I know this is late but heres a long one:


Forget

He knows he will wake up in the ocean.

The day is cloudy, the miles and miles ahead painted in grey and the stretches of sea around him are the same. Sails rise like spires into the air, but here, it is windless. He can't feel the bob of the water and instead feels very much grounded and stable. The ship is made of old wood and smells of sea and brine. Ropes hang loosely at their posts and Frankenstein is standing in the middle of the open deck. Raizel is nowhere to be seen. He knows to expect him, though he does not appear.

Frankenstein is awake.

"Aa — Hoy!" a familiar voice calls.

Frankenstein turns to his right, eyes falling upon a figure leant over the ship's wheel. There is a pirate's hat adorning his head. The sails are black with skulls and crossbones on them.

"Tao?" Frankenstein is immediately next to him. His boots clack against the floorboards. "What are you doing here?"

Tao grins, poking his too-large pirate's hat back. Then he parts his hair a little, getting it out of his eyes as the hat pressed it down. "M-21 said you'll ask me that."

"Ask what?"

"That."

"Tao…"

Tao straightens, fixing his hat as he falls over his eyes again. "He also told me to tell you that Sir Raizel told him to tell me to tell you—"

"Tao!"

Tao smirks, then scratches his head. "Sorry, Boss. Anyway, they told me to ask you: do you remember what you need to do?" Tao says it seriously, smile wiping off his face like the sun going behind clouds. All is calm. All is before a storm. "Or maybe a better way of putting it is 'Do you remember what not to do?'

Frankenstein frowns. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"And he said that you'll say that too." Tao clicks his tongue. "Alright, I'm going to repeat it. Boss, please," Tao says, voice low, "you have to listen very carefully. The two most important things you need to know are:

You can't trust Sir Raizel

You can't fall asleep

"Got it?"

Frankenstein feels anger crawling through his guts, but quells it on a whim he didn't know he has. "I can't trust Master?"

"I know how it sounds, but you need to listen to me, Boss. Please."

Frankenstein nods despite himself. "Why can't I fall asleep?" he wonders, though the question is useless; he couldn't possibly fall asleep on his feet.

Tao's hat had slipped away sometime between reciting the two conditions and him asking that question. "I don't know. But that's what that Raizel wants you to do. So you can't do it."

Anger begins to boil again. Why? Why can't he trust the one person he's always trusted? He takes a step forward towards Tao, who takes a step backwards. It grows stronger, simmering in the pit of his stomach as the words leave his mind, bringing him to another plane of grey and white. He didn't feel much of anything, this time. When his foot hits the floor, his shoes no longer clack against the floorboards, instead they sink into soft dirt. Frankenstein is awake.

Something grips his shoulders with power, hard enough to bruise and crease his clothes. Tao wrenches him forward.

"What — Tao?!" he calls, and immediately relaxes upon seeing him. But Tao's eyeing behind him, eyes narrowing into slits as they dart suspiciously from side to side. "Don't fall," he says. Tao points behind him. Frankenstein looks. His stomach takes a lurch as wonders how high up this cliff is, and how long the fall could be.

"We've gotta be careful," Tao says, helping him up. "I think we've got limited time. I'm not sure if time's really a concept here, but the time between the scene changes vary. I thought it might have been the amount of words I've said, but I know I talk more than M-21 so…?"

Frankenstein doesn't understand and can't take much more of this. "Tao, nothing you say makes sense!"

"I already told you, nothing makes sense here!" M-21 growls at the edge of the cliff.

"M-21?" Frankenstein reacts.

"M-21!" Tao cries. "What are you doing here?"

"Don't! You dare say that to me again." M-21 points a menacing finger at him.

"…Ok, ok."

M-21 turns to Frankenstein, but speaks to Tao. "He's coming soon. He's coming."

"Already? I haven't seen him yet," but Tao's fingers clench.

"You will, Tao!"

