Sei had always been under Toue's care since the day he was born as a designer baby - his birth itself had been an experiment already. Being connected to all sorts of data gathering machines all day long and undergoing countless kinds of experiments was Sei's daily life. Sei's ability to enter and control people's minds via Scrap by the use of his eyes, or rather the light emitted by them, had helped Toue in many ways already. It went as far as having first half and then all of Midorijima island under his control. Sei couldn't determine if Toue's way of doing things was right or wrong since he believed it was the decision of the individual to decide fo themselves if what they considered doing was correct or not. The problem with Toue's influene was that it took away the abilitey to decide anything for yourself since it put you under the mercy of another human being.

By the time Toue had planned to take over all of Midorijima, meaning acting even outside of his personal playground called Platinum Jail, Sei had been hesitant to help Toue for the first time in his life. It wasn't like he could rebel much on his own though. His body had been weakened over the years as a human guinea pig and his soul had literally faded away under the inhuman treatment Sei had suffered from for over twenty years by now.
But some years ago Sei had found his twin brother again from whom he had been separated right after birth. Aoba was free in mind and body, a state Sei had longed for on his own, having and created countless selves in his yearning attempt to break free and had them scattered all over the various networks of Midorijima. One day Aoba had decided to take an Allmate home and his recognition chip went online as he had registered his new artificial network tool, or rather his pet partner in the form of a dark blue furred pomeranian dog. It was then that Sei had found out about his brother's whereabouts. He had always felt his brother's life presence somehow in the distance, but it was the frist time he was able to grasp Aoba's signs of life so strongly. Aoba had immersed himself in the virtual battle game 'Rhyme' for a certain amount of time and whenever he had played in an official match, Sei had been able to watch him during the eyes of Usui, the entity overseeing the matches, which carried a part of Sei's consciousness within itself. Aoba had been violent but strong then, even going as far as to use his own version of Scrap to mercilessly crush his oponent's mind if he felt like it. His soul had felt raw and untameable to Sei, but also irritated and lonely. And Sei had noticed another thing: the Allmate avatar Aoba was using in Rhyme gave off the same feeling as Aoba's soul. He must have been part of Aoba in a similar way hat Usui was part of Sei. The reason was unknown to Sei, but the fact remained. As time passed Aoba stopped doing Rhyme and at the same time his soul became more gentle, but Sei could feel his mind only very far away, only able to know what Aoba was doing if he used electronic devices like Aoba's coil or something else emitting radio waves that Sei's consciousness could follow. Sei knew it was kind of rude to stalk Aoba in a way, but it gave him a feeling of joy to be connected to his twin brother again, even if just virtually. And it was not like he could do this 24/7 anyway. His mind would not last that long. Only when he was able to escape from the strain of the experiments being done to his body could he focus enough to filter out Aoba's life signs among the countless streams of information continuously swirling through Sei's mind.

And then Toue's meddling began to affect even Aoba's life. Toue planned to overtake all of Midorijima, which would include the Old Resident District Aoba lived in, too. Sei didn't want to be responsible for destroying Aoba's life, as well. It was the first time that he was willing to go against Toue's wishes.

Sei wanted to be destroyed by Aoba's power. It was the only way for him to grasp freedom away from Toue's clutches and he felt that his weakened body wouldn't last much longer anyway. Plus with him gone the great commemorative event Toue had planned out to take over Midorijima with would not work as well since the main power behind it lay in Sei's eyes. Thus Sei had sent hidden messages to Aoba to come and see him. When Aoba's adoptive grandmother, a former researcher of Toue's team who had been involved in Aoba's and Sei's creation, was supposed to be kidnapped to prolong Sei's life by the use of her skills, Sei had tried to intervene, to warn Aoba and to guide him towards the place she was held at so he could rescue her. Aoba had been successful then and he learnt what Toue was about to do to the residents of the Old Resident District, too. He even had decided to stop him - Sei was thrilled. That would mean there was a chance Aoba would meet with Sei, too, if he entered Oval Tower where Toue resided.
So Sei continued to guide Aoba, even going as far as to open up Platinum Jail and Oval Tower for him so Aoba could enter without much problems. But standing between Sei and Aoba's reunion was still the man himself. Toue had not been defeated yet, going up against Aoba with two androids capable of producing mind-controling Dye Music and threatening Aoba with it. To Sei's surprise another android with the same face but a completely different set of mind had accompanied Aoba to Platinum Jail. Watching the scene by entering the footage of the security cameras of Oval Tower, Sei saw the android fight for Aoba and even going as far as to harm himself to be able top stand up against his own kind and his creator. Aoba called him 'Clear' and Sei was amazed by his determination to protect him, to do everything for him, even on the verge of dying - or rather breaking beyond repair. But after putting up an heroic fight against his brothers at first, Clear still had failed to overcome his stronger alpha series counterparts in the end, so Toue got hold of both of them after all.

