Chapter 8: The Most Important Person

While Gimmel's playing was beautiful as always, something seemed missing. Aleph was quiet, but he usually wasn't silent. Zayin glanced around the room, finding no trace of him. "Aleph's gone," Zayin said.

"Hmm?" Gimmel paused. "I thought he was listening too. I picked these songs to soothe the heart."

"I don't know when he left," he said, concerned now. He was meant to protect the Messiah. Now that one had been confirmed, he'd almost immediately gone missing. "Can you search Arcadia from here?"

"I'm afraid not," he said, getting up from his seat at the grand harp. "But I can send a message to the residents to look for him. In a moment..." he took out a phone and sent off the message.

"I'm going to check this place," Zayin said, heading into Gimmel's other rooms. They were all nicely decorated to the tastes of the Arcadians. And due to their loose airy designs, there weren't many places for someone to hide.

Aleph wasn't in the house. When they got outside, others in Arcadia were already helping them search. By the time they searched the little opening Gimmel's house was in and got through the path to the main portion, the rest of the district had already been covered. Gimmel had to check through several messages to know, "Nobody found him, but there's a woman who'll meet us at the terminal building who says she spoke with him not that long ago."

"All right." They headed over, finding her waiting at the building. "Where did you see Aleph?" Zayin asked.

"He was on the path to Lord Gimmel's home, heading this way," she said. "I was on my daily walk, and I got the message as I was going back along the path. I haven't seen him since, though it was maybe five minutes ago that I saw him."

"He may have left the district," Gimmel said, still looking through his phone messages. "Someone exited recently, a guest. Well, he can't be too far since the terminal here doesn't act as a normal one."

Shaking his head, Zayin said, "He was considered an extraordinary runner among the gladiators, remember? He won the rabbit race challenge; he could get to another terminal, and then be anywhere after that."

"The terminals would record such usage, so I can look into that from here," Gimmel said. "It'll take a couple of minutes, but..."

With this failure of duty, he didn't want to wait around. "I'll go and see if I can spot him in the outer walkway of the Center," Zayin said. "Keep in contact with me."

Gimmel caught his arm first. "But first, I have a good idea of where he might go on his own. He might try to locate a psychic to find someone."

"Who's he looking for?" Zayin asked.

The answer was surprising, but made such sense that when they couldn't locate where Aleph had gone, he agreed to go check the place where that person was.


Aleph entered the slums district again. He'd been fortunate to run across a psychic's shop on the way here. When asked, she had some trouble locating Hiroko, but agreed that locating Mekata would lead to finding Hiroko. And, the psychic found Mekata here, at Hanada's makeshift lab. She'd said that he needed to hurry to catch the scientist there, but he'd run across that bridge many times. There wasn't anyone in the slum district now, only a few weak demons that hadn't been able to cross the water.

On entering the basement, Aleph found Mekata with a drawn gun. But, he put it away immediately. "Aleph?"

"Mekata," he said, going over and smiling. "Okay?"

"I'm fine, physically anyway," he said, putting the gun away. "Not so much in other ways, but how about you? I've watched your progress with the Tournament and the Center missions; you're doing exceedingly well, even beyond our projections."

"Mmm," Aleph said, all that was bothering him sweeping through his mind. "Okay? No. Bad..." he shrugged on trying to find a way to explain things. "Beth."

"Yes, that was awful," Mekata said, sounding unsettled. "She was meant to be your partner, or Daleth's depending on how things turned out. Well, did you love her?"

"Maybe," he said, putting his hands together. "Friend? Yes."

"It's complicated, huh?" he guessed.

He nodded. "Death… bad..." he rubbed his forehead. "Um..."

Mekata came over and put his hand against Aleph's head. "Does it hurt when you try to speak more than a few words at a time?"

He nodded. "Hard."

Strangely, it seemed to hurt him too from the look in his eyes. "I wish I could have done more for you, not left you like this. I would have rather seen you grow up naturally."

"Okay," he said, trying not to hurt him more. "Mom?"

It didn't work quite as he hoped. "Ah, you're looking for Hiroko. I would like to see her again too. We should have brought her with us when we escaped the Center. I wanted to, I really did, but she'd gotten called off to do something. Once we set off our distraction, we had to get out in the confusion. From my searches, I found that she was taken to the Factory district and turned into one of the workers there."

"Okay," he said. He could get there easily since he had the terminal location.