"M-21, Tao," Frankenstein shook his head, trying to dissipate the feeling of vaguessness, and haziness, intangible things. "You're here to help me, I know that. But I can't remember why."

Tao and M-21 share a look. "How do you know, Boss?"

Frankenstein looked at his hands. He doesn't know when they've started to shake. "Whenever you say or do something towards that goal, I think I feel incredibly angry. Irrationally so — I…" Frankenstein stops, not wanting to scare them. "It's not right."

M-21 looks lost for a moment, but then goes straight into business. "Frankenstein, we're here to get you out," he says, stark and sure.

Tao splays his fingers, gesticulating as he spoke. "So we know the scene has to change, Frankenstein has to fall or blink or whatever — and then he forgets everything. Well. Most of everything." A smile snakes across his face as he leans forward mirthfully, shadowing his eyes. "We're not going to play by the rules. Let's wing it." Tao clicks his fingers, winking. "What do you think, Boss?"

"That's dumb," M-21 grunts.

"What do you think, Boss?"

"I tried pulling him in the opposite direction from where he was going, last time. It didn't work."

"Sorry, '21, I didn't know you got promoted to 'Boss'," Tao says snidely, making Frankenstein slap a hand to cover his eyes.

"Listen, you two, if what Tao said before was true then we still have limited time. We've got a plan, now follow it." If no plan could be considered a plan altogether, to be 'winging it.' Frankenstein begins to walk to the edge of the cliff at another spot. Tao and M-21 frenzy, each going up to grab an arm.

"What the hell are you doing?!" M-21 cries, face going red and fearful.

Frankenstein shakes them off vigorously. "Scanning the area," he says calmly. "We need to know where this is, do we not?"

Tao flinched. "This place is a real place?"

Frankenstein frowned. "That was what I was trying to find out. Not jump the cliff," he says, just a little bit irritated.

M-21's mouth twitched. "Before…the last time — you said the room with the tea and computer was a bunker of yours."

Tao jerks upright, look of understanding and surprise in his eyes. "Why didn't you tell me that before, M-twenty — never mind! This is good news. This is something to go about," Tao mutters. He looks up at Frankenstein earnestly. "We got down one of the places already — it's a bunker room. A solid location. That means that each of these places must also be somewhere you recognise, Boss."

Frankenstein's face falls. He wants to know what's happening, what has come before, but his mind is too empty. It feels too hard for him to think. Thankfully, Tao and M-21 are here. He got angry about something that happened before, but he could never be angry like that with them — that was the moment he knew something was wrong. The feeling of wrongness pervaded the space.

"I don't know this place." His voice comes out quiet and unsure. "Tao…I don't know where we are."

Tao's doesn't go offbeat at all. "Alright…that's ok. You think on it while I think about what the places might mean."

"He's here."

M-21's back is turned on them, faced towards a figure that he was blocking from view.

"Frankenstein." Raizel took a step towards M-21, and M-21 didn't move.

"Master," Frankenstein replies immediately.

Tao moves with a speed that makes him loose track of where he is before he appears right before him, shielding Frankenstein from behind M-21 and Raizel. "I hate to break it to you, Boss, but you already broke rule number one."

Frankenstein doesn't remember what rule number one is, only that Tao and M-21 are both stopping him from seeing Raizel. "Master," Frankenstein asks, a plea.

"What are you doing here?"

He can't see Raizel, can't see the expression on his face fall and the lines on his face crease. "I'm here to see you, Frankenstein."

"GET AWAY FROM HIM," M-21 starts shouting, "GET—"

"M-21 YOU'RE STRESSING HIM OUT!" Tao joins in.

"Frankenstein," Raizel speaks softly, "come here."

Frankenstein moves before he understands. Tao tries to stop him. Then he is behind him, Tao's voice going loopy and M-21's growing dimmer. M-21 is getting forced back without effort, legs digging into the dirt as he pushes his crossed hands forward to block the repulsion.

"I'm here."

