Code Named Emperor 2
Chapter 1:
It had been a month since Bryce awoke from his coma, and things were starting to look up.
The ability Bryce cast not only restored Tengu city, brought back everyone to life, and whipped their memories minutes prior to the destruction. This amount of usage alone would have put Bryce into a small coma if he was at full power, but since he was running on lent power and fumes, he went into a coma for about a year and two months.
Now, like with Kurumi, Bryce moved into Shido's house. Being the only two guys there they did a good portion of work, even cooking with the exception of dinner which everyone participated.
Life was great now for Bryce. He finally was accepted, he had a girlfriend, most of his horrible memories were gone, and he was happy. However, he still has most the major memories of what happened to him, and is now having nightmares again.
Itsuka Household, Night
Bryce was moving around in his sleep a lot. He was dreaming about the moments before he killed his parents and closest friends he had at the time.
...
"All you have to do is kill these traitors, and you are free, no charge." Said a man in military uniform in Bryce's dream.
"And then i can go home to my family?" A young Bryce asked.
"Yes, now here is your gun, six bullets, enough for you to kill them with one shot." The man offering a handgun to Bryce. "Bring out the traitor's to the country!" The man ordered.
Then six people stepped out with two armed guards taking them to their deaths. They knelled down and had their heads covered with burlap sacks. Bryce heard them speaking the language of his captors, once he had conformed they were not innocent looking, he then shot all of them with no hesitation.
"Take off the sacks." The man said to the soldiers.
They took of all the masks revealing the sight Bryce would never forget, he saw his parents and four of his closest friends dead, by his hands.
Bryce was in shock and dropped the handgun. "Noooooooooooo!" He cried out with horror.
...
"Nooooooo!" Bryce shot up from the bed. The time was 2:22 AM
He was breathing heavily and was sweating, he was not alone in the, Kurumi was also there due not only them being a couple, but also a lack of rooming.
"Bryce...yawnnn... whats wrong?" Kurumi said drowsy and a bit tired.
"I just had a nightmare, its okay." He said still breathing heavily.
"No its not." Kurumi contradicted. "Lay down." She said grabbing his shoulder and laying him down.
She then held his hand, put her head on his shoulder, and put her remaining hand on his stomach.
"Kurumi i'm fine..." Bryce resisted.
"No your not, your still having nightmares and i want to help." Kurumi replied.
"I know you do... but i can't be helped. The best of the best have tried and failed miserably." Bryce explained.
"Still i want to try." Kurumi asked.
"Fine... what do you want to know?" Bryce accepted.
"Were you having a nightmare?" She asked
"Yes." He responded
"Was it about your parents?" Kurumi asked. This was her first guess as most of his nightmares being about that day.
"Yes..." He said softly, clenching her hand tightly.
"Then i think the solution is simple." She said.
"What?" He said still quietly.
"Can you wipe your own memory?" She asked.
"Yes." Bryce said.
"Then use it on yourself problem solved." Kurumi said smiling quickly.
"Don't you think i have already thought of that. I want to, but i just cant." Bryce said a bit angry.
"Why?" She asked.
"I don't know why, but..." He thought off.
"But what?" Kurumi asked.
"I don't want to, i'm afraid if i lose that memory i'll forget my parents." He said sadly.
"You want that image to be the thing you remember your parents by?" She asked confused.
"I do, for only one reason... because i only have sad memories of them. I don't remember what they sound like, their names, or their faces... except for that one memory." He explained.
"That's the only image you have of their faces?" She asked.
"Yeah, the memories of us working together in the fields chained up, before they took me away, all are vague and i only remember the screams they made when the took me away." Bryce unveiled.
"I'm sorry..." Kurumi now felt sad, this was one of few things she could not help him with.
"Can we stop..." He said tired.
"Of course." She comforted.
Kurumi placed a kiss on his cheek and put her head back on his shoulder, she stayed awake until she saw Bryce asleep again. After a few minutes she began to dose off too, and just like that, they were asleep.
Morning
Bryce woke up later that usual, the talk he had with Kurumi in the middle of the night was still fresh in his head. When he turned to where Kurumi was she was gone, normally he would be waking her up. He got up to check the time, it was 8:17 AM. He went downstairs and saw Tohka and Yoshino watching their show.
"Mornin'" He said drowsy.
"Morning Bryce!" Tohka said still focusing in the TV.
"Where are the others?" He asked pulling out orange juice from the fridge.
"They went to buy some groceries for breakfast about twenty minutes ago." Tohka said still watching TV.
"Okay then, they should be home soon." He said bringing a cup of orange juice to the couch next to them.
They sat there watching the show, Bryce really didn't, he hated soap operas.
...
"Were home!" Shido yelled opening the door.
"Shido!" Tohka said hopping over the couch. "What did ya get?" She asked.
