Disclaimer: Black Cat is not mine.
Author's Note: Welcome to the anniversary chapter of my story!!! Yaaaayy!! I planned to get this thing out sooner, but it just kept growing and growing, and then I had severe writer's block, and then school started, and then I started neglecting my studies to finish it...lol...the sad part is that I haven't posted the other half b/c I haven't finished the last pages of it...it'll come soon enough though!
But here it is! As of January 1st, I've been writing this story for a full year! My god, I almost can't believe it! Please tell me what you think. Also, if you've gotten confused with anything in the story, please let me know so I can fix it. I appreciate so much those newcomers who have reviewed (Mr. Therapist, Rumiglion, NyuNyaUki, Bloodied Crimson, etc.). It warms my heart :) Especially because the 13th of January was my birthday...and BOY are there stories to tell...haha...so if you wanna give me a birthday/anniversary present for writing this monster chappie...you can always click the review button and let me know if you like it! Or you can just say "hi." Lol... Thanks so much for those who have been reading it. It gives a writer (even one who writes fanfiction) a wonderful feeling. Please enjoy!!
Paradise Lost
...He was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.
2 Corinthians 12:4
Two and a half weeks before:
Where am I?
There was the sound of water dripping, steady and rhythmic like the soft pulses of her heartbeats... Eve's conscious mind had reverted back to her days with Torneo. Eve of the present had fallen under layers of the dust caused by the painful memories of Eve of the past. Eve succumbed to a deep slumber after Train's attack on them just under a month before.
She shut off. Like a computer, or a car without access to a powersource. It was her body's way of saving Eve from insanity. The new powers they had given her body had tired her out and seeing Train in person was like seeing Santa Clause at 52. You lived a long time thinking he didn't exist, and when all of a sudden, he shows up, shock settles in.
The violent images of Train and Sven had disappeared in her sleep. It was always that way.
She remembered the good things like most people remember the youngest years of their childhood: a slide show of smiles, laughter, shadows of playful teasing, but even those good memories couldn't erase the beatings she had received in her hallucinations. Her greatest fear had always been for them to leave her, to end up despising her for what she was—and what she had become in her own eyes—a monster. Her greatest fear had become a reality in that room. Days felt like months and weeks like years until it seemed that her real life had been just the good dreams in between the torture. So though the good memories remained, the bad ones loomed over them to create a dense doubt that haunted her.
If she had the choice, she would have preferred the torture room than to reverting to a phantom of her past self. Eve would only resurface in her subconscious—in her dreams. When she woke, she could never remember the dream, just the dull ache of a lost happiness, of misplaced joy.
The past months were spent on drills and commands. They ordered her and she obeyed. If Eve had the luxury of choice between captivity and escape, she would have remained a captive. Her life was a time bomb. She wouldn't have known what would set it off or when. Eve would have stayed with her captors so that she might find a way to stop their apocalyptic destruction...
A year had passed like a dream. In the day, she lived nightmares, and in the night, gentle far off memories guided her to the unconscious. Train's attack on X, Y and Z had been like a bad dream, and she was powerless to stop her attack at the time...and she was so confused. When she had him face to face, he could only remember him as the man who had beat her in the hallucination room. The only thing that saved Train from death was his experience and the fact that she—the Eve that everyone loved and knew as just Eve—had resurfaced for a moment, so that when she had the perfect opportunity to kill him, she hesitated, and he escaped. But this hesitation did not go unnoticed.
A small sign of life stirred to her left. Eve heard gentle breathing and saw a black something shifting slightly above her.
"You're awake."
Eve's heavy eyelids lifted and she saw her.
"Y," she whispered.
Y's bangs swayed back and forth as she examined Eve attentively.
"You were talking in your sleep," she said.
Eve remained passive.
Y furrowed her eyebrows.
"You were repeating names. Over and over."
Eve tilted her head.
"What names?"
Her question did not denote curiosity. It was a hard, stiff question without feeling—as if it had been generated and said by a computer.
Y regarded her silently. She blinked slowly and her lips parted in a few soundless words. Then her words took form and sound until Eve began to understand the message she tried to convey.
"I don't remember." She smiled kindly. "They're very forgettable names."
