Proof of Existence
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Chapter 3: Fragment Crossing
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Disclaimer: I own nothing.
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Franz blinked. Soft light filtered in from the single window located high on his wall.
It was almost mid-afternoon, he noted drowsily. Standing, he shook his head. He wasn't on duty today.
Closing his eyes, he let out a sigh. A cold trickle of fear wormed it's way into his gut – the silent, half-mocking promise of yet more irregularities thrown his way.
Closing his eyes and summoning up what resolve he could, he headed for the door.
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He spotted Amelia as she rounded the corner. She was busy conversing with one of the other soldiers, and as he approached, she chuckled at something he had said.
He paused for a moment as a strange mix of emotion bubbled up within him. Resentment was strongest – why was it that he, out of everyone else in the entire castle, had to suffer these strange acts?
Doing his best to shove this aside for the time being, he headed up to his fellow knight, calling out to her. "Amelia." He said, waiting for her response.
There was none.
"Amelia?" Franz called, a bit louder this time. Perhaps she hadn't heard him…
Still no response.
A sudden spike of fear filled him. "Amelia?" He said a third time. He was right next to her now. There was simply no way she couldn't hear him.
Please, turn to me. Smile. Say hello. Something. Anything.
She continued her conversation with the guard, oblivious.
He reached for her shoulder, only half surprised to find that his hand passed straight through, as if it were nothing more substantial than the air.
Or perhaps she was the one of substance, and his own flesh was no longer solid enough to touch or to affect her.
Franz turned, hurrying into the mazelike corridors of the ancient castle, wiping angrily at the tears of anguish that ran down his face.
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"Where did he go?" Amelia queried.
"He's… near the throne room. Appears to be slowing down."
"Alright, thanks. I'll go pick him up." With a sigh, she turned, jogging down the hallway.
"This place was designed too blasted huge." She said to no one in particular.
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Franz slumped to the ground beside the double doors of the throne room leaning against the cool stone. He vaguely considered the ramifications of sitting down right next to the centre of power in all Renais, but his ability to give a damn was stunted by the fact that no one appeared to realize he still existed anyway.
Ducking his head, he closed his eyes, trying desperately to decide on his next course of action. Of course, since he didn't have the slightest idea what in the world was happening, deciding on any course of action was a painfully frail measure.
He supposed he could simply wait it out and let whatever was affecting him disappear after a while, as it had so often in the past. Of course, that would simply leave him right back where he started.
So deep in thought was he that it wasn't until he felt a boot nudging his leg that he realized someone was standing next to him.
"Come on. We have to go."
He started, glanced up into the somber face of Amelia. The momentary relief and joy at the fact that she could see him and converse with him was quickly eclipsed by the nervous expression on her face, and the strange outfit she was wearing.
It was almost uniformly gray, made out of some strange material he couldn't immediately identify. He could see a scarlet trim along the edges of the jacket she donned, and along the cuffs of her pants.
"Amelia?" He finally managed to speak. "I don't know-"
"No, Franz." She cut him off with a pained expression on her face. "Not Amelia. Or at least, not the Amelia you knew."
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Raising her communicator to her mouth, Amelia spoke again. "I've found him. Is he tagged?"
"Yes."
"Commence data transfer." She spoke up again.
"Amelia?" Franz cut in, looking increasingly agitated. "What's going on? Who are you talking to?"
"Trust me." She said shortly.
Any further forthcoming replies from him were cut off as the world around them dissolved into a blinding expanse of whiteness. Franz jerked at this, his hand drifting to the sword hilt.
Amelia closed her eyes, thinking, wondering what she could possibly say in order to break this gently to him.
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Franz winced at the blinding flares of light that had seemingly exploded all around him. Only the fact that Amelia seemed calm helped prevent him from panicking, although he didn't know how much longer that could last.
In seconds, though, the light had faded, leaving him slightly disoriented in the dim room he was in. As he turned, trying to get his bearings, he couldn't shake the feeling that everything looked extremely… well, sinister.
Strange boxes from which lights flashed continuously seemingly filled the whole area, with many people hunched silently over them, pressing buttons on a grey tablet in front of them. The strange twisting feeling in his gut was rapidly worsening.
"Amelia." He turned to the one thing he could even remotely rely upon as an anchor at this point. "Tell me what's going on."
She hung her head, looking apologetic. An arm was raising, pointing to one of the particular boxes from which what appeared to be a window displayed a series of images. "Franz, look at that."
Curious, he took a couple of steps over, his eyes widening as he caught sight of what appeared to be Forde in the window, talking to Kyle. As he glanced around, he noted more windows, most of them showing a different view of Castle Renais. As he stared, one of them revealed Amelia, finishing her talk with the guard, and turning to walk away.