"Wait a moment," Mekata said. "I'm sure you're in a hurry to find her, but it's not going to be simple. The Factory workers are brainwashed so that working is all they think of. So if you find her, she might not want to leave. And, it will be hard to convince her that you are her son because of what we did to you. If you can get her back to me, I'll explain everything to her."

Aleph nodded. It was what he intended to do, since he would be unfit to explain himself.

"May I?" Mekata asked, touching Alpeh's terminal. When he nodded, the scientist explained, "I'm doing this because you may not remember the address of the lab I'm still using. I'll put it into your map. And, the Center will know that you're looking for her. They'll try to keep her from you. They've already put her in a labor camp that can't be reached from the Factory entrance. To reach her, you'll need to enter the underground of Millennium. Most people aren't allowed there, but you should have the skills to break into the labor camp that way. You can enter, here, in the passage from here to the Center."

"Okay," he said, looking at the map. It was out of the way, but wouldn't be hard to find.

"I'll stay around the lab today so you know where to find me," he said, letting go of the terminal as he was done. "If you have trouble getting her to come back with you, return to me and we'll discuss what might be done. However, we may need to move to the underground to get out of the Center's reach. It all depends on how they react to this. Be careful, Aleph; I don't want something bad to happen to you, or anything worse to Hiroko."

"Okay," he said with a nod. He waved, then headed off to reach the underground.

When he arrived at the passage to the Center, there were two armed knights as usual. "There you are, Aleph," one of them said, sounding relieved. "An alert that you were missing just went out on our security network. Please, go on and hurry back to the Center. They're worried about you."

"Thank you," he said, going by them. The Center was worried… but it didn't matter as much as reaching Mom. He found that the passage to the underground was locked with one of the electronic keypads. While those seemed to stop others and require memorization, it barely slowed him down.

The underground was dark, lit by electric street lights and covered up by a massive metal plate. Strangely, there were buildings down here. Most were ruins, but a few like the one he stepped out of reached up into the plate. Some areas looked like they could be interesting to check out, but there were signs along a well-walked road pointing out the underground Factory entrance. Aleph hurried that way and bypassed another electronic keypad.

On the elevator ride up, he looked at a map that claimed to be of the building he was entering. There were lots of small rooms and short hallways; it'd be confusing to get through. However, the stairs up were straight from the elevator. That led to what was labeled 'residences'. There was one problem that appeared when he stepped out of the elevator: a set of black iron bars in the middle of the hallway. Frowning at it, Aleph gripped the bars and pushed them. It was securely locked.

No. He had to get to Mom. Had to, above all else… and, there was the hum again, quieter this time. If he could just pull on it… the bars quivered… and make that hum louder, draw on the energy he'd been given… he'd done things like this before, made miracles happen...

The bars snapped out of the wall with a loud bang. He tensed at the sound of it. But, he wasn't going to panic this time. The bars were heavy, so Aleph set them against the wall and headed onward.

Before he could move on, a demon phased through the wall and blocked his passage. "Just who is…?" it started to demand, then looked back past Aleph with one set of eyes. This demon was an old man with horns on the side facing him. But attached to its back, there was an adult woman who twisted about to see what was going on too.

"Go," Aleph demanded back, drawing his sword.

"I don't see how you did that as a mere human, but I will not tolerate destruction of property!" the old man scolded while the woman turned aside with an angry frown. "I can see who you are, the so-called Messiah Aleph. Well then, it seems I will have to capture you for punishment at the hands of the elders."

"No," he said, then attacked. He no longer had the strength that snapped the bars off the wall, but he had enough strength to cut down this demon as he should. Once it was down, it dropped a staff that bore electrical powers. Aleph decided to take it with him, as it seemed useful.

There were many people behind bars here, in single room spaces that had a toilet in one corner and a bed in the other. They seemed strangely happy with this, singing and asking questions of when they'd get out to work again. And now that he was up here, a different music reached his ears, real music. It was a very sad music, one that reminded him of loneliness and loss. Why did it make these people happy?

But, his mother wasn't here. He found a nameplate that had her name on it, but the cell was open and empty. Had she escaped? Or, was she working? Aleph kept searching, eventually finding that the people housed here had a work schedule in various places. And, Hiroko was currently working in a clothing factory.

He headed out of the housing cells and went to find the clothing factory. A group of people were coming in from another factory, none being his mother. While he tried to figure out how to ask where she was, they had already moved on back into the housing building. Aleph hurried ahead, spotting a sign pointing to various places. And… the clothing factory was a bit far, but it was here.