Present Day:
Sven reclined in the cream-colored lounge chair in his hotel room. His beige suit jacket was thrown on the bed and his black tie was undone loosely around his neck. Between his lips was a half burned cigarette that glowed brilliant orange and lit up his face in the wan lamp light. He had allowed himself a moment of self-indulgence in his strict budget by serving himself alcohol from the mini fridge. Ice cubes clinked in the glass of smooth, caramel colored liquor. When the ancient hotel owner had given him the keys to the room, he mentioned proudly that it showcased an old-fashioned radio from the fifties. Sven clicked on the knob. Sven smiled when he realized that he didn't have to change the station. Whoever had played it last also had a fondness for jazz.
It was the velvety, hushed voice of a woman that rose in faint musical murmurs from the black netted speakers. After a few moments, he distinguished it as Billie Holiday. He remembered because her voice rang with the simplicity and sadness that had followed her most of her tragic life.
A tragic life...Sven mused as a glum smile played on his lips.
He took a few final drags from his cigarette and crushed it in the glass ashtray beside him. He closed his eyes as he rested his arms on the arms of the chair and listened to the lazy vibrations of the music rise from the soles of his feet to his chest, throat, and ears.
In my solitude, you haunt me with memories of days gone by...
As the minutes ticked slowly past, he began to drown in the black sea of those past thoughts that he had so many times tried to avoid...
In my solitude, you taunt me with memories that never die...
"And they lived happily ever after," Sven said, closing the storybook. Eve had been twelve at the time, but she had a fond fascination for bedtime stories. Especially Sleeping Beauty. She loved Sleeping Beauty.
"Happily ever after," Eve echoed. She looked at Sven with curiosity in her eyes. "What do you suppose that means, Sven?"
Sven was caught off guard. No one had ever asked him his insight on the psychology of happy endings.
"Um...that they lived happily...ever after?"
She tilted her head in confusion.
Sven sighed inwardly. He wasn't sure if he was very good at explaining things like this.
"I mean, I think they didn't suffer after that. They were all happy for the rest of their lives," he offered.
"Well, that's impossible," said Eve. "Bad things happen all the time. No one can really control them."
Sven shrugged.
"Well, Eve, there are bad things, and then there are bad things."
Eve blinked.
"What I mean," he explained, "is that it all depends on your definition of happiness. There's, 'I'm happy because things are going my way,' and there's, 'I'm happy because I have everything I need in life,' like family and friends that love you, and...I don't know, maybe even your own prince charming."
"Prince Charming?" Eve asked.
Sven smiled dotingly.
"Yeah. Don't all little girls dream about their Prince Charming?"
Eve stared at him for a few moments and blushed.
"I guess," she whispered.
Sven chuckled.
"See? It's all in your definition of happiness. If you figure the characters in the story have each other...and love, peace, health...than you can assume they lived happily ever after, can't you?"
A small smile grew on Eve's face as she looked at him.
"Yes...I guess you're right."
"Happy endings are for fairy tales," Sven muttered into his glass. He tried unsuccessfully to forget the lasting memory-echo of Eve as a child.
With gloom everywhere, I sit and I stare...I know that I'll soon go mad...
A buzzing sound flew past his ear, and soon he felt the bite of an insect. Sven hissed and slapped the back of his neck. The alcohol slowed him down. He'd normally be able to avoid being bit.
I sit in my chair and filled with despair, there's no one could be so sad...
In my solitude...I'm afraid..
He stood. In four steps he reached the radio.
Dear Lord above, send me back my Lo—
The music ended with the click of a knob. Sven suddenly preferred silence.
"Sven."
Sven's heart stopped. He recognized that voice. Slowly, he looked up. Eve was sitting in his chair.
He gave a measured exhale and gripped a corner of the radio. She stood up and took a few steps toward him.
"Aren't you happy to see me?" she said with a sad tilt of her head.
He wanted to rush to her, to hold her, but he was frozen in place.
"How—?" he choked out.
She walked to him calmly and embraced him.
"I escaped," she whispered into his chest. He gradually returned the embrace. "Why didn't you find me?" she said. "What took you so long?"
Sven shook his head guiltily.
"Eve, I tried. I did, it's just—"
She loosened from his hold.
"You forgot about me...You were just using me."
Sven reached out for her, but stopped in midair. He lowered his hand.
"Don't say that."
"You did. Don't lie to me. All those years of taking care of me, of putting up with me and Train were just atonement for failing your partner Lloyd all those years ago. You raised a daughter because Lloyd couldn't raise his own, and you got another partner so that you'd somehow make it up to Lloyd for not betraying another."