It was the end of Sei's hope and his resistence died down together with it.

Time passed with Sei being unable to see Aoba, but his grandmother Tae had been assigned as Sei's prior caretaker, her task being to ensure Sei's life would continue even if it was only for just a little while longer. She said she had heard Aoba was a subject of Toue's exeperiments now, too, and that she was forbidden to see him or to even read the details of the experiments. Sei got lethargic at the news even though he was sure that this was what would have awaited Aoba if he didn't manage to overthrow Toue - Sei had just been so sure he could do it. And now his little brother was in Toue's clutches as well and it all felt like it was Sei's fault in the first place, since he practically lured him into the lion's den by interfering with Aoba's life.
Still, one day Sei gathered enough courage to try and find out about the whereabouts of his little brother inside of Oval Tower. He just wanted to see him no matter what the circumstances currently were, even if he would hate him now. The data about Aoba was heavily secured, but no real problem for Sei to decode.

Suddenly a loud scream roared through the entire Oval Tower, shaking it to its very core as it echoed through its walls. It was an indescribable sound like the tower's main system itself wanted to scream from the top of its imaginary lungs. The rooms became filled with buzzing and beeping sounds and static made every hair of the people inside of Oval Tower stand on end. Errors popped up on every monitor's screen, a few sparks flew form the tower's main boards and alarm bells shrilled from every machine used in the building.

The source of all of it was Sei.

He sat upright on on his bed, gripping the bedsheets so strongly that his white bones shone through his pale skin. His normally barely audible voice was constrained with a fury completely unbecoming for Sei and it was more like his feelings simply boiled over and resonated outside of his body than that he screamed for real. It was a sensation like feeling waves hitting you instead of hearing a sound. His face was overflown by tears and he heaved hard with nothing coming out of his stomach besides gastric juices. A swarm of medical personel immediately rushed into his room and checked on Sei's vitals. The first thing he got was a sedative to calm him down. The doctors who had hurried to his room included Tae, who was the only person to rub Sei's back and tried to soothe him with calming words. Slowly Sei's grip on his bedsheets got weaker as the sedative kicked in and the unhearable loudness surrounding the tower died down with it. The medical staff left the room when Sei's organism was forced to calm down and his vitals went back to normal - all aside from Tae, who stayed with the young man who still carried a more than terrified look on his face.
Tae had been placed under Toue's control like most of Midorijima's residents since the commemorative event of Platinum Jail had taken place. But she was not directly controlled by Toue's brain washing, since she needed to be sane to work on Sei. She had lost most of her will to fight though, since Toue had gotten hold of Aoba. She only helped out with Sei since she saw him as her responsibility now, because he was someone born from her research and suffering because of it without being at fault for it. Seeing Sei's condition worried her greatly.


There was exactly one reason Sei had acted so beside himself: He had read Aoba's medical file and found out that his brother had been mutilated by the one machine that was supposed to take care of him. Following the data in the files, Aoba had been robbed of his eyes, his voice, even his limbs; leaving him a helpless cripple. His voice must have been Toue's fault, Sei was sure of that. Taking away what triggered Aoba's Scrap ability was Toue's way to say he didn't need the rest of Aoba anymore after experimenting on him for the longest time. It was bad enough to take away somebody's freedom of speech. But his eyes, arms and legs, too?
Why?
Why were they gone, as well?
There was no experiment linked to it and the executor listed in the files was R-2E-054, an android's serial number similar to that of the Alpha series, probably an older model, and the only other android type currently in use at Oval Tower was the one Aoba had called "Clear".
Clear, the one that had entered Oval Tower together with Aoba on that day, who had been so persistent to protect him then.
Why had he done something like this to Aoba now?