"We got eggs, bacon, sausage, fruit, and stuff like that." Shido explained.
"Sounds yummy! Can't wait to eat what you and Bryce cook up!" Tohka pointed her right thumb out.
"Good morning Bryce." Kurumi said kissing him on the cheek.
"Morning." He replied. "Do you need any help?" He asked.
"No but thank you, you should also change." Kurumi said pointing at him while putting her load down.
"Oh right, be right back." Bryce said as he got up and went upstairs. He came back downstairs with a red shirt and blue jeans.
"Morning Bryce." Shido said in the kitchen getting out the utensils.
"Morning, so what are we making?" Bryce asked.
"Omelets, fruit salad, some bacon and sausage." Shido explained.
"Got it, i'll get out the food." He said going towards the bag of groceries.
Bryce and Shido then started making breakfast for everybody, as they always did. At first they felt sort of like slaves since they did essentially everything, but they were able to get them to do a lot more than what they did a month ago.
...
"Hey Bryce can i ask you something?" She asked of him while they set the table.
"Yeah what is it?" Bryce responded placing down plates.
"We heard you scream last night, was it a nightmare again or was it you two messing around ag..." Shido said about to mock.
"If you finish that sentence i swear i'll break this plate over your head." Bryce said casually yet serious.
"I was just joking man." Shido said nervously rubbing the back of his head.
"Sure you were or did you just want to hear some escapades?" He said mocking him now.
"No no no seriously i was." He said shaking his hands.
"Really because i do recall you asking if..." Bryce said about the mock until he heard Kurumi.
"What?! No no no it wasn't anything like that he just had a nightmare was all." Kurumi said shaking her hands aswell.
Kotori snickered. "Jeesh calm down i was only messing around." She said putting a lollipop in her mouth.
They all laughed a little and when Kurumi looked at Bryce they smiled at each other.
"Your plan worked like a charm by the way." Shido said whispering to Bryce, they had just finished setting the table.
"What do you mean?" Bryce asked.
"You completely pacified Kurumi, did you get to that third goal?" Shido explained.
"No but i think she's over it, if not she's willing to talk about it." Bryce said.
"Well i thank you." Shido thanked.
"Because i got her to not devour you?" Bryce asked, Shido then shook his head yes.
"We should call them to the table." Shido said putting his mittens down.
"Alright guys breakfast is served!" Bryce said.
Kotori turned off the TV and they all went to the table, and as always Bryce and Kurumi sat next to each other.
"This is really good Shido." Yoshino said quietly taking a bit from the omelet.
"Thank Bryce that was his department." Shido said gesturing to Bryce.
"You may now kiss the cook." He said jokingly.
Everyone laughed at that and Kurumi kissed him on the cheek of which Bryce put his arm around her.
The rest of breakfast was just complementing Shido and Bryce for the food, and saying what they planned on doing that day since it was Sunday.
'I really don't have plans' or 'Whatever come up.' was everyone's response.
"Me and Kurumi are going on a date, this evening." Bryce said.
"To where if you don't mind me by asking?" Shido asked.
"Just a movie then dinner that's all, and i want nobody from Ratatoskr showing up." Bryce said pointing at Kotori.
"Who said i was going to do that?" She said looking the other direction.
"I don't know... says the other 18 times you have!" Bryce said seriously.
"Okay i won't do anything and if i do then i will... not have any lollipops for a whole month." Kotori said, in her more innocent voice.
"And no watching either." He said taking a bite of his omelet.
"Your no fun sometimes you know that?" She said looking at him.
"Yeah i know... I can be a total buzzkill sometimes." He said mockingly.
Kotori just crossed her arms and looked away.
"Well it seems everyone is done, want to put the plates away?" Bryce said getting up.
Everyone got up and put their plates in the sink which Bryce and Kurumi did.
"Hey Bryce?" Kurumi said washing a dish.
"Yeah what is it?" Bryce replied.
"Did Shido-san also tease you about the whole...thing...that happened two weeks ago?" She asked blushing.
"Yeah, well he tried, before i stepped in with my own insult." Bryce said smirking.
"Yeah... that's like you nowadays." Kurumi said smiling.
"Hey Kurumi?" Bryce asked.
"Yes?" She said turning to him and just as she did he blew bubbles into her face.
She did the same thing and when she went for another salvo he grabbed her hand.
"I just did that for a joke, we can continue later, i want to get this done so i can get to the Fraxinus." Bryce explained
"Sorry." She said rubbing the back of her head.
Bryce had been going to the Fraxinus for psychiatric treatment, it had been working a little, but not very far. Bryce had some optimism since nobody had gotten threw the first barrier, but Reine had somehow broke threw that wall.
"Alright and done!" Kurumi said putting away the last plate.