Raizel's eyes are ruby and crimson, blood pools in standstills. Everything about him was a standstill — no time or place or hindrance. Just Raizel.

"I have something to say," Raizel says.

"What is it?" Frankenstein asks, every part of him attuned to Raizel's quips and quirks, how to read him and understand. But Raizel is unreadable, not his body language or voice or eyes. His eyes seem so still that it's eerie. Frankenstein doesn't really notice this; even if he does, he can't remember.

"But I already told you."

Frankenstein blinks, taken aback. The sound of the sea crashes against the foot of the cliff below, adorned with rock and rough.

"Beware the edge."

"The edge?"

Frankenstein turns around. M-21 is gone. He is just in time to see a flicker of white hair among a head of black, disappearing below the edge — Tao. All goes strange and uncanny as he runs to the end without hesitation. But the second he feels the falling sensation in the pit of his stomach, his insides upturning and the wind cutting past his ears, he opens his eyes and Tao is nowhere to be found.

Mid-fall, he twists up, wondering what Raizel would think. He hasn't listened to him.

At the top of the cliff, leaning dangerously over it and hand reached out desperately trying to hold onto something — Frankenstein doesn't know what — was M-21.

Breath flutters out of him as he descends, a warm, white haze. Frankenstein looks ahead. The place is completely silent, everything buried under six feet of snow. Not even the creak of a tree branch or a crunch of footsteps upon heavy snow. He lugs his weight ahead, dragging a deep wake behind him. He watches his reflection as he passes rows of icicles clung to dead trees. His reflection is distorted and elongated, only a blend of colours. There is nothing much to see but white here. It is too silent. Frankenstein is awake.

Someone holds his hand in theirs, and Frankenstein balks.

"What's wrong?" Raizel asks.

"...Nothing, My Lord."

"You're cold."

"It's snowing, after all."

"No, it is not."

There is not a gust of wind in this place. Raizel reaches over, touching Frankenstein's cheek. "But it is still cold."

"I have a coat, Master," Frankenstein replies affectionally, gingerly taking Raizel's hand away. Raizel's hand is freezing. "You — you're freezing!"

Frankenstein pulls the coat off of him, draping it over Raizel. Raizel doesn't look pleased. "They lead you astray, Frankenstein," Raizel says.

Frankenstein pulls back. "Pardon?"

"Astray."

Frankenstein, for the moment, doesn't know how to answer him.

"Frankenstein!"

Frankenstein turns to look behind him. Tao runs towards him, breathes laboured. "Don't forget! You didn't forget, right?"

Frankenstein turns back. There is nothing there. What was he facing?

"Forget what?" Frankenstein starts going towards Tao, trying to close the distance. The thick snow around them is gone. He runs fast.

Do not…

Do not…

What was it?

"Did you see Raizel?" Tao asks immediately.

"No," Frankenstein shakes his head.

"Cool."

"Shut it, Tao."

"That wasn't supposed to pun I swear."

Tao is shivering, breaths still too fast. Frankenstein pulls off his winter coat and drapes it over Tao. "Here."

"You…you d-don't want it?" his teeth chatter out.

"You can talk back to me when your teeth aren't about to jump out of your skull." Frankenstein pulls the coat over him tight.

Tao settles and begins to follow him. Frankenstein has begun to walk. He doesn't know when he started doing that. After a period of silence and walking, Tao asks, "So, do you know where this is?"

Frankenstein looks into the unclear sky. "Yes. It's Russia."

"Russia?" Tao repeats, filing it away. They arrive at the edge of a lake. Tao recognises something he does, putting a hand before him to stop their movement. "I don't think we should get on the ice, Boss."

"Why not?"

"Frankenstein, we can't!"

Frankenstein took his foot off the ice. Tao is staring him, expression on fire. "I know what happens next. You fall. Listen to me — the things you must not, cannot, and will not do, are: "

Trust Sir Raizel

Sleep

And fall

"Don't fall, Frankenstein! If you fall, this all goes down the drain—" Tao gestures to the snow and sky, looking left, right. "You'll forget and then we'll have to start over."