Sven pounded a fist against the radio in frustration.
"Don't do that, Eve. Don't bring up the past just to explain my actions! Don't you know me better than that?" He inhaled slowly and went on in a gentler voice. "Lloyd wasn't only my partner, he was my best friend. It took a long time to overcome his death, but I did, and I went and lived my own life...I wasn't using you or Train as a pretext for my guilty endeavors. You deserve better than that." Sven finished with a weary sigh. "Both of you deserve better than that."
"I don't believe you."
Sven turned his head away and clenched his jaw in helpless defeat.
Eve smiled.
"But it's okay...I'll make you remember."
He fell against the radio with a dull thud as she pinned him up against it, her hair turned into thick rope.
"Why are you doing this?" he said as his eyes shut tight in resistance to the pain in his back.
Eve crept closer and pressed her lips to his neck.
"Because you love it."
She smiled against his skin, bared her teeth, and bit him.
He gasped sharply and his eyebrows furrowed as he felt warm liquid running down his neck. He was vaguely surprised when he realized it was blood.
"Please stop," he coughed out. "Please, Eve, this isn't like you..."
She didn't respond and dug her nails into his chest, but her nails weren't shape of dull human nails...the ends of her fingers were shaped like small knives. She pushed her hand forward and dragged it down down; his flesh made a sickening, muffled shredding sound.
Sven bit back a cry.
"Eve," he moaned, "why are you torturing me?"
"Oh Sven..." Eve said as she laughed softly, "because you're letting me."
"Please..." Sven begged. He was immediately stunned by the sudden hollowness in his voice...as if he had been talking to himself.
He opened his eyes as he leaned against the radio. The music was off. .
No one was in the room but him.
The switches in the control tower glowed brightly against the darkness of the otherwise unlit room.
X stood alone with Z, who kept watch.
"I need you to guard the perimeters while I'm gone," said X.
"Where are you going?" Z asked.
X smiled.
"I'm going to make sure our guests get a warm invitation." He held up two insects, mechanical in nature.
"Do you know what these are?"
The old man shrugged and shook his head.
"Beats me."
"These are nanomachine bugs. They work like mosquitoes but backwards, instead of sipping blood, they inject the victim with a serum that causes hallucinations."
Z tilted his head.
"We sure are using a lot of this cactus juice for these hallucination inducing nanomachines. It's a good thing you chose a desert to have our end-of-the-world party, or we'd have run out."
"It would not be wise to cut off our main supply of weaponry by distance. With Eve's hallucination room and the other things we plan to do, we'll need lots of it." X laughed. "We can rid the world of life, and leave them happy we did it."
Sven looked up as he heard the doorknob jiggle. He glanced at his suitcase. It was only a few feet away.
"Honey, I'm hooo—"
Train was jostled into the hallway. Sven pointed his suitcase at him, but realized who it was and relaxed.
"Where the hell have you been?" Sven asked wearily.
"Sorry," Train smiled. He held up a bottle of milk and a pair of brown bags. "I was getting dinner."
Sven threw the door open and walked back to his seat.
"Yeah yeah, come in."
Train walked in and flopped in a chair at a mini table beside the T.V.
"You know," he said as he sniffed the air behind Sven. "Whiskey makes you a little paranoid."
"I don't know what you're talking about," said Sven.
Train rolled his eyes.
Sven sat in his previous seat. He usually liked to stay sharp when he drank and smoked, but it was Christmas day, and nightfall had cooled the optimism he had felt earlier that morning when he and Train left Tearju's home together. He had a couple of extra drinks that he didn't really need. He wasn't drunk, but he wasn't exactly sober either.
The ride during the day had been pretty quiet and nothing out of the ordinary occurred. If it had been up to Sven, he would have driven day and night nonstop to find Eve, but if he did, their fatigue would have made them useless on the battlefield—and when you're tired, you make mistakes. Plus, Train got unbearably irritable when he didn't get any sleep. He and Train still had a ways to go, but they'd reach Eve within the next couple of days.
"So are you gonna do this at every hotel we visit?" Train said. His eyes were on Sven's glass of whiskey.
"Train, we're three or four days drive from Eve. We have nothing to do but watch T.V., stare at each other, and look at old maps," Sven shook his head. "On second thought, I already looked at the maps. The quickest roads are marked up, so we have nothing to do but watch T.V. and stare at each other. I'm not in the mood for T.V., and I sure as hell don't wanna look at you, so I chose the next best thing."
