Chapter 10: Through the Looking Glass
Kaname's eyes fluttered open in her dark room. An alarm was beeping loudly in the hall outside. She could hear hurried footsteps running to and fro outside her door. Her arm reached out to the nearby lamp and swatted empty air until she caught the pull chain with her fingers. One tug and the room was lit again, illuminating the icy walls in hues of pale blue and light green. A quick glance at the clock told her that she had only slept for three hours. Though it was not yet time for her to wake up, she was no longer sleepy. Something was happening outside. The meeting with the Council was in two hours, but she was certain that the commotion outside had nothing to do with that.
Are they having a fire drill? she asked herself as she fell back onto her pillows again with her forearm across her eyes to keep the light at bay. The thought of fire burning a hole into the thick Arctic ice and dropping the entire laboratory into the deep abyss amused her greatly.
She contemplated going back to sleep again and returning to the dream she had left just moments ago. Kaname dreamt that she was back in Japan at her favorite amusement park. All of her friends were there, as well as her teachers. For whatever reason, she dreamt that Hayashimizu and Ren were married and they were king and queen of the park. Just before she was awakened, she imagined she was fishing with Sousuke just as the sun was setting. Kaname even recalled the contented sigh she let out in her dream as she rested her head on Sousuke's shoulders.
Just as she was collecting some semblance of joy from her quiet reverie there was a knock on her door. Before she could respond it opened and Leonard popped his head through.
"I don't recall permitting you to open my door," she said coldly, knowing who it was without even opening her eyes.
"I'd love to banter with you, Angel, but we haven't the time. We are to evacuate the Ice Cube immediately. They've located us," he said hastily before closing the door again. Kaname heard his expensive shoes clacking their way down the icy hall.
She knew whom he meant. Letting in a deep breath she exhaled slowly and with purpose.
"It's your turn now, Bonta-kun," said Kaname quietly as she got up and patted her stuffed animal on the head. Changing quickly into thick heavy clothing, a heavy snow jacket and fur-lined, waterproof boots, she then packed her MP3 player into her personal duffel that she retrieved from her small closet. As a member of Amalgam, she was trained along with the others to pick up shop at the drop of a hat. With a wide swing of her arm all of her test results, reports, clipboard and her mini laptop computer were dumped into a silver briefcase with a dual lock and she was gone.
Kaname went immediately to her laboratory to direct personnel in her department to move the cylindrical tanks to the modified cold storage freight containers behind the Ice Cube. At the loading dock were several heavy duty snow vehicles that were on call at all times to be ready to move the important hardware to the Orion, a technologically sophisticated and extremely fast submarine, rivaling even the Danaan, which served as an alternate base for their personnel just south of the Ice Cube. Only precise handling would ensure the safety of her lab subjects. Kaname was there to give orders ensuring that every remote energy cell to maintain the life support of each cylinder was packed with their chargers, that all of the necessary life saving drugs, intravenous fluids and liquid nourishment for the subjects were collected, that her subordinates made sure the life support readings of each subject was stable enough for transport. Her test subjects were in her keeping. She would not have them killed due to mere incompetence.
Just as Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum were lowering the last cylinder, that of K1-001, the test subject's heart rate picked up and the life support system started to beep ominously. Kaname ordered one of her physician staff members to assess the situation immediately while the other cylinders were cleared out to the loading dock. She nervously watched as the doctor checked the monitor as well as the temperature reading on the cylinder.
"Chidori-san," said the doctor. "K1-001's heart rate is quickly deteriorating. It appears that he will not be fit for moving." Kaname knew what that meant. Any test subject who failed the experiment was to be exterminated. In this case, K1-001 would simply be injected with a lethal mixture of potassium chloride and pancuronium bromide for quick euthanasia while still asleep. The cylinder would then be dumped into the Arctic Ocean, forever sustaining a cold, dead form in a cryogenically sound tube. However "gentle" the doctors always described it Kaname couldn't stand the thought of killing anyone intentionally for such a reason. It was directly in contrast to her moral fiber and extremely repulsive to her sensibilities.
"Whether it is better for him to live or die is not for me to decide," she said firmly. "Wake him up."
"But Chidori-san," protested the doctor.
"I don't care how long it takes. I'll carry him with me all the way to the Aerie if I have to!" she demanded. Even if she had to hoist him on her back to the Amalgam headquarters barefoot, Kaname was determined not to leave him behind. The doctor, her subordinate, questioned her with a look but said nothing. Immediately, coma-reversing drugs were administered to the boy and the fluid within the cylinder drained through the tubes and pumps to some unknown place. The doctor opened the hatch of the tube and caught the boy as he fell out. She signaled her assistants to help put the boy on the examination table and they wrapped him in layers of blankets to help him adjust to the cold air in the laboratory. After observing him remove the tubes from his body Kaname dismissed the doctor and held the boy's wrist as she monitored his pulse with her watch. It was slow but steady at first, beating quicker to normal speed as the minutes drew on.