Frankenstein shakes his head, fists clenching. "I understand. Thank you, Tao."

"Ok. So where do you think this is in Russia?"

"Tver Oblast. The North. Lake Seliger," Frankenstein says, recognition working in his eyes, "I've been here before…on my travels." It was as if a fog had lifted. The place begins to unfurl before him: structures in the distance materialising, a bridge taking form, and the smoke of fireplaces billowing above.

Tao gasped, head turning in all directions. "You're seeing what I'm seeing, right? This place is changing. A lot."

"No," Frankenstien says, taking a step forward, "it's as if…I just remembered what it's supposed to be like." Ice cracks beneath his feet. Frankenstein plummets into the water. Tao flinches, jerking forward to take his hand.

"Dang it, Boss. What did I just tell you?" he muttered under his breath. Tao tensed, trying to pull Frankenstein's lower half out of the lake. "I don't get it. Sir Raizel didn't even show up."

Something beneath the ice has taken ahold of Frankenstein. He only notices when Tao struggles, both hands weakening as Frankenstein sinks. He wants so badly to let go.

"Boss don't let go!" Tao shouts.

"Tao," Frankenstein says calmly. "Tao it's alright."

Tao whimpers, eyes beading with tears. "No, no it's not. You're going to fall and you can't. You just can't." He scoffs. "We just made so much progress, you can't forget it."

"Tao." Frankenstein lets go of one hand. Tao lurches forward to hold the other. He speaks slow and calm, doing everything he can to reassure him."You know this is a cycle, and one I can't escape. That's why you're here. I'll try to stay in each place for as long as possible, but it's inevitable that I fall. Let go of me, or you're going to freeze in this lake."

Tao purses his lips, frowning. "I'll find you in the next place, Boss. I'm gonna find a way to get you out."

Frankenstein frowns. With that, he lets go abruptly. Frankenstein went crashing beneath the waves. He falls slowly, ready to see the scene dissolve and change, even if he doesn't remember where he would go to next. There was a pattern and he sensed it, even if he couldn't keep it in mind. Frankenstein looks down. The one that was dragging him down was Raizel.

He opens his mouth, gulping down cold water and causing bubbles to rise and obscure his view. Raizel takes his hand in the water, squeezing it tight. They change positions, Frankenstein floating towards the deep as Raizel watches him from atop.

"Don't worry, Frankenstein," he says. Raizel's voice is sure and steady and coherent in the water. "I'll protect you."

Frankenstein, unknowingly, nods.

His hits the lake floor languidly. He leans back in his cushioned seat, typing furiously in a language he can no longer use.

Raizel is still holding his hand. He breaks the hold first, watching him strangely. What was he looking for? Raizel pours tea in two identical cups. The smell of jasmine clings to the roof of his tongue. He takes a sip as Raizel offers it. Frankenstein is awake.

"Wait," Frankenstein goes, chuckling a little. "You don't need to tell me to rest. I'm fine. Really, Master. I can do this much." Raizel walks over to his other side, shifting the pens and papers and newspapers away from Frankenstein.

A silence passes. "You worry me," Raizel says softly.

Frankenstein goes upright in his seat. "I…I don't mean to."

"I know." Raizel sighs, and Frankenstein's heart goes heavy, he can't bear to see Raizel like this.

Frankenstein lingers there, biting into the insides of his cheek. "Alright, I'll stop now," he says jovially, pouring them both another cup. "What will you have me do?"

Raizel smiles. "I'd like you to rest."

"I think I will," Frankenstein replies.

The computer buzzes and flashes on. "I think NOT," Tao says, throwing his fringe out of the way on the screen. "You," Tao points at Raizel, "You get away from Boss. You're not real." His eyes narrow, going sinister. "Only real people get to talk to my Boss."