Sven raised the glass in his hand as proof. "And no, I'm not. It's too expensive."
Train's eyebrows quirked.
"You're extra sassy today," he said
"Well, it's a step up from bitterly cynical," Sven smiled finally.
Train tilted his head back in thought, then nodded with a smirk.
"Can't argue with you there..." He raised his arms triumphantly. "You have made great leaps in your pessimistic state of mind!"
Sven rolled his eyes as he lit a cigarette between his lips.
"How'd you pay for that? I thought you didn't have any cash," he said, glancing at the paper bags of fast food Train brought with him.
Train reached deep in his pocket and tossed Sven a brown leather wallet.
"You're pickpocketing now? I thought that was below you," Sven said. "Who's the unlucky victim?"
Train twisted the top off his milk.
"Look inside," he said.
Sven opened it and looked at the I.d.
A terribly familiar green haired man stared back at him from the photo.
"Used your credit card," Train grinned.
Sven flipped his wallet shut. He supposed he didn't recognize it because he tried to use it as little as possible.
"You're a pain in the ass," Sven grumbled and put the wallet in the inside pocket of his suit jacket.
Train opened the brown bag of fast food and hauled out a cheeseburger.
"Takes one to know one," he said as he took a big bite.
"You're the real reason I drink," Sven complained.
Train grinned. He had come to recognize that different people dealt with crises in different ways. His way was emptying a bottle of cold milk on a roof (this harmless, juvenile way of dealing with his problems might have been due to his lost childhood—but Train would probably be more inclined to believe that as psychobabble) Sven's was chain smoking and drinking. He knew Sven wouldn't let him down when worst came to worst, so he let Sven do what he wanted. He wasn't his mommy, after all.
Daylight was just beginning to die at the west end of Tearju's property. Most of her guests had kept themselves occupied by taking time to prepare themselves physically for their impending battle. Tearju had kept herself busy by cooking for her guests, though Woodney was the only one who dared to taste anything she made. Her plans were done and memorized, she just had to wait for the others to learn them. River was practicing his sonic fist against Jenos' orichalcum gloves. His best attacks were for close combat, but he could defend himself from a distance. He devise a plan to get Jenos in close perimeters when he heard Leon overhead.
"Hey, need another sparring partner? Looks like River can't handle you," he laughed as he rode his surfboard in the air. Any animosity held between Jenos and Leon when they fought each other as enemies years before had evaporated into a fond and sometimes even irritable trust. He twisted upside down and put his fists on his hips.
"You mean you wanna make it a threesome?" River said.
Leon quirked an eyebrow.
"Well, when you put it that way...No."
"I'll take you on, kid," called Jenos. "I need a challenge."
"Hey hey hey!!" said River. "Hold on, I was totally kicking your ass just now."
Leon scowled.
"I am NOT a kid! Twenty-one years will turn you into a man!"
"No," laughed Jenos, "only a woman will turn you into a man!"
Leon blushed darkly, but the scowl remained.
"I'm gonna send you crying back to your mommy, Jenos," he said.
"Not if I send you first!"
"Hey wait a minute, I'm gonna kick both of your asses! Watch out!" cried River as he raised his fists.
They shared a discreet smile. They knew they could get the best fight out of River by making him angry.
"Shut up Mr. McFatty!" called Leon.
"Whaaattt?!?!"
River charged at him and threw him a long distance attack with his Sonic Fist.
"Take that!"
Leon avoided it by shooting up high into the air. He was just a yellow-white speck against violet, but both River and Jenos could see him against the dark sky. Leon paused and for a few moments, he didn't move.
"What? You scared to come down, kid?" River shouted.
Leon shot back down so quickly that it took the wind out of River.
"Hey, watch your landing! You almost squashed me!" cried River.
"Keep your panties on," Leon muttered as he adjusted the buckles on his board. Before River could open his mouth, he spoke. "Have you seen Sven and Train at all?"
"Stop trying to escape my wrath by changing the subject!"
Leon weaved up in the air out of anger. He towered over River.
"Listen to me for two seconds without trying to beat someone in a competition!"
"What's going on?" Jenos said as he walked up to them.
"Have you seen Sven and Train?" Leon repeated.
Jenos shook his head.
Leon pointed to the line of vehicles parked near Tearju's house across the field. Jenos scanned them and grimaced.