"What… what magic is this?" He stammered backing away from the windows. Why was Amelia simultaneously here, wherever it was, and back in the castle? Where was this place?
From behind, he heard a sigh of weariness from Amelia. "This isn't magic, Franz. Not what you mean by magic, anyway. This…" There was a hesitation in her voice, as if she really didn't want to continue. "This is reality."
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As far as she could tell, that statement had absolutely no impact on Franz other than to make him even more agitated. "Reality? What are you talking about? Where are we, Amelia?"
Silently, she noticed a pair of guards making their way across the room towards the both of them. A good decision – just in case Franz turned violent.
Still, there was an unpleasant hurdle to be crossed. Maybe she could wriggle her way out of it for now. "This really isn't the time or place. Maybe-"
"Tell me, Amelia. Right now." His fear and apprehension was rapidly translating into anger, and Amelia could tell he was in no mood to be put off.
Of course, his mood wasn't likely to be improved any when she was done…
She took another deep breath. Should she lie about the circumstances that had brought him here? No, that would only serve to make the eventual discovery worse – not to mention the enormous disparity in technology between here and 'Magvel' – it would just exacerbate the problems – especially since he wasn't going back.
Trying to focus her thoughts, she made a snap decision she knew she was going to regret.
"You were created, Franz. Created here."
He stiffened visibly at her words.
"Our group here… we were under a project to design… to create a self-aware progra… a self-aware mind. From nothing. To see if it could grow, think, live."
She could see no spark of recognition in his face. Indeed, it appeared to have gone completely passive.
"To this end, we created… a spell. It's sort of like magic, except… well, it's different. When we enter this… spell into the computers…" She indicated her personal monitor, well aware he hadn't the slightest idea what a computer was. "We, uh, well, we created you."
Still nothing. Folding his arms, he gave all of his attention to her. And of course, there's no way to get yourself nervous than to have someone stare daggers at you, Amelia thought miserably.
"We wanted… we wanted to see how this mind would react – would grow… in a specific environment. For this, we created a world – a continent, actually. We created basic personalities using various… spells." Aware that her attempts at reducing technical jargon into medieval counterparts that Franz would be able to comprehend were failing miserably, she hurriedly pressed on. "We also fed several events into that world, such as the war."
"So you created me – that self aware mind – and created the rest of Magvel – all around me?" He sounded incredulous, and Amelia couldn't blame him.
"Well, yes. That's the gist of it."
Franz's eyes narrowed. "Put me back."
Amelia winced. She had been afraid of this. "I – we can't do that. The whole thing's been problematic – apparently the world didn't accumulate a sentient being very well. Recently it's just gotten worse and worse, until the whole thing would have collapsed had we not dragged you out." She shrugged. "In the end, we had no other choi-"
The fist slammed into her face so fast she had no time to react. All she knew had been sent sprawling onto the floor, her head hitting so hard that she saw stars. She felt the coppery taste of blood in her mouth.
After several long seconds, she managed to clear her head enough to sit up. She saw Franz standing impassively in front of her, offering no resistance to the two guards that had noticeably quickened their pace to seize him. On his clenched fist she saw a tiny smear of blood.
"Ms. Amelia?" One of them said impassively. "Are you alright."
"Fine." She grunted, waving away his concern.
"Alright. We'll bring him to a detention cell-"
"No. Bring him to a guest room. Uh, A-073." She replied as she clambered to her feet. The world swirled dizzily around her for a moment, and she reached for a nearby table to balance herself.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, yes, I'm sure." No, she had to sit down. She slumped onto her chair, gazing wearily as the two of them grabbed Franz's arms none too gently, hauling him out of the room.
As they left the room, she gingerly prodded her right cheek. It was going to form a lovely bruise, of that she had no doubt.
With a sigh, she glanced at her creation – the personality and design of Amelia, so much like herself, on the computer screen.
"Well, that went well." She mumbled to no one in particular.
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Franz didn't know how many corridors he'd been led through in this labyrinth of metal and bridges, and he didn't care. He kept his head down low, forcing his legs to move mechanically along with his captors.
Finally, they stopped into front of a flat grey panel. He noted one of the soldiers pressing a card to a small blinking light next to the panel. It slid open, and he knew it was a door.
"Here." One of the guards said brusquely. He stepped through, not bothering to resist. The room appeared small, about the same size as his quarters back in Castle Renais. Then again, since he ostensibly had the room to himself now, it would be less cramped.
"If you need anything, press the call button." The other one said, indicating a small red light next to the interior of the doorway. A second later the door hissed shut again.
Franz stood there silently for almost a full minute, letting the shock of what he had been told pass. Then he crumpled to the floor, and began to cry.
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