"T-Tao?" Frankenstein gets up instantly, knocking his chair away into nothing. "How dare you? How incredibly rude!"

Frankenstein looks to his right, but no one's there. Raizel is gone. He blinks, confused.

"What do you remember?" Tao says without a beat, as if Raizel had never existed. "From the last time?"

"The…the last time?"

Tao nods. The screen glitches, folding Tao's hair and face together. He keeps speaking, image distorted. "Lake Seliger? The ship?"

"…Tao I can't…"

"It's ok, Boss. M-21 already told me that you told him that this place is one of your bunkers'. Can you tell me which one?" Frankenstein gets to work. He opens all the drawers on the desk, fumbling out nothing. Only the top is covered with pages. He flips through them, trying to find coherent work. What was he typing?

"It's one of my very first ones. This is Korea, somewhere underground."

"Korea?" Tao barks, surprised. He looks around the room via the screen. "Good. Cool. Ok then."

The room begins to change, just like the last time. The desk begins to fill up with things, ink and parchment and photos and clues. On the back wall, a large map was stretched across. Frankenstein frowns. He puts a tentative hand on a marker, reading his own handwriting that he did not remember writing.

Lukedonia, outskirts. Last seen.

Gaul

Germany, Duchy of Württemberg

Burgundy, nothing.

Korea, base.

You're tired, Frankenstein.

Frankenstein flinched. Suddenly, the map has changed. Same places, same markings, but all that was written down has been rewritten.

You're tired, Frankenstein.

You overexert.

You're tired.

Tired.

You

should

sleep.

"Boss," Tao says excitedly. "You didn't ask me what I was doing here."

Frankenstein's heartbeat climbs.

The floor sinks and opens, swallowing him up.

Frankenstein stands before the fireplace, feeling the heat on his face. Frankenstein is awake.

"Frankenstein?" Raizel asks.

"Yes, Master?"

"Did you forget?"

Frankenstein pulls back, a little concerned. "Pardon, Master?"

Raizel looks different, somehow. Dark shadows line his face as the glow of the fire reaches it, making him seem gaunt. He looks desolate. He clutches his seat. "You said that you will not tire of me."

The words hang between them for a long time.

"What have I done that has made you think this?" Frankenstein replies strongly. "What is it? Who is it?!" he says brashly.

Raizel tilts his head up. "You're tired of me."

"I don't care how tired I am. I want to be with you."

Raizel's eyes twinkle. "There's someone at the door, Frankenstein."

Frankenstein turns around. There is only the sound of fire crackling. He starts towards the door. The door bashes open before he reaches it, causing wood splinters to fly past his face and in his hair.

"Yo~ Boss. Ah, I know where this is — this is the mansion. It's Lukedonia." Tao's expression falls as he opens his mouth vacantly. "…M-21 would have told me if he saw the mansion…this is new." Frankenstein had no idea what he was jabbering about.

"Tao, there is a manner of custom called 'knocking.'" Frankenstein crosses his arms. He opens the door wide for him, even though the door had clearly been destroyed moments ago. Tao comes in. Upon entering, he abruptly reaches for his back pocket, feeling for a weapon that didn't exist.

"What is he doing here?" he sneers.

Raizel is watching the fire.

Frankenstein looks to him and frowns. "…Master?" he says, boggled. "He lives here."

Tao isn't satisfied by that answer, scoffing. "No, he doesn't. I mean, technically, he might, but I expect that rent while living here is a normally functioning Boss. He's way overdue."

Tao goes towards Raizel. Raizel immediately seems to notice him, getting up. Frankenstein stops him midway. "What are you doing?"

Tao sighs. "Boss, do you remember rule number one?"

His head buzzes. Everything goes hazy. Tao is disappearing and the words form in his head.

