Caught between a state of restlessness, she moves around her bed and fills her mind with the darkest of thoughts that could only come out in times like these; nightmares tend to slip from their cage when the victim is alone. All she wants to do is sink into her cotton sheets and run away from this reality, from what it hold secret to the keeper of this world, but she can't. Today is October seventh and she must face-
"Aria?"
She doesn't make any sort of motion to let the speaker know she is awake, but he already knows that she is; Aria never stays asleep past six.
"Are you okay?" He asks once he's closed the door and slipped under her sheets, taking up the space where her hands had once been clinging to air.
She wants to tell him the truth, tell him everything he ought to know and is going to face, but all she can manage to do is ruffle his messy hair and crawl closer to his warm body.
"I'm fine, Oliver. I just…I didn't think that this day would ever happen." She tries to drop subtle hints, but he never seems to understand; blissfully ignorant. It's one of the things she both loves and hates about him.
"Well, days come and go, right? Sorry you're not happy about that…Want to talk about it?" She doesn't bother to stare at his eyes that beg for information, honesty, and everything else she can't give him. She hates herself for feeling so weak, being so weak, and wishes for nothing more than for him to have the strength to do what he must as she presses her forehead to his neck.
"I love you, Oliver. You're such a great boy and deserve more." All true. Even though he returns the confession and holds her close, all she feels is pain because she knows he doesn't understand what love she is talking about.
Sweet Ann, his and her 'mother', knocks on the door and announces breakfast is ready. That's all it takes for him to rush out of the room and for her to realize there is no time for moping.
"Did you tell him yet?" She finally asks; Aria was anticipating this question since she woke up.
"No, you know I can't."
Cul smiles at the way the words leave Aria's lips, as though they're forced, filled with a mixture of scorn and hopelessness.
"I may be just a part of this, and I am not on your side, so don't think that I am saying this as a change of heart; good luck."
Aria looks to Cul, and, against all the odds, wonders if it's the Cul she knows, the one that doesn't belong and shouldn't be here with her. Her suspicions diminish when a glimpse of the hollow lie is caught. It disappoints and relieves her; it makes what she's going to do go a lot smoother.
"I'm going to win." Are Aria's last words as she packs up her boxed lunch and walks away. She'd rather not stick around Cul and feel a glimmer of regret that should't be there.
Everyone near her watches her leave with a smile.
You'll never win.
Throughout the school day, Aria pays no attention to her classes or the people in it. To her, it was all unimportant, because soon, she was going to win. She was going to prove this lie wrong by coming out victorious, and so she waited.
Oliver exited his school alongside Hibiki Lui and Nekomura Iroha. The trio laughed over a joke before they set their eyes on Aria. While Oliver looked at her with a cheerful grin, Lui and Iroha smiled sardonically. The smiles left their faces as soon as Oliver faced them.
"I'll see you guys tomorrow!" Leaves his lips with happiness as Aria glares at them, taking Oliver's hand and leading him away.
"We doubt it." The two whispered silently to one another.
"Umm, sis, where are we going?" Oliver asks once the silence has dragged to long. He remembers always talking to her as they walk; the silence disturbs him.
The two are in a part of the town that looks abandoned, with rusted gates and walls peeling beige paint. It's ominous, bleak, and scares him a tad more than the silence. Aria looks to him, really looks at him, and Oliver sees something in her eyes that he cannot identify.
The sky swirls white and blue around their bodies, as though they were walking on the sky. It's then that all his fears magnify as a giant, grey robot that reminds him of a cartoon he once saw appears behind her.
"IA, step aside. You have lost." The robot speaks with the voice of a scratched up record.
"I haven't lost yet." She doesn't facing it. Her eyes stay locked Oliver's, and for a split second, his school uniform blurs into a different uniform she wishes he could see.
"Oliver, please wake up." The way she says those words remind him of the time his mother told him that James was going to a better place when he was digging the birds' grave; a mixture of concern and pity that hurts more than it relieves. "James isn't dead, but if you don't wake up you will be."
The robot walks past Aria to Oliver's side. With one knee down, it's still over half his size.
"Don't touch him!"
The two turn attention to the frazzled teen. It's then that he snaps out of his daze and finds himself more angry than confused; tears do not fit Aria.