"Hey..." said River. "Where's that ugly piece of shit they call a car?"
Jenos rolled his eyes.
"Wow...of all people to be observant..."
"Heeeyy, what's that's supposed to mean?!" River made a fist.
"That little yellow Volkswagen is gone," Leon said gravely. "I can't believe we hadn't noticed sooner."
Sven and Train went to bed early that night because they had to get up early in the morning. They didn't bother to get in their pajamas for the same reason, traveling and sleeping in their day clothes cut valuable time out of the morning. Train slept on the bed that touched the wall because he had developed a terrible habit of falling off hotel beds. In theory, the wall on one side limited his chances. But that was only a theory.
Night crept slowly on.
As he slept, Train began to feel increasingly edgy. Hours passed, and he couldn't rid himself of that anxiety chewing on the borders of his muddy consciousness. He knew by Sven's measured breathing that he was just fine...but something was wrong.
That's when he heard it.
Sven began to talk in his sleep. It remained incoherent and difficult to decipher, but to Train, it sounded extremely painful. Like a unspeakable secret was tearing Sven apart inside.
Sven woke with a start and with a few gasping breaths, rose and abruptly left the room.
Train sat up and listened to Sven's heavy footsteps getting lighter and lighter as he walked further away.
Sven trotted down the open motel hallway. He felt confused, tormented.
He had a dream...or was it a vision? He didn't know anymore.
Eve had forgotten him, everyone...and reverted to her old self...
It was his greatest fear. He tried so hard to get her to trust him, to trust the good in the world. To see Eve return to a self that was so removed from everything so that she didn't even really live, was worse than watching her die.
"Sven."
It was a whisper: soft, childlike, familiar.
Sven's stomach lurched.
From where he stood, he could see the car.
"Not again," he groaned.
"Sven."
He whirled.
Eve had changed this time. She was not twenty...the age she should have been...her body had reverted to her twelve year old self.
"You're just a hallucination," he muttered.
She frowned.
"Don't say mean things, Sven."
Her arm transformed into a long, black whip.
"I'll make you sorry."
Sven backed away and began to run. He had not gone five steps, when he saw she stood in front of him, blocking his exit on one side. He turned to go the opposite way, and the same happened. She raised her arm and struck him.
After he was sure Sven had gone, Train turned on the lamp closest to him. As soon as he turned on the light, he heard a faint buzzing sound. He furrowed his eyebrows. It sounded like the erratic bumbling of an insect. It passed by his head, and he avoided it easily.
It swerved back around, obviously on a mission to bite Train.
"Go ahead..." Train narrowed his eyes at it as it buzzed at him. "Make my day..."
It sped at him and Train ducked. It caught a few stray hairs and sliced them as it flew by.
"Holy shit, that thing's fast!" he cried. He grabbed a newspaper Sven had been reading earlier that day and rolled it up.
The insect turned and performed the same maneuver, except it faked a left and went right instead.
"Damn," whispered Train to himself. "I swear mosquitoes get smarter every year...the world has GOT to stop polluting!"
The third try was less than successful for the insect than the first two. It was crushed against the wall with a newspaper.
"Thank god for evolution! Man prevails again!" Train raised his newspaper over his head like a baton.
Another buzzing sound interrupted Train's triumphant struggle. Train followed the noise until he was on the other side of the room. He looked down and scanned the floor, until next to the back leg of the loveseat, he noticed the body of the half buzzing insect on the rough burgundy rug. He knelt and picked it up. It was mechanically made. It buzzed for a few seconds and finally shut down. Swearing, Train crushed it between his fingers and rushed after Sven.
Despite the fact he knew that it was a hallucination, Sven could not avoid the black whip, or the pain it inflicted. He cried out repeatedly. Soon, Sven was afraid he'd hear the stirring of angry motel roomers to berate him. He'd have no explanation.
"Sven!" Train rounded a corner and looked at him breathlessly. "You've got nanomachines in your body! It's X, he's found us."
"There's a silver case in the car," Sven barked out as he gritted his teeth.
Train rushed to the car and picked up the case that hung in the back seat. When Train reached Sven, he opened it. Inside there were syringes and vials filled with clear liquids. Train prepared the needle and handed it to Sven, who was trying desperately to ignore the hallucination. Sven bit on his cigarette as he pushed up his sleeve and injected his quivering body. As he swallowed a groan, he marveled how Eve hardly made a sound during her injection. He had never received a more painful vaccination in his life. Slowly, he felt the signs of reality come upon him.