"Same here, hey Kotori ready to go to the Fraxinus?" Bryce asked.
"Sure thing, hey Reine can we get a beam up to the Fraxinus?" Kotori radioed.
"Yes commander, you two need to head outside though." Reine said.
"Alright then." Kotori said. "Bryce we need to get outside, there's an alleyway nearby."
"Okay, see you guys later." Bryce said. "See you soon Kurumi." Bryce planted a kissed on her cheeks.
"See you later." Kurumi waving goodbye.
Fraxinus
Kotori and Bryce were then beamed up into the Fraxinus and began to go to their separate areas.
"I'll be in the control center when your done." Kotori said walking away.
"Got it, see ya later." Bryce said beginning to walk towards the room were him and Reine did his psychiatric treatment.
Bryce arrived at the door and then knocked on it.
"Come in." Reine said inside.
"Hey Reine, same thing today?" Bryce asked.
"Yes, i'll hook you up to the machine." Reine said putting down the clipboard.
Bryce laid down on a metal bunk and Reine put patches with wire coming out from them, which led to a larger machine, most were on his head others were on his chest.
"I need you to relax as i turn it on." Reine said next to the machine start button.
"Okay..." Bryce said closing his eyes as he took a deep breath letting his body relax and lose tension.
"3...2...1" Reine then pushed the button and jolts of energy went through Bryce, after that he went to sleep.
Every time Reine does this he always blacks out and then has images of his past, very quickly. The only ones that stayed longer were the most significant. One of these images was him on a propaganda poster for the country he was brainwashed by, he had become a hero to those he had a flashback, to the time when he snapped out of the brainwashing.
...
'I remember... the three years of brainwashing was wearing off and i was rampaging throughout the base, to this day i do not know why, but whatever the reason, it helped me regain my perspective.' Bryce echoed in his mind. 'I must have killed dozens of them, after killing thousands of my own people, i was killing them for a change.'
"Sir please stop th..." A solider pleaded to me as i shot his head.
'Then there... was this higher up, i remember grabbing him by the neck choking him and had my gun pointed to his head.' Bryce thought. 'Then this other man, who i now believe was my handler, said something i couldn't understand, that was when i came out of it i think. That was when my suit froze up letting that other bastard go.'
"Centurion... you were a fine solider for our land, sadly the brainwashing can not be redone." The man said speaking English to me as the guy i had in my grip was now on the floor coughing.
"What happened to me?" I said.
"Why you became the world's first super solider, you should be proud." He said to me like i was an achievement and a tool.
"How...how many did i kill..." I said, to this day i wish i didn't ask that.
"The estimated number that we know of is over 25,000, but off grid we estimate you killed another 5,000." He said calmly, i nearly puked in my suit.
"Release me and let me go home this instant!" I yelled at him wanting to kill him.
"We planned on doing that anyway's Centurion, think of it as a reward for your service." He said proudly.
'Then he snapped his fingers and said something i didn't understand, but what happened i can make a good guess on what he did say in that foreign language. The soldiers guarding them released me from my suit after the stripped me from all of my weapons.' Bryce thought in his memory.
"Let me go you bastards!" I said struggling as two men grabbed me by the arms and another behind me with a gun aimed at my back.
"We will, i'm a man of my word." He said putting his hand over his heart.
"And let my parents and my friends go to!" I said about to go into tears.
"Okay then... We will after you do this one thing for us, kill some treacherous soldiers of ours ." He said smiling, i should have seen his deception right there.
'I pondered that offer for a good few minutes before i reluctantly agreed, i only did it to kill more of them, i had grown to despise them...' Bryce thought.
...
Bryce woke up in the room wear he was being monitored by Reine.
"Whatever happened in your mind, we broke through a bit, good job." Reine said typing on a counsel on the machine.
"Thanks... can you remove these now?" Bryce asked.
"Sure, let me save these files and turn off the machine." Reine said typing up a a last bit on the keypad, then she turned of the machine and began to remove Bryce's patches.
"Thank you..." Bryce said getting up.
"No problem." Reine said now on her tablet. "I just messaged the commander to have the transporter ready."
"Thanks, guess i don't have to see her, see you tomorrow." Bryce said waving goodbye.
As Bryce walked towards the transport pad he felt something off, his memory. His brainwashing wore off and Centurion was no more, but he was told that when he destroyed Tengu city, he identified himself as Sentinel. He couldn't help but think, did the brainwashing really wear off or was it just the main part, did he have a subliminal brainwashing were Sentinel was born?
Hey guys/girls, the second arc has begun, were we will find more about Bryce's past, some new and key battles with DEM! Hope you guys/girls liked the first chapter of Code Named Emperor: Secrets! PM and Message me for any question, and as always, Loyal Guardian signing off!