Inside, he saw a wide open space full of large sewing machines. Many people were busily at work, with children running supplies back and forth. Aleph got the attention of one of the kids coming in to a thread shelf. "Hiroko?"

"E12," the child replied, grabbing a spool of back thread, then running off with it.

E12… this was row H… and three rows to the left at the twelfth machine down, there she was. Hiroko had her wavy blond hair held back with a white headband. She wore an orange jumpsuit like everyone else around here. Still, he knew her face. He knew it was her. "Mom!" He ran over, smiling.

"Hmm? I don't need anything right now," she said, putting aside a finished jacket so she could start another.

"Mom. Aleph." He pointed to himself. "Come."

"No, I've got to fill these orders," she said, waving him off.

He felt a horrible feeling inside; had she forgotten him? Mekata said she might not recognize him. But, he knew her; she should know him. This was not right. "Mom! Please, come."

"Not now, the shift is far from over," she said, still not looking at him.

"Mmm." His eyes were tearing up, so he turned away. What now? He wanted to get away with her, get her to Mekata. But, he had to get her to stop working. That would make her pay attention to him. So, just how…?

The music in his mind turned electrical. Aleph closed his eyes and listened. All these machines needed electricity to run. They hummed with power. So, what if the power got turned off? And, that power came from…

He ended up at a cable in the corner of the hall, hooked up to power lines outside. Signs all around indicated that it was dangerous; the kids running errands didn't go near the red tape on the floor. For a moment, Aleph wasn't sure what to do. He shouldn't cross the line either. But then how…? Maybe the staff? He called out the staff he'd gotten from double-body demon and threw it at the cable with a small hum.

While the resulting bang startled him, it worked. The whole sewing factory went dark and silent. All around him, workers cried out in anguish and surprise. It had been a shocking amount of noise, but this should work. Aleph hurried back over to where Mom was. "Mom. Come."

"What's going on?" she asked, still looking at the sewing machine. "I was having fun."

"Come," he pleaded, tugging at her sleeves.

She threw him off and finally looked at him. "Hey, what are you doing? I don't want to go anywhere; I want to stay here."

"Mom?" But, wouldn't she want to come with me?

"Did you turn off the power?" someone asked accusingly. Things were getting dangerous, he could feel it. But he wanted to get her out.

She struck his arm to get him to let go. "Get out of here!"

"Mom..." he nearly choked on a sob. What was wrong with her? What should he do? He just wanted to be with her.

Then, someone gripped him firmly on the shoulder, someone who wouldn't easily be thrown off. "Let's get out of here, Aleph," Zayin said.

"No!" he said, stomping a foot down. Zayin then grabbed him and carried him out. "No! Mom!" He burst into tears as he was taken outside.


Aleph had hit him a few times, but he must not want to hurt him. Zayin had a good idea of what he could do if he really wanted to hurt someone. After being put down outside, Aleph grabbed Zayin and kept sobbing. This was not proper behavior for a Messiah, but there wasn't anyone else around to witness this. The clothing factory got its power back after a couple of minutes and was soon back to working full tilt.

Seeing him like this troubled Zayin. Even in the dark factory, he had spotted Aleph easily. He'd been trying to get Hiroko's attention, believing her to be his mother somehow. There was no way she could be; Zayin knew that she'd had a son who'd gotten lost, around seven months ago. And, seven months ago was when they lost Aleph. This woman had gotten in trouble for that, believed to be part of the conspiracy to kidnap him.

But putting aside the idea that it didn't make sense, when Zayin looked at this knowing that Aleph believed Hiroko to be his mother… she'd yelled at him and hit him away for stopping the factory from running. That was strange enough, but it had to be devastating to Aleph. In the time since his return, Beth had reported that he was obsessed with finding his mother again. No wonder he was crying so hard now. In fact, it made him seem an awful lot like a child.

That was impossible, yet it made Zayin be softer with him as Aleph started to wear down from crying so much. "You shouldn't have disappeared from us without saying anything, but I can see how important this is to you."

"Yes," he said, still leaning on Zayin as they sat near the factory wall.

"I never thought of it before, but there is something strange going on here," Zayin said. He recalled Hiroko, so, "She should have at least recognized you. We'll get back to the Center and I'll see what help we can get for her, so she'll talk to you."

"Thank you," Aleph said, calming down now that he had help. "Mekata."

Zayin raised an eyebrow. "Him? Do you know where he is?"

"Yes," he said, so they headed back the way Aleph had come to get here.