Do not trust Cadis Etrama di Raizel

The field of flowers appear, long grass weaving between his hair and limbs. He feels exasperated, totally boneless. The stars twinkle above in the sky, untouchable. Frankenstein is awake. There is no one beside him. No one appears. He has started to expect someone to appear, though he doesn't know who. What is he doing here? Frankenstein twists and turns, uncomfortable no matter what he tries. Nothing feels correct. He needs to do something that's important. What was it?

Frankenstein gets up and starts walking. Ahead, the meadow stretches on. He looks down: white and pink daisies, yellow dandelions, bellflowers, and poppies. Behind him, there is an end. A dark forest marks the end to the meadow.

"Alaska," he says aloud to no one. "This is spring in the tundra — after the snow has melted."

The meadow begins to be shadowed by something looming over. Frankenstein notices the mountains in the distance for the first time. "I've been here before," he murmurs, "but…I'm not really here? Am I?"

"Are you?"

Frankenstein lurches up, trying to find the familiar voice. As he looks at Raizel, the world contorts around him, pulling him into somewhere else. The carpet beneath his feet is red and slightly worn. Identical walls go on forever, the occasional mirror framed. Frankenstein is awake.

"Where am I?" Frankenstein asks Raizel politely.

"Where this is."

"Where is this, then?"

Raizel shakes his head solemnly, a sorry expression on his face. "I cannot answer you, Frankenstein."

"Master," Frankenstein says. His hands clench and unclench, hairs at the back of his neck pricking up in fear. "Master, why are you doing this?"

"What am I doing?"

"I don't know!" Frankenstein lets out a breath, buckling before he catches himself. "…This isn't right, Master…and I can't retain why…"

Raizel is before him in an instant he can't recall. He cups his face, stroking his hair out of his eyes. "Perhaps this is simply where you want to be."

Frankenstein blanches in his hold, but doesn't lean out of it. He takes a look at the red carpet again. The long corridor has appeared when he wasn't looking, with mirrors framed at every three metres.

"Why here?"

"Only you know the answer," Raizel says quietly.

Frankenstein sighs. Slowly, he gently takes Raizel's hand away, but doesn't let go of it altogether.

"Where are the children?" he asks him.

Raizel looks impassive. "There is no one else."

"There is." Frankenstein's throat clenches. "There has to be." Frankenstein turns around, trying to look for someone else. There is no one but them in the never-ending corridor. He turns back, more confused than ever. It's slowly slipping out of his mind, the important things, and there was nothing he could do to keep them there.

Raizel's face looks pained. "Aren't you tired, Frankenstein?" he says, a deep consternation in his eyes.

Frankenstein's lips quirk up on one end. "I'm so tired, Master," he admits. "I'm so tired and I want this to stop."

Raizel steps forward, carefully, gingerly, pressing his lips to Frankenstein's cheek. "Then sleep."

Wind courses around them, upturning the place and throwing around the mirrors and framed pieces, tousling reality itself. Frankenstein gasps and stumbles, diving to one side to lean on the wall.

The ground begins to shake and crawl. A large, black blade uproots the red carpet, poking and rising like a crescent moon. Then, the blade pulls across the surface, slicing the entire corridor apart. A hole appears in the space between it, an unreality not visible to the eye. The Death scythe looms out of this dimension. Seira steps onto the red carpet completely pristine.

"Chairman," she says, swinging the scythe safely behind her, "You're here!" She clasps his arm, helping him get upright. Frankenstein wasn't aware that he'd sunk to the floor.

"Seira," Frankenstein says, stunned. Behind her, the floor and the walls and the mirrors began to knit back together, broken glass finding its fragmented pieces and fibres weaving into one another like nothing has happened. All evidence of the rift closes off as easily as it came. There is nothing to be remembered.

"What are you doing here?" he blinks. "Where's — where's…"

"Tao?" Seira finishes. She looks concerned for a moment. "Tao's been hurt. But it's integral someone is with you to disrupt the cycle." Seira looks down both ends of the corridor. "This place never ends, correct?"