Before Sei could even do it consciously, one of his many scattered net selves had already searched the tower's data system for information about Clear and Sei was informed that Clear had been a unit that was labeled as defective years ago and supposed to be destroyed. There was no log posted for years to follow up on his situation, but some time ago his file had been updated to state that after being thrown away, the android had been saved by a garbage worker and had been reprogrammed by the man as well. The file read as follows:
"The unit R-2E-054 appears to have a set of emotions closer to that of a human being now than at its default settings on its production date, even exceeding the human impersonation abilities of the later alpha series. It's asking itself questions about its raison d'être and has described its relationship with the test subject Aoba as him being the android's master and R-2E-054 as 'being in love with Aoba-san'. After the unit was set back to its default settings it no longer questioned it's reason to exist and acknowledged T. Toue as its master, but the A. I. still rated the feelings towards the aforementioned human test subject as 'love'. It stated that it failed to describe the word's meaning, but was sure it was the right word to use. The unit was assigned as a personal protector of the subject Aoba on date xx/xx/xxxx. - Update on the status of R-2E-054: After the experiments on test subject Aoba were completed, R-2E-054 requested to be reinstated as his personal caretaker. Request has been granted and test subject Aoba was handed over to the unit on date xx/xx/xxxx."

Did this file mean that something was wrong with Clear's head now?
He had been able to feel a complex emotion like love for Aoba and now he didn't even know what the word meant anymore?
Was this the reason he had gone as far as scarring Aoba for life?
The mental image of his brother having neither arms, legs nor eyes anymore turned Sei's stomach anew and he slapped a hand infront of his mouth as to not to gag again.

Whatever the reason for Clear's actions had been, Sei was very sure "love" was very far from it, since love shouldn't mean to want to harm your partner, much less to the point of dehumanizing him in any way.

Sei still shivered from the terrible news he had received and Tae tried to calm him down by holding his head and rocking him gently in her arms while whispering soothing words into his ears. Sei cried even harder when the thought of telling Aoba's gentle adoptive grandmother about what he had found out. He didn't want to do it at first, but he couldn't keep quiet about it for two reasons: For one, as Aoba's family member, Tae had a right to know what had happened to her grandson and secondly Sei had the feeling that he might go crazy, if he tried to deal with this alone.

"Tae-san? I... I found out what happened to Aoba."

Tae stopped moving instantly and a worried breath escaped the old woman's lips before she let go of Sei, took a seat next to him and told him: "I'm listening."

Sei sniffed, bit his lips and tried to speak, but the tears welled up in his eyes again and he choked.

"Is he dead?"
Tae spoke in a firm tone, seemingly prepared for the worst.

"No, but...", Sei managed to swallow down his tears with difficulty, "Seeing him in the state he is in now... that might have been for the better."

Tae's eyes widened but then she continued to guess.
"Is he comatose?"

Sei shook his head.
"No, but he cannot move, never again, and he can't speak. He can't even see..."

Sei still hesitated to tell Tae what exactly had happened to Aoba, since he feared that the poor woman might have a heart attack if he flat out told her the truth.

"Can't move, can't see, can't speak... but not in a comatose state."
Tae repeated the information given to her with a dry, cracking voice.
"It sounds like he's trapped inside of his own body like an invalid."

Tears welled up in Sei's eyes again and he roughly wiped at them with the hem of his sleeve while pulling his knees up to this chin and hiding his face behind them before he nodded with a sniff. Tae slapped a hand infront of her mouth and gasped "Oh my God" then Sei heard her whimper. The sound was so unbecoming for this spritely old lady it nearly broke Sei's heart and he reached out for her shivering hands with his own.

"The documents state that the one responsible for it was someone named Clear. Do you happen to know him, Tae-san?"

"Clear?", Tae wrecked her brain over whom she had known with that name, "...Clear... Clear! The man with the gas mask on his face!"

"A gas mask?" Remembering the pictures of Clear attached to his file and the video boradcast from Toue's room plus the fact that Clear looked almost exactly like an Alpha, save for the two little moles below his lips, Sei couldn't associate Clear with a gas mask. He hadn't worn one when he had accompanied Aoba on the day they had arrived at Oval Tower, but Tae seemed very sure of that fact.

"Yes, it was quite memorable, he wouldn't even take it off when eating something. But aside from that oddity he seemed like a rather cheery and good natured young man. I had no occassion to speak with him in private, though. And you say he is responsible for Aoba's... current state? It seems so unlikely."
Tae furrowed her brows while recalling Clear's behavior in her mind.

"I am sure, Tae-san", Sei stated, "I hoped you would know him more, but I guess he is able to act human convincingly enough."

Sei's comment made Tae sit up.
"What do you mean by 'act human'?"

"He is a machine." Tae blinked once, dumbfounded for the moment and Sei continued, "He is an android similar to the Alphas. You know, Toue's personel guards? The men in white. They sometimes wear white masks, too."