It turned out that he had used the passage through the underworld, despite there being four password-required doors in the way. But then, those never seemed to slow him down. Where did he learn the passwords? Aleph had also torn out a set of iron bars that had been welded into the wall. When asked about that, he just hummed and tapped his head. He shouldn't have the physical strength to do that; Zayin was pretty sure that he himself didn't have the strength for that. Maybe it was one of his miracles now that he was the Messiah. In that case, it was important that they get this woman out of the labor camp.

They ended up in Valhalla, going to a nondescript apartment building in the second-class citizen area. There, a lab like the biotechnology lab back in the Center was set up. That was a familiar place to Zayin as the doctor who checked up on him regularly worked there. Mekata was here, doing some work at a computer that somehow involved an occult set up of a bowl of sandy water and candles.

"Zayin?" Mekata asked, wary at the sight of him. "What are you doing here."

"Okay," Aleph said, trying to reassure him.

"I'm working with Aleph for the moment," he said. "Gimmel sent me to intercept him and return him to the Center, but I hadn't realized what the conditions at the Factory were really like. That, and Aleph was upset and I wanted to help him."

"Oh, then I guess Hiroko didn't want to leave," Mekata said, disappointed.

"Yes," Aleph said, still grieved over that. Then, he tapped his head. "Mmm song."

The scientist put a hand to his chin. "That's very astute of you to notice, Aleph. Yes, there's a song that gets continually broadcast over the speakers there. That is the song of a siren that the Center captured in the Abyss and imprisoned up at the top of a tower in the Factory. The workers are conditioned to want to work whenever they hear the siren's song. A siren can already influence the thoughts and feelings of people with their voice, so it's a secure means of getting the Factory workers to be happy with their long hours and inhumane living conditions."

"Is that true?" Zayin asked, not wanting to believe it. But he couldn't forget how Hiroko had just struck Aleph when he was doing nothing particularly untoward or aggressive with her.

"I have downloaded copies of the documents involved if you want to see them for yourself here," Mekata said, searching for those documents on his computer. "Now, I found something in those documents, some transcripts of the siren speaking with her captors, that suggest that she was taken from someone important to her. That person should still be in the Abyss and is likely the cause of the siren's distress. You may have trouble getting the siren to stop unless you can get into the Abyss to retrieve her beloved."

"Okay," Aleph said without hesitation.

"Are you sure about that?" Zayin asked, in some disbelief at where this was going. "The Abyss is the domain of the demons, where they come from and where they return when they're killed here. They say the strongest of demons still lurk there."

"Go," Aleph said. He wasn't going to be swayed from this.

"I'm not sure how one would get into the Abyss, but the records show that the siren was brought into our world at the Great Church in Holytown," Mekata said.

"Yes," Aleph said.

"You have an idea of how to get to the Abyss from Holytown already?" Mekata asked, surprised.

"Yes," he said.

"While that helps, I wish you could tell us how you know," Mekata said. "Anyhow, once you've found the siren's beloved, you'll need to bring them up to the top of the tower. Since that tower runs all activity in the Factory district, there are a lot of security measures in place, including illusions that are meant to confuse the way to intruders. Now, you both had to have passed through the habitation building. What did you see in there?"

"A lot of bleak cells with bare holes for toilets," Zayin said, which Aleph nodded to.

"In that case, the illusions in the control tower shouldn't influence you," Mekata said. "The demon who controls the illusions is also at the top of the tower, keeping the siren guarded. I can't give you much advice on defeating them, so I'll have to trust you both to that. Also, Zayin, there's much that I would love to talk with you about, but right now, the important matter is that Hiroko is Aleph's mother, and my daughter. That's why we both will go so far to get her out of the Factory's brainwashing, even if it puts the Center against us."

"Yes," Aleph said, solemn and serious with that.

"But how is that possible?" Zayin asked. "She's not much older than he is; things don't work that way."

Mekata shook his head. "Normally, but we have growth vats that can accelerate the development of artificial humans so that they are born as adults, with implanted memories, knowledge, and skills. That is what you are; you're both about seven months old now in reality."

"I am?" he asked. But, that meant everything from before that seven months was a lie.

"Yes, you were created to be a bodyguard to the Messiah, whichever one it turned out to be," he said. "I'll send you files on that too. It really didn't matter which of the two won the battle yesterday; they would have been declared the Messiah and the loser declared the anti-messiah. Of course, the anti was supposed to die yesterday; the Center does not have full control over you five. You, Gimmel, and Beth were all designed to support the Messiah. And while Daleth was developed like you three, Aleph was created differently, naturally born and then put under growth acceleration."