"I will meet you at the Aethia. Don't you dare take off without me," she commanded, handing her briefcase and her duffel to them. Her assistants looked at one another and nodded in acquiescence. They observed the last of the cylinders being carted off and exited the laboratory.
With only her and K1-001 in the room, the lab seemed eerily quiet all of the sudden. The boy stirred and his long lashes fluttered as he opened his eyes. Immediately his focus cleared and he observed Kaname's face calmly.
"Am I dead?" he asked in his native Japanese.
"You are not," she replied simply. He tried to get up, but Kaname held him down firmly and shook her head. "Please stay still until the drugs have taken full effect. You haven't walked for weeks so you will still be lightheaded and unsteady."
"Who are you?" he asked quietly.
"I am nobody," she answered with difficulty. How was she to tell him that she was partly responsible for uprooting him from his previous life to be a guinea pig for her experiments? "But you can call me Kaname."
"Kaname…san." He reflected on her name with a small smile.
"Do you know who you are?" she asked.
"No," said the boy. He furrowed his brow and contemplated this problem further. "I can't recall anything." K1-001 looked a bit concerned.
"You are known as subject K1-001 here," she offered.
"K1-001?" It was a peculiar name.
"K stands for Kaname. K1 is the name of my first project, what they call the K1-CC, or Cerebral Chip. You are my first of twelve test subjects, hence you are number 001," she said. "You will be trained to operate a specialized arm slave and you will be a foot soldier for Amalgam's private army."
"You're a scientist? You seem kind of young," he said doubtfully.
"I'm an ordinary person with extraordinary knowledge," she said sadly. "We're actually alike in many ways. They were going to kill you a moment ago but I thought I'd let you decide what you want to do. If you stay here, someone will come for you eventually, but I will need to expose the chip in your brain with a faint and brief pulse of low-grade radiation that will destroy my invention that was implanted in your head. With the exception of a few brain cells dying, it won't harm you and you won't feel a thing."
He thought about her words for a moment. "Why would they want to kill me?" he asked. She looked at his innocent expression and sighed. He was someone's son not so long ago and a forgotten boy no one wanted. There was something sad about their dual existence in that cold room. She couldn't shake the feeling that she needed to look after him.
"Because we have to get going, and you refused to be moved in your sleep state. Killing you would be easier than waking you up and caring for you."
"You saved me, then," he said with a relieved and grateful countenance.
"You really don't have to thank me. Trust me on that. But I have to get going. The others are waiting for me. What will you choose?" she asked. He thought again for a moment and gave her a shy, unassuming smile.
"Can't I come with you?" he asked. His request surprised her but she could see the loneliness in his eyes. Though he could not remember it, she realized he had come from a hard life only to wake up in a harder one. Kaname paused and looked up to the ceiling. There was a reflective glass surface twenty feet above them, technically the underside of one of many solar panels used to supply energy for the Ice Cube, and in its reflection there was another Kaname and another boy in a world that mimicked theirs. If not in this world, then maybe in the next, she and the boy could find happiness.
"There's a cold, dark world through that looking glass," she sighed. "I don't really want you to come with me." Kaname placed both hands on his shoulders and looked him right in the eye. "Are you sure?" she asked.
"I have nowhere else to go," said the boy simply.
"That makes the two of us," she replied wistfully.
Kaname found a pair of snow boots for the boy, whom she named Kenji, took his hand and led him out into the snowy wilderness beneath the light of a yellow sun. He squinted at the bright orb but somehow found comfort in its brightness. Like an older sister, she pulled the blanket over his head as the wind picked up and wrapped it closer to him like a warm cloak. Together, they trudged through the deep snow to the Aethia, Amalgam's version of a heavy duty propeller aircraft much like the US Air Force's V-22 Osprey with its tiltrotor capability for vertical take-off and landing. Already the Aethia's propellers were swirling up clouds of snow into the air as it prepared for take off, carrying the Ice Cube's top level personnel. Leonard was waiting for her by the open hatch.
"And this is?" he asked curiously eyeing the boy.
"Kenji," she responded simply. "He'll be traveling with us." She escorted her charge into the plane.
"Ah," responded Leonard. "Let's not make a habit of making your experiments your personal tamagotchis, Kaname-san." She ignored his comment and helped Kenji into one of the bucket seats.
"Are you all right? Do you think you need something for motion sickness or maybe a sedative?" she asked, feeling his clammy hand and resting her palm on his forehead. His temperature was back to normal but he looked a little nervous.
"No more drugs, please," he said quietly. Kaname nodded, understanding, and handed him a bottle of water. She went back to Leonard, still standing at the open hatch. A look of amusement crossed his face as he stared out towards the Ice Cube. Kaname looked outside and her heart almost stopped.
Several familiar arm slaves were closing in on them, coming out from behind the Cube. They were Mithril's M9's and right behind what she assumed was Mao's unit was the Arbalest. She didn't have to guess who was piloting it. Her lips mouthed his name but she couldn't find her voice. Mithril's arms slaves were in the process of destroying the outer defenses of the Cube, and a nearby bunker of Amalgam's automatic laser sight defense mechanisms exploded. Several groups of Amalgam foot soldiers retreated to the helicopters that were waiting for them. Leonard looked at her with a soft grin.
