It was dark. It burned. She stumbled on as her feet dragged her to a destination unknown. Her footfalls were eerily silent almost as if the darkness consumed the sound as soon as it was made. For that reason, she couldn't stop herself from heading toward the only sound she could hear. In this world of blackness and emptiness, the small voice that floated through the ether of darkness was the only shred of reality she could find.

Her steps mounted to an uncountable number as her body continued to move of its own will. Her body desperately wanted to find the source of the noise. It would mean she was no longer alone; it would mean there would be something else in this world besides her. Her body struggled desperately on as her mind remained empty and hollow, completely indifferent to whatever action her body was taking.

With every step she took, the fire in her upper arm seemed to spread further into her body until every footfall burned through every inch of her, yet still she pressed on searching for the voice. The pain was slowly becoming unbearable but her body almost maniacally continued toward the voice.

Then suddenly, an area before her that had been nothing but pitch black mere moments ago was suddenly filled with a young girl who knelt on the ground. Her face was buried in her palms as she emitted a soft noise; it was the noise that Luka had been chasing through the blackness this entire time. She realized for the first time that the sound was of someone softly crying. Luka stared at the girl that looked oddly familiar before she took a tentative step forward.

The girls head shot up as if Luka's footstep had been a thunderclap. She stared horrified at the older girl that seemed to loom menacingly over her. Luka lowered herself gently to her knees so that she was on the same level as the little girl. The little girl followed her descent with her eyes and continued to stare fixatedly at the older woman.

Luka opened her mouth to speak with the girl. She wasn't quite sure what she was going to say, but she had struggled through the burning pain in her shoulder to find this girl and she understood innately that if she didn't talk to her, there could be terrible side effects. But when she willed herself to talk, no noise came out.

She closed her mouth once more and gently raised her hands to her throat. What was wrong? She opened her mouth once more but was again greeted with silence.

"It won't work…" a soft voice commented.

Luka looked over to the young girl and found that she was now standing. The terrified look that was on her face had been replaced with something that almost resembled pity.

"It won't work," The girl repeated, "When mommy turned on us, you lost the sense of identity you've been clinging to for these past fourteen years. You lost me."

Luka's eyes went wide as she finally recognized the young girl for the first time.

It was herself.

It was herself when she was just six years old.

Luka violently shook her head in a vain attempt to ward off the demon of her past that plagued her. She didn't need the past; she had spent so many years building up her walls so that she wouldn't be hurt; she had prepared herself so that when she saw her mother again she would feel nothing.

"You tried to get rid of me," The young girl stated, "But somewhere deep within you, you still clung desperately to your six year old self; you couldn't stop yourself from hoping that mommy would come and save you. Now that you know it will never come true, you've just given up."

No! No! Luka screamed in her head as her hands gripped her skull. She wanted to shake the demon loose; she didn't want to listen to its lies. She had been strong! She didn't need mommy to save her! She was happy! She was free!

"…All that stuff you're thinking isn't true." Luka looked up once more at her six year old self. The young girl was standing directly above her and staring with blank eyes that seemed only to reflect the world around her, giving nothing away about the child inside. In pained Luka to look into those eyes.

"We need mommy, mommy's gone, we should just give up, there's no point in struggling. Everything I've ever held dear has abandoned me."

But…but what about what I hold dear? Luka thought desperately.

The little girl gave a sad shake of her head, "You don't hold anything dear. You were so busy building walls to hide me away that you never took the time to find anything."

That…that can't be true… Luka thought weakly to herself. But try as she might to rack her brain she couldn't think of anything that she honestly held dear. The food she was provided with she simply viewed as nourishment, the clothing was something she wore out of habit, she didn't care to ever look at the view outside her imprisonment.

It's true She thought as she felt her heart stop cold in her chest I…don't have anything to hold dear. Mommy…mommy was my last hope…and now…now she's abandoned me forever…I'm not even…her daughter…

The darkness that had seemed to loom just out of reach descended like a fog on Luka's vision. She felt her heart begin to slow in her chest as all strength left her body. The only thing she could feel any longer was the burning sensation on her arm where they had branded her.

03

It was the mark that had stolen everything away; after all, she was no longer Luka Megurine. She was now a number; a human machine that had no identity and no emotions to cloud her judgment; a perfect product of an experiment. She would have no worries, she would experience no pain, she would never be 'unhealthy', she would live forever in perfect tranquility.

She was free.

"Dammit!" Len swore as his strength once more gave out on him and he slammed his shoulder into the wall. He gave a grim smile; he was almost starting to get used to this routine. He had been struggling through the pitch black for what felt like an eternity. Luckily, just as the woman had promised, there were no turns or directions for Len to pick.

"That doesn't make me any more comfortable trusting her…" Len mumbled to himself, "For all I know she could be sending me to my death."

Quickly pushing away the thought, Len continued to struggle on through the dark. After a few moments longer, his struggle was rewarded when he heard the soft sound of a door sliding open. The wall which had previously been little more than a black void suddenly had an opening to a room.

Even without looking inside, Len could tell that it was the room Luka was imprisoned in; the soft pink light that radiated from the now open doorway instantly informed him of that fact.

Len felt his heart pound fast in his chest as he quickened his footsteps toward the door. He was so close to his goal! Only a few more steps and he would find Luka. Once he explained the situation to her, the two of them would wait for the opportunity the woman had promised to provide them and then they would make their escape. As Len finally rounded the doorway, he felt hope rise within his chest that felt as sweet as the freedom he was about to obtain.