"So our very lives are lies," Zayin said, feeling unnerved. Now that he thought of it, a lot of his older memories were hazy or didn't actually make sense.

"I'm afraid so," Mekata said. "And anyone who claims to have similar memories to you is likely to be a humanoid instead of a human as well. However, the growth process was meant for blank slates like yourself. Aleph's mind and body had already started developing naturally, so things didn't go as we hoped. That's why he's handicapped, not because of drugs or anything."

"This is all too much, are you really telling the truth?" Zayin asked, not wanting to believe it. But there had been some inconsistencies, like photos in his terminal and some discussions he'd had with others. He also recalled wanting to question a prisoner about such an inconsistency only to learn that he'd been sent to the Factory district to be reformed. But, that reformation included brainwashing?

"Yes," Aleph said, then scratched his head. "Mmm… time?"

"I think he wants to give you some time to look through the files and start sorting things out," Mekata guessed.

"Yes," Aleph said, sympathizing with him.

"Thanks, I could use that," he said. He spoke with Mekata a bit more, then read through the files he had.

And it was all real. He knew the filing system that the Center used; these were all authentic documents as proven by the numbering and icons. Even the electronic security marks, those were proper when they were supposed to be impossible to forge. The papers showed what they were saying was true: about the siren, about the Factory workers, about himself and Aleph.

What were the elders thinking? It was important to have a Messiah to bring about the thousand-year kingdom that everyone desired for eternal peace, but to go this far? It had only been about sixty years since Kazuya had rose to be acknowledged as one, and maybe thirty years since his unexpected death. Messiahs were supposed to be a rare thing with many generations between them. And then to set up this charade using human lives, even those of them who were created rather than born… it was sickening. What else were they doing? They should have the technology to revive Beth as she was, so why were they letting her remain deceased? Especially when it affected Aleph as their chosen Messiah?

There was clearly more to research here, things that should be done. But for now, it was important to get Aleph reunited with his mother. Whatever side Aleph decided to go with, it was clear that he wasn't going to do anything else until he got back with his mother. So even if it meant going clear to the Abyss and undoing a vital part of how Millennium worked, Zayin decided that he was going to help Aleph through this.


Why had he failed as a Messiah?

Daleth had worked for that every day of his life. He knew he was meant for something great. The priests who had raised him had always said that he was meant for something great, some service to God. And so, he had worked hard to achieve the strength and skill to meet up to what God expected, what He needed. He even spent years alone in the wilderness to prove his devotion, with demons and scarcity of necessities like food and clean water to work against him. Looking at that, it was clear that he should qualify as a Messiah.

And what had Aleph done? He'd slacked in his training when they were young; Daleth could never remember them working together, only himself working alone to fulfill the priest's vision. He'd dallied with ordinary things that wouldn't be useful to a Messiah. And then, he went and caused an explosion to escape with some scientists, making everyone think he was kidnapped. He even got messed up on drugs and entered the world of blood sports as a gladiator. That was far more than what should disqualify him as a Messiah. God couldn't accept someone with such a stained past.

And yet, somehow he had been accepted. God had granted Aleph the power of miracles, not Daleth. That much was clear from the strange blast of holy power that won the fight that Daleth had been winning up to that point. And Beth, the one destined to be at the side of the Messiah always, she seemed to decide early on that she wanted to be with Aleph too. Why did everyone choose him? He was clearly unfit.

But that wasn't clear to the world at large and now they called Daleth the anti-messiah. They scorned him; they wouldn't talk to him. Mothers even steered their children away from him as he walked down the street. Well, fine. If they wanted to be that way, then he would be the anti-messiah. At this point, he didn't care anymore about prophecy or destiny, or any of that which seemed like weak excuses now. He was going to do whatever it took to defeat Aleph and prove his worthlessness to everyone. Why did the world need a Messiah when the one called was so horrible?

Daleth was even planning on doing something devious: he planned on opening the true passage to the Abyss. He just needed seven pillars that were demonic artifacts to do so. The place was now prepared, and…

He spotted Aleph and Zayin, also passing through Holytown. Were they searching for him? He couldn't be caught at this point; he needed to track down several pillars here in Holytown. Daleth slipped into an alleyway in order to evade them.

Now, he had a good idea of where the Moon Pillar was; that would take some waiting to get. He already had Mars, and Mercury was supposed to be somewhere in Holytown as well. Then it was to the Factory for Jupiter, and the rest should be somewhere in the underground…