Chapter 3: New Millennium

It climbs and climbs. This elevator continues to travel at a steady pace with only two passengers onboard. My regrets break away and fall to obliterated sheets on the smooth floor while I concentrate my gaze on nothing particular. The thin blonde brows on my face furrow at the thought of someone. I know she did it for the world, not just herself. Yet the pain still clenches at my tormented heart.

Now I focus out the clear crystal glass to take in the moving surroundings. I never would have thought that the technology spoken of by my deceased parents would be this advanced or strange. The trans-dimensional orbital interface; who knew it would take the form of an elevator? I glanced up at the floor dial above the polished bronze doors. It was still going up. But that can't be right I thought. Shouldn't it have at least stopped by now?

After being in the elevator so long, I began to get apprehensive of the situation. What if this isn't the TDOI? I pushed that thought away. Of course this is it. Otherwise Rin would be here if this was the way to heaven. I chuckled at the thought of this being the updated version of Jacob's ladder. Turning to look at the elevator girl for the first time, I was slightly surprised to see her appearance. Green hair? I frowned. A weirdo, even if she is dressed properly.

Not even politely addressing her, I just asked, "Why am I going up?" I honestly was a little bit scared to find out the answer, but I knew that this was important. She didn't seem to hear me as she just continued to look at the button panel with a smile. The kind only creepy people would find friendly.

Just as I was about to ask her again, her startling aqua green eyes slid to look at me. "It's no different than how you lived your life," she said cryptically in a happy tone. I blinked at her in confusion, not really understanding what she meant. Before I could inquire further about it, the elevator suddenly shot up. The speed threw me off balance and I fell to the back on the floor. I gripped the thin railing on the side of the wall for support.

Just as quickly as the elevator had picked up speed, it came to a complete stop. With a small ding, the doors opened to reveal an empty landscape. The dirt picked up by the wind was thrown to new places. Blue sky met the earth at a shimmering horizon. It was then that I felt the heat. "Oh man," I breathed out. "A desert." I've never seen one before. Being in the utopia my whole life made me realize that I never got to see anything but urban prison. I looked around to see if I could figure out what desert it was.

Maybe I'm in the Middle East I thought excitedly. Slight movement near some rocks caught my eye. "Hey," I voiced aloud. "There's a boy." A short boy with blond hair and tattered clothes was holding a gun almost as big as him. Next to him was a tall person with long purplish colored hair leaning against the rock a girl was sitting on. That girl… "Rin!" I shouted. I started to run out of the strange elevator when a hiss got my attention. Stopping short of the door, I reached out my hand and touched something hard and warm. After a second my hand felt a shock and a loud hiss could be heard. Looking at my fingers, there were angry red stripes going across them. I could only guess what was holding me back.

"Force field," I muttered. I was punished in a cruel and unusual way to watch my twin live again yet not let her aware of my presence. "Hey," I heard the purple haired person say. That's a man? I thought incredulously. I looked back to the rock and saw that Rin had moved from her spot to face the blond haired kid. "Why're you crying?" she asked as the purple guy looked at them for a moment and went back to face the horizon. Wiping away his tears with the back of his hand, the boy gave a slight smile to her. "No reason," he said.

At that sentence I frowned. Why was he crying? An excruciating pain went through my head as soon as I asked the question. "Yahh!" My hands held the sides of my head as a feeling like my brain being mushed increased. Images of a child and a sleeping mother, a boy aimed to shoot, the same boy holding a rifle, and a dying woman passing an infant to someone invaded my mind. "T-his, is why?"

I couldn't believe that so much pain could exist in one person. And I thought I had it bad I thought as I rubbed my temples at the dissipating pain. I opened my eyes and sadly looked at him. Rin. "Rin! Len!" I snapped to attention at my name. What? "Gakupo, move!" the boy yelled. He had pulled Rin to the side and 'Gakupo' had begun to run with them. "Len," Rin gasped. Did she say-? Before I could even finish the thought, an rpg exploded at their feet causing flames to erupt and consume them.

In the face of hunger. Horror etched itself on my face as the screams of the three mercenaries burned alive and fell to the ground in agony. I yearn for hunger. Moments past and their thrashing died down. Sand and stray flames flicked around the last twitches of my past life. His burnt face was almost unrecognizable, but you could still tell that his eyes were open. Looking at Rin. In an eternal stare.