"Nostalgic, isn't it?" he mused. "I feel the same way every time I see the Danaan."
Kaname dismissed his sarcasm. As the propellers of the Aethia picked up momentum, more swirls of ice and snow picked up around the craft. Kaname's long hair flew up and trailed off to one side, as she stood there unmoving, gripping the handle by the open hatch.
"Chidori-san," called out one of the crafts operators, raising his voice to a yell in order to be heard above the engines as he reached for the hatch's handle. "We must close the door!" She barely acknowledged what was being said to her, and didn't even register the noise. In her mind all was silent and in that moment before the hatch closed she knew that he was looking directly at her.
Sousuke observed the propeller aircraft as it took off. His visual screen had picked out the contours of her face as he zoomed in. It had been a while since he had seen her but he would never forget the face he had ingrained into his memory. Kaname looked thinner and tired, but it was still her. In an instant, relief and longing washed over him and he had no words to describe it. Even if Bel or Mao had given the order to shoot them down, Sousuke would disobey because he couldn't move the Arbalest in that moment worth his life. His mind was locked in Kaname's sad expression and his body was grounded in his own sense of futility. She was leaving him again, and there was nothing he could do to prevent it.
Someone was calling his name.
"Sousuke, snap out of it," ordered Mao through their communications link. He blinked back into reality and looked over towards her.
"Go with Kurtz and secure the building," said Bel as he and Mao took one end of the perimeter, and two others went in the opposite direction. Dressed in warmer gear for the mission, he and Kurtz exited their arm slave units armed to the teeth and went inside.
Aside for a few die-hard guards who refused to leave their posts, there wasn't much resistance to their entry. They soon discovered that there wasn't much left inside the building that was worth confiscating and it was reported back to the Danaan over the com link. Here and there a few notes and charts had been left behind but the hardware, the test subjects and the personnel were all gone. Streams of water were flowing down the halls as the security systems of the Ice Cube had gone into "meltdown," a type of self-destruct method where the solar panels overloaded the collected energy at the power grid, which then distributed heat throughout the premises by way of wires and super charged heat rods to effectively melt the entire building down to nothing but slush in a matter of hours. What little could have been saved was already washing away in ice water.
"Sousuke," said Kurtz, indicating that he should follow. Sousuke turned the corner where Kurtz had disappeared, his boots sloshing in the icy water, and saw him standing in front of two doors. One of them had a metal plate attached to it that read, "K. Chidori."
"You search that one. I'll take this one," nodding towards the door that said "L. Tesstarossa."
Sousuke entered the room carefully, avoiding the flow of water that streamed out as he opened the door. The ceiling of the room had already caved in, not leaving much that wasn't bogged down by slush and water. On a shelf in the corner were various personal articles, among them, a familiar stuffed animal. Sousuke looked at Kaname's Bonta-kun bear blankly. Something stirred in his heart. To his surprise a swell of emotion surfaced and with one swing of his hand, Bonta-kun went flying. Sousuke coldly observed the stuffed bear floating face down. Scattered on the shelf where Bonta-kun had sat was a small pile of pictures. Sousuke picked them up and realized they were postcards. One was purchased at Narita airport in Japan. Another pictured the Falkland Isalands south of Argentina. Another was of Antarctica, featuring a cluster of penguins. Sousuke flipped through them one at a time. They were from towns in France, Russia, Germany, Switzerland, the Middle East, China and Australia. Were these all the places she had gone with Amalgam? Was she trying to tell him where their bases were located? Sousuke looked at Bonta-kun again. There was an opening in the seam on the side and the white corner was sticking out. He picked up the stuffed animal again and pulled out a folded up piece of paper. He took off his gloves and carefully flattened it. Sousuke's eyes widened as he looked over a blueprint schematic for Amalgam's latest creation, the Avatara, an arm slave far more advanced than the Codarl, and the schematic for direct uplink of the brain of its human pilot into its Lambda Driver. Everywhere there was blank space on the sheet were notes scribbled in Kaname's hand about frequencies and bandwidths that Sousuke did not understand. At the bottom of the sheet of paper was the small inscription, "This will help you, Sousuke."
Author's notes: Please R&R. Your enthusiasm, as always, makes me want to write more. Thanks to Lady-Rinoa, Langus, Obsequious101, Blackwolf581, Shichibukai, and sippingsodapop for all the encouraging words this month!
I don't know why, maybe nostalgia for Fumoffu, but I really wanted to use that Bonta-kun in her room. When I decided to make this story AU I knew what I wanted Kaname to do in Amalgam and I wanted it to be dark. She's grown up in the months that she's been away and you get the feeling that she's now in a dark world, where living and dying are about the same to her.
Yes, the Avatara is my shameless Avatard fan plug. But in Hindu legend, an Avatar is a god incarnated into human form.
-Kero (8/30/08)