into the darkness.
"Onee-sama…" She beckons softly "…come, where no-one will find us."
Remilia hesitates to answer, as if actually considering it, but then shakes her head and yells, "No, I won't!"
Only Flan's eyes are needed to show her disappointment, as they look down and close halfway, drooping slightly in altitude. "Then go to sleep." She demands, coming closer still.
"Flan, what the hell is wrong with you!?" Remilia yells at her more, clutching her blanket and covering herself with it like a shield. Eventually, Flandre is crawling into the bed next to her and getting uncomfortably close.
"Please, stop…" Remilia begins to beg. Flan utters no response but instead slips under the blanket with her sister. She grabs her sister's hand and starts to lead it along her own while also rubbing against her.
Remilia, now almost silent, tries to pull back but can't seem to get free of Flan's surprisingly powerful grasp.
"No." Flandre pouts while holding still onto her sister.
Eventually, after a few minutes of trying to break free, Remilia just gives up and lies down. "What's gotten into you?" she asks.
No answer, Flandre just lies there with her, still fondling Remilia's hand seemingly aimlessly.
Everything suddenly goes quiet: creepily quiet. They are left there to rest innocently for the remainder of the day.