"That is humanity's sad nature," the elevator woman told me as I looked at the floor. My fist clenched at her words and I hit the closing door. She smiled softly and pressed the next button on the elevator's new altitude.

More pain began to attack my head and the throbbing was constant, like my heart had leaped with the elevator. No. They were treated so badly. Gakupo, I now found out, had liberated us from a camp but had been required to keep a low profile due to the heavy security checkpoints leading out of the country. We were captive in our own country. My scowl grew deeper. Another evil era.

It climbs and climbs. This elevator continues to travel at a steady pace with only two passengers onboard. The enclosed space is obviously hinting my life the further we go. "Why can't I get out of this?" I asked the lady. Placing her gloved hand on the control pad, she turned her body to face me this time. One of her two loose bun-tails grazed the shoulder of her poofed sleeve. The tinted pink maroon hat no longer hid her forehead, which I saw was graced with medium length curved bangs. She again gave me a creepy smile and said, "That is basically what a person's life is."

I squinted my eyes slightly at her response. Another occult statement, huh? This is insane I thought looking back at the glass.

We kept going. Stopping at different times in no specific order, having the shaft lead us in the direction of fate. Up.

In an area where the world is destroyed, our mission was to find the nuclear weapon used to kill an entire country. But my friend suffered the radiation given off. Another stop I was one of many denominations that had been imprisoned for my religion or looks. There we fell in love, despite the separation between us. Living in poverty together as siblings in a metropolis, we struggled to survive each and every day. Life together ended with her leaving me all alone.

My thoughts broke as the sound of the elevator dinged, announcing the arrival to a new 'floor'. I reluctantly turned to face the elevator doors as they opened again to reveal a new landscape. This time I was completely and utterly shocked. Why does this all look familiar? Thousands of people walked around on sidewalks or drove in car on the streets. I even saw a machine I had only seen in books. An airplane! "This is amazing!" I exclaimed in pure awe. Buildings rose high and roads long. Small devices to large screens of technology. "Such a rich country," I whispered lowly.

I looked to the giant screen on a building that some people had stopped to look at. A girl with long green pigtails sang into a handheld microphone as she danced on a light filled stage wearing a loose fitting gold dress. "Hey," I directed to the elevator girl, "she kind of looks like you." Not even acknowledging my comment, she just looked on with that smile.

I turned back to the people who were looking at the screen. Many of them were girls who seemed to sing along with the woman on stage, but I could make out a few boys there as well. A blonde haired man wearing a casual suit and black rimmed glasses was also standing amidst the small crowd. But he walked away with a bored expression, even though he apparently hadn't been standing there very long.

This is a very different era indeed. I could see a lot from my point of view. A restaurant to my left had people pouring in and out of it nonstop. Through the glass, I could make out a boy who was eating by himself at a two person table. The food he was sloppily consuming seemed inedible to me and appeared to be a type of deformed processed meat made to be well over its intended size. What is he eating anyway? The neon sign to the restaurant read 'WacDonald's Burgers'. A burger? Turning back to the obese boy, I couldn't help but look away in disgust.

The apartments to my right were very tall. The windows seemed to be ceiling to floor types as I could easily peer into one from the elevator. This must be the 14th floor or so I thought as I focused on one particular window. The occupants in the room didn't seem to think they could be spied upon at such a height or angle, seeing as how it was facing away from other buildings. There were two people, it looked like, and one was a young woman sitting on a large bed. The other, a man, was holding out small rectangles of paper to her. What are they doing? As the man got closer to the lady, she let the sheet she had been holding to her fall down slightly. It was just enough for me to realize that she wasn't dressed so I looked down in complete embarrassment.

Huh? Now that I was looking at the ground, I could see people in a sort of alleyway. A teenage girl was struggling with some other girls about or a little older than her age with a bag. One of the girls pushed the smaller one to the wall as another rummaged through her belongings. The tallest girl took a small object and turned it around in her hand before moving to the scared person cowering at the wall. They're bullying her! I realized. The girl swished her skirt and fixed the vest that matched her comrades before flicking open a pencil sharpener. What is she-? The girl slashed at the smaller's cheek. My face now had horror written all over it. The young women laughed as the leader kept making small shallow gouges in her victim. It was terrifying.