"This was just a cheap trick," muttered Sven as he rubbed life back into his arm. "He just wants us to know that he knows we're coming
"Yeah," Train said. He tossed Sven the mechanical insect he had been holding in his pocket. "I found this by your chair."
"Great," Sven grimaced and stood shakily. "Well by now we've all been infected by nanomachines...I guess it was my turn." He sighed. "Let's go and try to get some rest...though I doubt I'll be able to get much sleep tonight..."
Train nodded silently and with hands in his pockets, followed Sven back to the hotel room.
Two weeks before:
The night sky engulfed their shadowed figures wrapped in the barren womb of desert. X observed Eve meticulously. It was those dreams. She had been dreaming of her past life. A few weeks had passed when she had confessed that she had a dream where a man had bought her some cold, sweet substance in an edible cone shaped container. Eve related this dream with a sense of wistful happiness. When X asked her about the man in the dream, she furrowed her eyebrows and said she couldn't remember his face...but X thought, in time, that those memories might come back, and perhaps it would be better to leave them behind once and for all...
Eve stared into the dense night, closed her eyes, opened them and began to speak, really speak, for the first time in months.
"You brothers," Eve chanted, "who are mine,
Poor people, near and far,
Longing for every star,
Dream of relief from pain,
You, stumbling dumb
At night, as pale stars break,
Lift your thin hands for some
Hope, and suffer, and wake,
Poor muddling commonplace,
You sailors who must live
Unstarred by hopelessness,
We share a single face.
Give me my welcome back."
A few desert crickets chirped in response.
"What a lovely poem," said X.
"Lonesome Night, by Hermann Hesse," Eve replied blankly.
She blinked and her pupils formed. She rested her forehead in her hand.
"I don't...I don't know how I know that."
Tears formed in her eyes as she remembered a faint image of reading the poem to the same green haired man who had tortured her. She saw another, a brunette with a tattoo on his collarbone, laughing at a comment he had made at her expense...but in the memory, she was not displeased....despite all the pain they had caused, she was indescribably and inextricably happy.
"Shh," X consoled. "Its just a lost memory. Don't worry. Those won't bother you anymore...just wait a little longer and I'll fix it for you."
She remained silent, but he noticed that something belayed emotion in her eyes.
Morning cut through the cheap blinds of the hotel window.
Sven had fallen asleep in his chair and Train, snoring on the bed closest to the wall. His head lolled off the edge and, as natural gravity would have it, his hair stuck out straight from under him.
They rose in the same way they had the day before (with Train falling off the uncomfortable hotel bed with a loud THUMP, and Sven being awakened by the sound), and continued traveling. No one bothered them. They had turned off their cells and taken precautions by driving on side roads so as not to be found by their friends. When they were ready, the slammed the car door and started the car. After a few tries, and a few of Train's exasperated groans, the car started and they were off. They were only a day's drive from Eve.
A droning sound issued from behind them.
"Sveeen," Trained warned.
"It's not the car!" he retorted crankily. "The muffler's fine."
"If we keep having car troubles," Train said, "I'll just leave this heap and walk. It'll be faster."
Sven ignored him.
"The road's a little more congested than usual today," Sven commented as he glanced at the rear view mirror. He did a double take. "Wait..."
"Heeeyyyy!"
They both looked to their right in surprise as they saw Woodney's motorcycle packed with Annette riding behind. The deep humming sound they had heard emanated from the little old motor on the bike. Train, on the passenger's side as always, stuck his head out of the car and saw a caravan of vehicles following them. Jenos, Rins, Belze and Sephiria rode in Jenos' car, and Leon, Tearju, Kevin, and the rest of Leon's gang sat in his old VW bus.
"Where do you think you're going without us??" Annette said.
"We didn't want to involve everyone," Train said.
"She's just as much a part of our family, Train, don't hog her!" Woodney cried.
Train smirked.
"So all of you really want to come?"
"You're a dumbass for even asking that question," shouted Annette. "When we found out you guys had left without a word, a few of us wanted to personally hunt you down just to KILL you!"
Sven laughed.
"Sorry."
"Sorry?! You just better make sure that it doesn't happen again!"
They fell back behind the little bug and followed in the beeline headed straight towards Eve.