Frankenstein's eyes goes wide as he affirms it, "It…it doesn't end. I should know this."

Seira shook her head. "Fine." With that, Seira swept up her scythe again, pointing it towards the place she had come from. "If we can't get out of here by following then we'll do it by brute force." Seira launched the scythe up, bringing it down with immense power as her feet left the floor to put her entire weight into the attack.

Frankenstein braced for an impact that never comes. Seira freezes, strong attack directly blocked by two fingers. Raizel stood before her, shifting the tip of Death scythe to his right between two knuckles. "You are not welcome here," he declared.

Something happens. Seira is thrown back and Frankenstein jumps into action. He kicks off the wall, going at top speed to catch her before she rolls into nothingness. Seira gets up immediately, changing her grip on the scythe. Nothingness appears as the corridor again. "He's strong like the Noblesse," she says. Seira covers her face, spitting blood to the side. "But that is not he."

Seira readies herself for another charge. Frankenstein lunges before her, stopping her in the nick of time. "Seira — no!"

"Chairman!"

"Guys!" someone calls out from down the halls. Frankenstein spins, but sees no one but them. He takes a glance at his reflection in the mirror, only it isn't his reflection. Tao sighs vehemently, his face in every single mirror down the hall. "Don't be brash! M-21 and I couldn't even stand a chance!"

Seira raised her weapon, frowning. "That's why I'm here."

"No, take Boss and run! You can't beat Sir Raizel!"

"He is not Sir Raizel," Seira spat. But she took hold of Frankenstein, both of them sprinting down the hall, Tao watching them run through all the mirrors.

After a period of running, they have to stop to rest. "Tao, Tao are you alright?" Frankenstein asks, basically shaking the first mirror he sees.

"I'm fine," Tao says from behind him, really there. "See? Got a little roughed up, but not like M-21. Haha."

"This place can't be anywhere" Frankenstein says quickly. "There's no corridor that can go on forever."

Tao relaxes. "We know — we just need to know a couple more locations that's not this corridor."

"What will we do once we know all the locations?" Seira asks.

"Don't know, but I'm planning from there," Tao mutters.

"DUCK!" M-21's voice screeches down the corridor. His face flashes in the mirrors for the split second before they break one by one in procession. Upon the ninth breakage, it stops at Raizel.

They'd compiled with M-21's call, Frankenstein, Seira and Tao ducking as Raizel's red powers went over their heads. Frankenstein looks around for M-21 but he hasn't appeared like Tao. Seira and Tao get ready to fight. Frankenstein jumps in front of them.

"Master."

"Frankenstein," Raizel says, exasperated. "Please, come here."

Frankenstein bites down hard and swallows. He shakes his head.

"Frankenstein!" Raizel calls, voice shaking and Frankenstein wants to tear apart.

"I'm sorry," Frankenstein says, shrugging. "But you're not who I think you are. You can't be and I know it." His entire demeanour changes as he lifts his head in anger. "Master would never, on his life, hurt the children."

Tao and Seira glance at each other, unsure what to do.

"I…I rationalise everything and downplay what's right before me. But it's not totally my fault because this place is designed to keep me here. To keep me subdued."

Tears begins to roll out of Raizel's eyes in rows. "If you trust no one else, Frankenstein, trust yourself. You know the truth."

Frankenstein tastes blood inside his mouth and keeps going. "You look so real and feel so real because it's Master you're imposing and this is my head! But it's still not enough — you're a pale imitation of someone who would tell me not to trust himself — all to protect me from you!"

Raizel wobbled back. The rows of tears streaming down his face grew red. It soaked into his collar, running into the clothes and dotting the carpet even redder than before. The ground adjusts to the shade of his tears instantly. Frankenstein is more awake than ever.

And yet, he is so tired.

"You…you're leaving me?" Raizel says. Frankenstein wished more than anything that he could break character, look not-like Raizel so that he could break the trance, but every time he spoke he pulls him back into the web. "You have tired of me. And you said you wouldn't."