And that is exactly why I turned away in time fast enough to see a train go behind us. Walking softly to the back of the elevator, I looked at the racing vehicle as it ran across the 12 story high tracks. Its alarming speed didn't faze me at all. Why would it after seeing all of the other things this time period had to offer? These advanced vehicles and electrically transferred information were normal to the people. It truly was amazing to see it in person.

All of the sudden, the train seemed to be traveling in slow motion. A woman, maybe on business, was sitting next to a man with medium blue hair. She was quietly reading a small novel while he held a tan brief case next to him. His closed eyes matched those of the two passengers next to him on his right. A woman with beautiful wavy pink hair was leaning her head on a man with long purple hair who was resting his on her shoulder.

Wait, purple hair? "Ah! Gakupo!" I said maybe a little too loudly. The train resumed its amazing speed and flashed past me in a blurred light. I sighed. Maybe I did affect this era too. That reminds me. Where is Rin here? Immediately, I saw I familiar blonde girl's white ribbon. It bobbed its way through the crowd and stepped on the pavement at an irregular pace. Walking slower and faster at times, she ended up next to a boy in a uniform. He seemed to converse a little with Rin but gave up after realizing she was only paying attention to the small device in her hand.

Everything was becoming fast paced now. Rin sped up her steps to get across the street and the boy followed. The train had wrapped around to the station as the girl's song came to an end.

Something's not right. I was glancing around me, as if something would give me a sign. An actual sign is what I saw not far from the train station that had people coming out of the unloading area.

Welcome to Downtown Amethyst City, Capital of Genesis. Oh no. I turned around to see that Rin had stopped in the middle of the sidewalk to look up at something in the sky. Many people had stopped as well. The lady in her gold dress was ignored as the pre-recorded program on screen continued to play. The young man I had seen earlier seemed unaware of what was happening at this very moment since he was still walking away.

Genesis is the republic country from the old times! Several people now were pointing to the sky. One child held up his toy and asked his mother if this was part of a festival. Rin's cellular device dropped to the ground. The man turned to look behind him to investigate the confusion. His ponytailed hair shook a little as he looked past the brim of his glasses to gaze at the sky.

"This is humanity's stupidity," the elevator girl told me. "The development of technology and this city's abundance were misinterpreted."The crowd barely had time to run and scream from the projectiles. Before the doors closed all together, I managed to see the wide cerulean eyes of my past life. Explosion, flames, and light spread everywhere in an instant. And we began to go up, continuing our journey to hunger. "NO!"

My head filled with pain. I was used to it now, but it still hurt with the dull pulse that it was. I didn't need to know what happened next. I knew what history said. What I didn't know was that everyone else in the world was unaware of what just happened. The accident was caused by someone. France. Did they even know that a person from their country caused this?

My eyes were wide. Rin and I didn't even know each other in that time period. I don't even know if we ever came in contact. Not that it mattered. It was over, for both of us. Nothing came after this. She was gone and I am now all alone. The stillness in the elevator was deafening. Even though I wanted it to stop, I knew that it would now go on forever. To keep on going toward hunger.

I looked to the elevator girl. She was still smiling, as if nothing had happened! My teeth began to chew into my bottom lip at her nonchalant attitude. Before I knew it, my hands were on her arm. "Why are you showing me horrible things?" I asked her in a trembling voice. My tears were falling as my nails dug further into the fabric of her ruffled sleeve.

She looked at me immediately with a bright smile that radiated with her aura. Uneasiness spread throughout my being at the face she was making. Her mouth opened and I saw every word form and fall off her thin pink lips. Her hat gracefully dropped in slow motion to the floor. "It's no different than how you lived your life," she told me as her face flickered.

Wait, did her face just flicker? Again it did. This time, the face was not hers. I was looking at the smiling face of a mirror. The elevator girl in the trans-dimensional orbital interface was none other than Len Kagamine. I screamed backing away from myself. This can't be right! The smile just grew wider. It's not possible! My back hit the unforgiving wall. Now the elevator wasn't big enough. One step from my look-alike was all it took for me to lose it.