"Ah yes, I've seen them.", Tae nodded, "The ones able to produce Dye Music."

"Exactly.", Sei confirmed, but Tae wanted to make sure, seemingly still in disbelief.

"And Aoba's friend... Clear... He is one of them, you say?"

"He was an earlier model that was produced years ago and classified as defective, so Toue wanted to get rid of him. But somebody found him, reprogrammed him and some time later he became friends with Aoba somehow.", Sei tried to give Tae a summary of the report he had read.

"But why would he harm Aoba now? I don't think Aoba is the type to choose his friends that poorly. At least the few that I know of don't seem like they are bad people at their core." Tae sighed and folded her hands together, entwining her fingers and seemed lost in thought.

"I wondered about that, too. The files I found about him state that he was set back to default after Toue got hold of him and now he is acting inhuman towards Aoba." Sei grabbed at his sheets and gritted his teeth, pressing his lips into a thin line. The image of Aoba having no limbs anymore popped up in Sei's head again and he swallowed hard.

"Does that mean Clear's not responsible for doing those things to Aoba?", Tae asked with a faint tinge of hope colouring her question. "Was it part of one of Toue's experiments maybe? He cannot go against any of Toue's commands after all."

Sei shook his head, not being able to look the old woman in the eye.
"There is no hint in the documents stating that, so I assume he acted on his own free will."

Tae was surprised beyond belief and only stared at Sei with a bewildered look on her face. Sei gave her a sympathetic half-smile.
"I don't know why he did it, but I intend to find that out. I want to speak to Clear myself. I want to understand what made him hurt Aoba and on that level even. I don't think I could forgive him even if I knew, but I simply have to know."

"I understand.", Tae endorsed him, having found her voice again, and Sei was sure she had the same determination to seek that answer. But for Sei there was something else that had crossed his mind. He wanted to set matters right again. He wanted Aoba to be happy and he wanted to find out if this android named Clear, who claimed to love his little brother, deserved to continue being by Aoba's side. He wanted to ascertain if that passionate and heroic picture Clear had given off when he had tried to protect Aoba from Toue and his robotic brothers with his own life on the line had been fake or real. And then Sei would decide if he was going to allow Clear to help with an idea that might pose a solution for Aoba's ailment and help Sei at the same time. He couldn't just sit there and do nothing any longer. It was enough. He had not given up entirely in believing in a good ending.

"If you want to talk to Clear I think I can arrange that", Tae's words tore Sei away from his train of thoughts and after needing some time to understand what he was told, he shook his head with a smile.
"I don't need you to do that, Tae-san. He's a machine connected to Oval Tower's network, so I can just command him over here if I want to see him." Sei's face turned serious then. "I need you for something else, though. Do you know a researcher or engineer who is good with robotics? Somebody who can repair and reprogram an android if necessary."

Tae's eyes went wide.
"You want to set back Clear to the state he was in before Toue got hold of him?"

"Yes." Sei was determined to do so. "I cannot forgive Clear for what he has done to Aoba, no matter the reason he might have had, but I want him to atone for what he did. Even so, his current settings probably won't allow for that to happen, at least not if he's thinking in the same ruthless patterns like the Alphas do."

Tae was surprised to hear something like that out of Sei's mouth. He had spoken in an unusually harsh tone, too.
"The way you said that so determinedly... It sounds like you want to take vengeance on him, Sei."

"I do.", Sei's answered bluntly before even having to think about it, "I never felt like this before. But when I think about what he did to Aoba... I kind of want to make him suffer. It's a feeling that's completely new to me. I can't explain it. It's curious."

"No, you don't need to explain, I can relate to it.", Tae agreed with Sei's feelings, "As a person who loves Aoba, I know exactly how you feel."
A heavy sigh escaped her nose and they kept silent for a while. Tae stared at the hands folded in her lap while thinking. When she rose from her seat she said: "I think I know the right man for the job. Plus, he dislikes Toue es much as I do, so I don't think he'll betray us. I'll contact him and tell him what you want him to do."

"Thank you, Tae-san."

"We will need a room where we can set everything up, though. Preferably an unsupervised one.", Tae added to their brain storming, but Sei only smiled back at her.

"We can use mine, it's no problem for me to trick the supervision in here. Don't worry about those details, Tae-san. I'll get Clear, you get the mechanic and then we'll see." Tae nodded once and with their plan in mind they parted ways for the day.