"You know," Train said, leaning back into his seat comfortably. "This feels kind of nice, all of us together riding into the sunset to save the Princess."
Sven rolled his eyes.
"First of all, I don't understand you since leaving them behind was your idea in the first place, and second of all—Riding into the sunset?" Sven took a sidelong glance at his partner. "Train, it's noon."
Train smiled, shrugged, and closed his eyes.
"Wake me when we get there."
Two Weeks Before:
"She has been dreaming of them," X said, as if to himself. "She still remembers something about her past life."
"So? As long as she does her job and shuts up about it, I won't be tempted to kill her," came Z's caustic reply as he picked at his toes.
X exhaled patiently.
"The next time they would have seen each other, she would have despised them, but I did not realize until now how much more infinitely painful and wonderful for them it will be when she does not even remember her past life. And if she doesn't remember them, there will be no danger of retaliation when they meet."
X paused. He looked at the woman whose golden eyes shimmered at him from a dark corner of the room in the control tower. The room was at the center of the mechanical device that stood in the middle of the desert. It was an ingenious mixture of biological machinery, so that part of it was living flesh, and the other part was metal and bolts and sophisticated mainframes that operated it. It was slowly growing underground like the roots of a gnarled tree. It stretched for hundreds of miles underground unbeknownst to everyone but Eve and her protectors.
"Will you go to her, sister?"
To the untrained eye, she looked unmoved. But he could see that she had stiffened with the request.
"It is not an order," he added gently.
Her expression softened.
Y inclined her head and bowed, exiting the room.
"What does that mean?" asked Z, dropping himself into a chair.
X's eyes lowered. For a moment, a sign of sadness swirled in his dark iris. He blinked.
It disappeared.
He turned his head to look at the old man.
"That she will honor my request."
The group stopped and made camp in the mountains at nightfall. There were no hotels at the edge of the desert—who'd build a hotel in the middle of nowhere anyway?
After getting an earful from each and every one of their offended friends, Sven and Train were exhausted.
"I had no idea they'd be so angry about it," Train said, rubbing his forehead and pacifying an impending headache.
"It's my fault for listening to you," Sven said with a muffled groan.
"Yeah, it is," Train nodded. "You should know better than that."
Sven shot him a glare. Train returned it with a debonair smile.
"Guys, Tearju wants to talk to all of us. Plus Sven, she told me you were going to discuss the plans Train stole," Rins said as she stood in the doorway of their tent.
"Good, I couldn't understand any of that shit in the first place," said Train with a yawn. He was rewarded with a slap to the back of the head by both Sven and Rins.
"If you weren't so good with your gun, I would have ended our partnership a long time ago," Sven muttered.
"Ooooh, that sounds vaguely sexual," said Train. He continued teasing in a girly voice. "Svenny baby, you're so bad."
Sven rolled his eyes.
"You disgust me in more ways than I can count."
They walked to the center of their camp.
"We are a day's drive from our objective," said Tearju, who stood in the center. "We will reach her by nightfall on New Year's Eve. We are all here for our own reasons, but we share in common our desire to save Eve. It is certain that armies all over are gathering together to destroy her to save the world. They have no scruples, and a believes a girl's life is a small price to pay. Suspicion of this impending apocalypse has somehow reached the United Nations, and the place will be heavily monitored by the time we get there. Fortunately, unlike them, we know exactly what's going on. We not only have to immobilize their forces, but we must hope that along with the world, we save Eve as well." Tearju stepped back and Sven took her position. A hush fell over the camp as he stood with his hat firmly in place, half shielding his eyes from the eyes of his audience. He set no time aside for formalities.
"Jenos, Sephiria, and Belze will take on the first attack of their base, leave open a weakness for a small team to go in unnoticed in the rear, and fall back to join River, Kevin, Tomoe, and Leon to concentrate on keeping the foreign and native armed forces at bay. Silphy, Woodney, and the rest of Leon's group will be in charge of keeping their radios scrambled so they can't regroup."
Train remembered that the last one was actually Sven's idea. He had looked over Tearju's plans and found a flaw. He guessed years working in the IBI had given Sven a little insight on the mental processes of organized groups. Sven suggested that they should keep a group set aside in the mountains for scrambling signals.
"Soldiers work by routine," Sven said. "If we break their routine, we have a bigger advantage because they can't fight in the orderly way that they're used to."
He pointed to himself.