Frankenstein's heart broke for something he didn't want it to break for. "You're not…"

The sound of glass shifting was eerie and echoing. The mirrors mend, not a crack upon them. Another reflection comes through. Frankenstein's seeing his own surprise in Raizel's face in the mirrors. "Frankenstein!" he calls desperately, "I mustn't be trusted! Don't listen to what he says!"

Frankenstein is speechless.

Red aura pules from the imposter Raizel, flooding the corridor and covering the mirrors. Frankenstein eyes lock with his for a moment. They're angry, vengeful eyes that he's never in his life seen in the real Raizel. His entire body stutters for a moment. The mirror cries from the haze, "Know that he means to harm you, and that is how you should know that he is false!"

Tao takes Frankenstein's arm, pulling him backwards as Seira sets herself on the imposter Raizel. Tao grips his shoulders, breathing heavy from adrenaline. "Boss! The fake Noblesse is about to blow! You're not safe and we can't protect you!" His head dips as he sucks in air. "You have to fall, Frankenstein! Fall into the next world! Restart the cycle!"

Frankenstein clutched Tao back, frenzied. "Fall? I, I, I — I don't—"

"Do what you did before!"

"I don't know how to make it change!"

"Fall through the carpet!"

"I can't control it!" Frankenstein pushes past him, pausing for a moment before he starts going back to where Seira is. "Seira — she's in trouble! I can't let her fight alone—"

"NO!" Tao appeared before him, halting him. "No, you can't, it's too risky!"

"She's fighting alone—"

"HE'S AFTER YOU!"

Tao huffs, catching his breath. Frankenstein's eyes go wide and open. The sounds of the fight has stopped. Raizel is right behind Tao, tears staining his face as he looks at Frankenstein wistfully. He can hardly take it.

"Boss," Tao says, "Run. I'll hold him off." Tao pushes him in the opposite direction.

The push works. Frankenstein placed a foot behind him, meant to easily disable the movement and help him strike back immediately, but the floor disappears. The last thing he sees is Tao facing a bleeding Raizel as he falls and changes everything.

It is all encompassing, all boundless. The horizon is too far away from him in the distance, and it blends into the sky. There is cloudlessness and then there is this. His hands graze upon the surface he is lying on. Hard deck of a ship. Large sails flap above, sending shadows to move and dance across his face.

Frankenstein is awake.


Notes

You know that feeling of not being able to remember something Important™? Because that is the worst feeling ever. Like, it just hangs at the back of your mind and makes everything else you do suck because what if The Thing you forgot was something really really important?! AHH

zealith - THANK! Me too, poor M-21

Guest763428 - Ahhhh thank you so much! I'm glad the present tense is good for you, I don't do that often as I prefer past tense~ 'Chaotic and patterned' is good, because everything goes slightly more loopy every time it changes...

Elims - Man...I don't know. I LOVE that you called imposter Rai the "Siren Rai." That's amazing. Other Rai is now officially Siren Rai, trying to lure Franken to his doom with Raizel's face. It's really up to your own interpretation with what is happening. Because your interpretation of the first chapter is very interesting, that real Rai appears more than once. But which one is he? Who knows? Not Franken.

Noblesse00 - 'Crack the fake one's neck' I like how you think. I've said this before but writing Cadis Etrama di Raizel as a villain is deeply unsettling in itself lol. Because Rai is Rai and writing him being mean and deceptive feels like I'm doing something morally bad.

Nobody yet - That's the greatest compliment ever! I love inception it's an amazing movie. Also Memento which is also directed by Nolan. It takes a lot of patience to watch Memento I think, but once I got to a certain point my mind blew out of its cranium. Fun experience. We can't compare this fic to that lol but thank you!

vVanilia - Oh yes! I'm glad you liked the surreal-ness - that's exactly what I was going for! M-21 the poor thing though. Thank you.

Thank you.

-earl