"Go away! You made my sister cry yo-"
"Oliver!" She yells too late, watches as his body's tossed aside like some rag doll. The world loses all its color as he falls. "You said you wouldn't hurt him!" Her scream is deafening, tears stick platinum blond hair to pale cheeks.
"And you said you wouldn't speak a word. We both broke our promises, and now we'll both watch as this world fades away."
He wants to, tries to get up, but finds himself unable to. The only thing he can do is stretch his hand out to Aria. He knows that she'll help him up, has faith in her, so he watches and waits for something that is taking too long for his liking.
"Aria, help me!" As the echo of those words fades into oblivion, the world becomes too silent for his liking.
She opens her mouth, but he hears nothing and, with a horrible, sick feeling pooling in his stomach, realizes he has become deaf; one of his greatest fears has come to life.
'I'm sorry' is says slow enough for Oliver to decipher. He tries, tries with all his might to scream, but can't seem to open his mouth anymore. Like a person dying slowly, each function is shutting down; a deep curtain of sleep is starting to cloud his head. Slow, too slowly, his eyes begin to feel like lead, begging to close. He knows that if he follows with the wish, he will never be able to open his eyes again, to see his family and friends and the one person he loves more than anyone, the same person that he's watching wipe her tears away.
The robot, Oliver now notices, is fading away, a figment of a smile etched on its steel lips. But then, the eyes of the creature widen as its arm that hold scissors for fingers is yanked away. The circuits spit out blue static as the robot turns to face the girl who dares defy it, the one who hasn't smiled all day and still wears a frown, rage and pure determination etched into her sky blue eyes. Oliver feels the urge to sleep melt away as the person he still believes to be his sister holds the stainless steel index finger close to her stomach.
"I refuse to let you win." The words echo faintly in his mind as she stabs her stomach with the scissor blade.
His heart stops beating, horror etched across a young face as he waits for the red flood to fall.
Nothing happens.
"Oliver, You're not human!" The words sting him almost as much as her action; his senses become numb to everything except her. She is the lifeline; it's slipping from his grasp. "This world is a lie! You have to wake up; you have realize you're not human! You're an android, and right now you're being wrongfully shut down. If you don't override the system, you'll be eternally deleted." Each word comes in louder than the last, until it's nothing but a blur of unprocessed screams.
"W-What are you talking about?" Strength cuts the sheets of sleep, allowing him to speak and move his head to clearly see the robot look at her with hollow eyes, condemning her for saying such blasphemy. "I am human! Sis, what a-"
"Stop it!" She stands, the fingers move along with her, leaving scratches on skin that won't bleed. "I am not your sister and you are not human. All the memories you have of this place, the people here, it's all a lie! When an android is being uninstalled, the people who uninstall it allow the android to see an illusion of what they want, sort of like a last wish. That's why you have both eyes and this human life, when in reality you're an android with one eye that sings for the people who are wrongfully pulling your plug. If you don't wake up now, they will deem you fully useless and you'll never come back. You have to believe me!"
He has to, but he doesn't.
"It's too late, IA. Let him go." The program speaks. "He has only has fifteen seconds left."
Against his and the robots wishes, Oliver watches as Aria walks closer to his body. She sits by his side and carefully places his head on her lap, making sure that the programs hand doesn't cut him. "Oliver. If I was lying, I would have died when I pierced my stomach. Please, you need to override the system; you need to wake up."
She knows he is still skeptical, still holds a piece of hope that deceives him, tells him this isn't dream and that, if he does as she says, everyone he loves will die, that she'll die too. Aria wishes she didn't have to do what she had to do, but she will not give up; Aria on the planets refuses to lose.
"I'm sorry." Leaves IA's lips one last time as she takes the pinky of the robots scissor-hand, sheds her last tear, and brings the blade down on Oliver's left eye.
His scream pierces the world like the knife that pierces his sight; everything evaporates.
In a laboratory on the outskirts of a small town in Britain, scientist watch with grins plastered on their lips as a boy wrapped in wires wakes up.
In Japan, a girl with wires attached to her head allows herself the privilege to smile, knowing that she has beaten the game.
Several weeks later, the two meet, and he cries into her shoulder as she whispers words of comfort, warmth, and happiness for his safe return.
I win.
You lost.