"I, along with Tearju, Rins, and Train will go inside to save Eve. Rins is in charge of breaking things up from their control room with Tearju, and Train and I will take care of getting Eve out in one piece."
Train smiled. He and Sven had finally reached a conclusion on saving Eve. Train wasn't against holding Sven back from saving Eve, he just didn't want him to go to that room for the wrong reasons. If Sven had entered that room feeling guilty for all the wrongs he believed he committed, he'd be more concerned with receiving a punishment from Eve than saving her. He had to get Sven into the right frame of mind for the job. That's what their partnership meant.
"Quick question." Train glanced behind him as Silphy came out of the closely knit circle with crossed arms. "Why am I being sent to a control room to scramble signals with a bunch of kids—no offense Woodney—instead of fighting with the others?"
"None taken," Woodney replied with a unaffected shrug.
Sven's head tilted upward. So did his hat. Silphy saw a hard glint in his eyes, but she knew it wasn't because he was cross, it was because of the responsibility—and maybe the guilt—that strained him.
"We put certain people in certain groups for a reason," he said simply. "Guns are good for long distances, and keep people far away. You're the only one we're sending there good enough with a gun to keep any interference off. If they find you out, you'll have a hell of a time trying to keep them away and all of you safe. You've also got one of the most important jobs because if they can organize their attack patterns against the our team out in the field, our already dangerous plan gets more dangerous really quick."
Silphy nodded humbly and Sven turned to the rest of them.
"We need anyone who specializes in close combat in the field. That's why River's Sonic Fists and Leon's Wind will help us out. Both are pretty versatile and can be used for attacks on many people without causing serious injuries as well as powerful enough to be used for tanks, cannons, and the rest. The people in that group will convene with Sephiria, Jenos, and Belze, who have devised a plan to fight as efficiently as possible with our small numbers. As Chronos members who once had authority over them, they, more than anyone, know how the armed forces work. They also know better than anyone how to counter them."
Rins smiled. Mildly, she was surprised that Sven had settled back to his old self so quickly. There was still that same sadness lingering in the way he walked, but there was a little something of hope there too. And she couldn't be more grateful for that.
"So now that you guys know what's going on, I suggest you do what you need to do and talk to your groups so that you can memorize your plans, if you haven't memorized them already. Questions?"
No one had any. Sven nodded.
"Good. You're dismissed."
After everyone had left murmuring to themselves about their duties, Sven and Train went up to Rins.
"Was all that really necessary?" Sven asked. He wasn't really one for public speaking.
"Yeah, it was. It was to show you that we're all in this together. That we know what we signed up for and we're set about it—just in case you were thinking of running away again."
Train and Sven glanced at each other. The thought might have crossed their minds. Images of leaving them without working vehicles or gasoline had pervaded their thoughts—especially after all the scolding.
"We know better now than to get all of you angry," Train said good naturedly. "It won't happen again."
Sven silently agreed.
Fortunately, they both meant it.
Two weeks before:
Eve sat on the floor, leaning against the wall as she stared at nothing in particular. She vaguely remembered a place of water and stone, where she had been bathed and wounds had been healed. Then she had woken in a room of darkness where she had suffered because of two young men. X had saved her...and then she hurt someone she loved dearly...but the details were blurry and painful. When she woke up, she never remembered.
The rooms in the place where she was in now, were strange. They were mechanical in nature, but reminiscent of a human heart. There were long veins, blue and violet, that glowed and lit the rooms eerily. She blinked as the door opened. Light flooded in and bathed her body.
A long shadow loomed in the doorway.
Footsteps echoed in the small enclosure. The door was closed again.
Y lowered herself to her knees and gazed at Eve's unresponsive eyes. She traced two fingers across her cheek. Nothing.
She wound her arms around Eve's back and lifted her, propping her up against her own body. As she held her, Y began to weep.
The woman touched her forehead to Eve's.
"I will help you forget the pain," she murmured, closing her eyes.
Y embraced Eve tighter in the darkness of the room and began to glow a soft pink color. Her tears flew from her like the dying sparks of a flame.
Eve let herself be held by the woman who had offered her compassion. To her, Y felt warm...like a mother. Eve saw the faces of those she had once loved, but one by one, they escaped her...in the manner that snowflakes melt in one's hand and drip to the ground. Train...and Sven. She smiled involuntarily.
Now they were gone.
Two final memories were purged and wiped clean.
