Re-L
Even after the fall of Romdo I kept my distance from Vincent Law. He was my only companion aside from the two AutoReivs that accompanied us on our journey to find other dome cities that could be inhabited by humans. After the collapse of the only place in the world I'd known and the death of thousands of citizens in the dome, I decided to continue my search for proxies. After my encounters with several outside Romdo, I knew that Daedalus Yumeno's research was not something that could be shoved aside. I took my own information that I gathered from studying Vincent and collected it in a tattered journal.
So far from what I could comprehend, proxies were man-made gods that were to be saviors for the human race. But now that Ergo Proxy, the agent of death was lurking behind the eyes of Vincent Law, I felt as though our kind would never survive.
"Re-L?" I heard his quiet voice ask me as I took inventory of our food stock, "We haven't had any wind again in a few days, but that forest over there may have some supplies? Firewood or something maybe?"
I looked over to the wooded area, remembering the last time I had ventured into dense trees. An AutoReiv tried to kill me and that's where I had lost Iggy. "If you think there are supplies, go ahead and check. I'll stay here and keep a lookout for anything suspicious."
His green eyes flashed a little with something animalistic. Are you afraid of the woods now? A sinister voice seemed to be asking from the back of Vincent's mind. I tried not to think about it and turned back to my notebook. I looked at the dwindling pages and hoped that the wind would come soon, lest I had to start keeping track of things on the walls of the Rabbit like some Neanderthal race that predated a time of proxies and AutoReivs.
"Pino wants to come with Vincent!" The young, child-like AutoReiv exclaimed, tugging on Vincent's orange suit.
"Hehe, Pino if you'd like you can keep me company. It'd be nice not to be alone in the woods. You never know what you can find."
"Would you be needing my assistance, Vincent?" Kristeva asked him, her hands daintily folded and a scowling look was forever imprinted on her face.
"Only if you'd like to."
"Very well then," Kristeva looked at Pino. "I shall accompany you in case Pino requires any assistance."
I watched the three of them walk over to the trees and disappear in to the undergrowth. The trees looked like teeth swallowing them whole. I watched as Pino ran back and waved. "Bye Re-L!" Pino called as she hopped up and down. The ears of her bunny suit flopped on her shoulders.
It wasn't very often I got this kind of alone time, so I took advantage of it. I stripped my clothes off and lay in bed, ready for an extra nap. I closed my eyes and watched the random floating colors stream through a reddish-black background. Green circles and red dots appeared with blue stripes like lightening behind my eyelids. I wondered if other people saw those things too, or if it was just my version of my skin. I tried to conjure memories of when I was a little girl in Romdo, how even then Grandfather had Daedalus watching over me like a pet. I remembered Daedalus in different times of his life. He had always been groomed to be a doctor. It was the purpose for which he was bred, just as my own purpose was determined for me before I was born.
I could barely remember a time when his hands didn't wear gloves. He was a little shrimp then, his cheeks sunken in and his hair had been clipped closer to his head than it was when he became a doctor. I remember having a slight crush on him, kissing his lips at the tender age of five. His hands shook and his mouth trembled against mine. That was when I started to find him annoying.
Years later, that kiss had transformed into a sort of foundation for his incessant infatuation with me, which I used to my advantage whenever I could, until he made that proxy which bore my face. If the circumstances had been in my favor I would have shot him.
In my mind Daedalus morphed into Vincent. Their dark hair lay in almost a similar cut, and the slant of Daedalus' eyes turned into the cold eyes that Vincent had grown since he found out the truth of Ergo Proxy. I floated through scenes that had happened between Vincent and I, our encounters in Romdo, when the Proxy first appeared in my apartment and fought with Monad to the memory of kissing him and stealing the gun.
My stomach felt a slight twinge in it at the thought of his lips on mine. I thought of the night after Romdo had collapsed, three months from the current day. I had cried for the loss of everything. Blue and black smears from my makeup caked my face and Vincent wiped them away. He had held me that entire night as I cried myself to sleep thinking of Daedalus and Grandfather. I thought of Pino, the AutoReiv with a soul who had just lost her father. All the citizens I had interviews over the years, the people who had nameless faces all appeared before me without stories and backgrounds, but I still cried for the loss of them.
I felt as though it was my weakest moment. The night was a blur of tears and Vincent's hand stroking my hair. I cried on him because he was the only one I had left. I cried on him even though he was the reason the world was falling apart.
Memories turned into a conclave of disjointed dreams and my mind brought me to wooded terrain and the monster that lurked behind the mask that was Vincent Law.
Vincent
When we returned with armloads of mostly dry wood, I found Re-L in her underwear sleeping on the bed. I placed the wood next to the door and I watched her silently, thinking that she was the most beautiful creature I had ever seen. I leaned over her, wondering if she would kill me if I had I kissed her in that instant. Yes.
I backed up and grabbed some buckets and pans, looking for anything that could capture water. Dark clouds started to appear when we were in the jungle, so we decided to head back before we had any amount of time to find food.
There was wind blowing, but not enough to get the Rabbit to run. And in any case, the wind was pulling the wrong way, going back to the direction of Romdo. I sighed heavily as Kristeva set the pot I normally cooked beans in at my feet.
:"It would be a good thing for you to catch up on sleep too, Vincent Law. I will watch out for Pino."
"Thanks Kristeva," I said as I clamored back into the hull of the Rabbit.
Re-L's undershirt had ridden up her skin, exposing the under flesh of her left breast. The creamy skin looked almost like the flesh of a white peach, velvety and soft. I couldn't remember the last time I had felt or tasted a peach, but the flavor became reminiscent in my mouth. Would Re-L taste as sweet? a dark voice that was not my own asked. I thought I had banished him during the fall of Romdo, but it seemed I had been suppressing him inside myself just as I had with Ergo Proxy. I hadn't told Re-L this for fear that she would take Kristeva and Pino and abandon me is some desolate area where I wouldn't be able to survive.
You're a proxy, this fear you have is needless.
I shook my head, coughing as I did so. I didn't want to admit that Proxy One was slowly tainting my mind like a demon. I figured maybe I could suppress him just as I had before, but the longer I was confined to the Rabbit the more and more I felt like my mind was being dismembered by Proxy One.
"You better not be getting sick," Re-L's voice spat like venom. "It would be a waste of energy and supplies to nurse yourself back to health. Or can proxies even get sick?"
I huffed a breath and stripped to my boxers before going into the bathroom. When I was completely naked I toweled off and placed on some dry clothes. I wondered when the next time we would see another city was again. Even my suit was getting worn enough that it couldn't be repaired. It was tiring, how often I thought of a new place. All it meant was a new proxy to deal with, another place that would end up destroyed by Ergo Proxy, agent of death.
"Vincent," Re-L called, bringing me out of my reverie, "what are you doing in there?"
"Dressing," I informed her.
"Then what's taking so long? It's not like you wear a bra."