Ding~! Huh? We were still moving. How could the elevator open? The hat which had been lying harmlessly on the floor flew out of the doors at a neck breaking speed. Outside I could see different times. They traveled around in vertically haphazard lines, not giving me enough of a good image to see what they held. My image stood there at the control panel waiting for something. The force of the wind was tossing my hair messily about. Maybe if I jumped? I glanced over the side. No way. The drop was suicide. I'd rather be stuck in here with that I angrily thought.

The doors were closing. Well, it looks like that's that. 5 inches left till an eternity. 4…3-? Ding! The doors opened again. Wha-? I glanced to the side. My image had an angry expression now. Well not really angry, but like a frustrated determination. His finger was on the hold button. Why is it doing this? I stared at 'me' showing my obvious confusion. Not breaking contact he gritted his teeth before shouting over the noise of the wind, "There's still a next time!" I blinked. What did it just say?

"In the world where everything has changed, we'll meet again…" My mouth made a silent gasp. I never thought of that. What if the world can still change? I bent my head and smiled. There is still time. Gathering up all of my corage,I jumped out of the elevator and was hit by a blast of wind. My weight still brought me down and I fell in a rush of clothing and tangled hair.

Looking up briefly, I saw the shrinking elevator being to disappear in small little balls of light. Thanks. I felt warmth go through me and I smiled, even if for a brief moment. Looking back down, the long drop evolved into an eternal one. This can go on forever I thought as the time periods rose next to me then dissipated only to be replaced by another.

All of the sudden, I saw a bright light below me. What was that? I blinked to make sure that I wasn't hallucinating or something. But the light just grew at my feet. I let out a small breath before the white color surrounded everything around me.

I now saw the earth, the planet that kept us together. Born in this world and in the several thousand year history, what did people discover and learn? It was beautiful; this fragile planet whose inhabitants destroyed with pollutants and over population. I came up to the blue orb in front of me with a smile. I wanted you to say that you were happy in this place. No matter what time period we were in, you were always there. Softly and being ever so careful, I hugged the home that Rin and I had always known.

Within the shadows of history and in the light of time, what did people fear and destroy? The thing the housed all contempt and joy or themselves? Coup de tat, terror, revolution, and evolution. Within the flow of dissatisfaction and inequality, why don't people realize that it's not the way to live? So I made my wish. Stand up!

The wish spread like a contagion in the universe. And the center of the inflicted was the planet Earth. Len came back to stop the evil in each different time that he knew he made a difference in. The Kara Kum desert was his first stop. A short boy with blond hair and tattered clothes was holding a gun almost as big as him. Next to him was a tall person with long purplish colored hair leaning against the rock a girl was sitting on.

This time, instead I of arriving in the 'elevator', Len stepped on to the warm golden pale sand. The three people looked past him, not being able to see his sudden appearance due to the harsh light of the sun. Len kept his face down, just in case if they could see him. Rin, stand up for what you believe in. The flowers of peace began to fly around from their decent from the heavens. For I will always be there with you. Right by your side.

The past life raised his hands in surprise. The flowers seemed to appear from out of thin air. Realizing that something was missing, he looked for his gun and saw Rin and Gakupo's had materialized into the wonderful creation that swirled in abstract dances around them. He smiled. The first smile he had ever made since his mother had been murdered.

The grass, which had taken root at their feet, was soothing his troubled mind. Casting all worries and doubt aside, he joined his friends in relishing the moment of peace. The air carried the long awaited peace to the entire nation. In turn the continent took after it and soon the Earth was all one.

Len traveled to the date of Genesis' destruction. Not stopping at the time he had originally come to, he made it just in time to stop the missiles. His counterpart was startle to see him appear so suddenly. The flowers coming from the projectiles were not peace; that had already been achieved. No these were conscience.

The man in his suit looked through the veil of new emotion to stare at the wonder before him. His hair fluttered slightly with the beautiful plants as his gaze locked unto the boy. His eyes widened a fraction when the young blonde met his look with a half-smile. "Who are you?" The boy opened his mouth as if about to speak, but closed it with instead with a grin.

"The new millennium."

Congratulations! If you're reading this, that means you read to the finish of my story. Great job! Alright, I think I tied everything together in this chapter. I'll have a new information chapter if you want, but you have to pm or review the story for that. I'd like to thank the people who had reviewed so far; chibis of evil, The Queen of Double Standards, Minja Nonkey, and Kittyreanne. Thank you all for your support and I hope that this final chapter satisfied you! Until next time!