What he saw in the room brought everything crashing around him.

The view outside the glass imprisonment which had at one time been filled with stars and skyscrapers had gone eerily blank. Len couldn't help but feel a wave of emptiness wash over him as he looked at the emptiness that dominated the room. The pink lights that hung on the wall had been dimmed considerably to the point that Len could barely see into the room.

He took a few slow steps in as his eyes adjusted to the new lighting. What he saw there made his heart sink even further.

Curled up in the corner sat Luka. Her face was buried in her knees and she didn't move in the slightest. In all honesty, she looked like a broken doll that had been carelessly thrown away. He mustered his energy and ran over to her as quickly as his drug impaired body would allow.

When he reached her, he quickly grabbed her shoulders which caused the girl to give out an involuntary gasp of pain. Len quickly released her as his mind instantly flew to the incident that had happened last time he shook Luka. The young girl began to play with her upper arm but she refused to lift her face from her knees. Len felt his eyes wander to the girl's arm. Much like his own arm, hers was covered in sterile dressing.

They had branded her too.

"Hey…are you alright?" Len said as he tried to keep his voice level and clam. The last thing he wanted was another instance of him losing his temper and destroying any chance the two of them had for escape. He could just take her in her current state, but he knew that he wouldn't get far if Luka acted as deadweight and there was no way in hell he was going to leave her behind. No, if he wanted to escape he would have to get Luka to respond to him.

"Hey…" He tried once more as he gently touched the shoulder that the injury to her arm wasn't on. The girl physically recoiled at his touch but her head remained buried in her knees.

"Come on…what's wrong with you?" Len asked as his voice began to fade. His sight was fading fast as the final effects of the drugs took over. In his mind, he fought endlessly against the drugs, but it was a battle that he was quickly losing. He felt his strength give out as his vision began to narrow.

"Tell me what's wrong…" He managed with a barely audible voice, "Come on…Luka…"

It was only at that moment that the young girl lifted her head and locked eyes with Len. What he saw there made his heart stop within his chest.

Her eyes were empty.

She truly was a broken doll.

With that as his final thought, Len watched as the world went dark and the last thing he saw before he lost himself to the blackness was the glowing blue eyes of what once was a human girl.

There was something there.

Luka lifted her head, but the only one that greeted her was the young girl that had stood over her the whole time. But the surprising thing was that instead of staring at her, the young girl was looking around frantically. Luka could sense the panic that was radiating off the girl's body as she took a few small steps backwards from Luka.

"What?...This can't be right!" The girl said in a voice laced with horror. Her eyes darted frantically around as she hugged her arms to herself.

Luka wanted to ask what was wrong but found that her voice would still not work. She simply stood and took a few tentative steps towards the young girl. The girl's eyes flew to where Luka stood and on her face was a look that went beyond horror.

"No! NO! You can't! You can't!" She screamed as tears began to fall down her face. She clenched her tiny fists and took a few steps further back as she continued to stare horrified at her older self.

What's wrong? Luka thought worriedly as she took a few steps closer to the little girl.

The girl screamed. There were no coherent words, just pure, raw terror. Luka felt a shiver of fear run through her in sympathy with the little girl.

"NO NO NO!" The girl screamed once she found her voice, "You can't! You can't find a reason to live!"

Find a reason to live? Luka puzzled to herself But I…

With that thought, the darkness of the world was suddenly softened as a shaft of light shot from the floor. Luka watched in wonder as the light quickly spread dispelling the heavy darkness wherever it touched. All too soon, it became too much for Luka to handle and she shielded her eyes as the light engulfed both her and the young girl.

When the light seemed to abate slightly, Luka opened her eyes and felt her eyes go wide with wonder. Above her, there stood a blue expanse filled with puffy white things that floated listlessly through the warm air. Soft green blades brushed against her legs as she looked about in wonder.

Sky; clouds; grass Luka's mind instantly informed her.

There was also a smell that pervaded through everything. It was warm and inviting; it was something that Luka had smelled only once when she was a child before she was shut away in the facility. But…it was also something she had smelled recently.

Earth her mind chimed in once more, but it hesitated to inform her where she had smelled it recently. She felt herself fall further into her mind as she searched relentlessly for the memory that was just beyond her reach.

"NO!" Luka's thoughts were shattered by the sound of a young voice calling frantically. She realized for the first time that her younger self was still standing there crying and yelling. Her face was tearstained and she looked at Luka with both fear and pleading in her eyes.

"Don't! If you remember…if you re-find a purpose…I'm going to be thrown away…or…or buried again! When you tried to get rid of me it was dark! It was so dark! I don't, I don't want to go back!" The girl once more broke down into great heaving sobs as Luka watched her cry.

"Luka…"

A voice. It was a voice she recognized instantly. It seemed to come from the sky. She looked up and noticed for the second time how blue the sky was.

Blue…like his eyes.

"…Len?" She whispered quietly.

Her word was instantly cut off from a blood curdling scream from the young girl. Luka looked towards her to find that she had fallen on the ground and she was beginning to pull blades of grass from the ground in a frenzy. Luka did the first thing that came to mind; she ran to the young girl and took her in her arms.

As Luka held her, her younger self continued to cry heavily, but now she was repeating one word over and over and over.

"Mommy…"

"I…I won't bury you," Luka said in a quiet voice as she rocked slightly back and forth with the girl in her arms, "I thought…I thought that I had to throw away everything so that I didn't have to suffer. I thought that by burying myself it would be easier to deal with life; with the thought that mommy had abandoned me. But in the end, all I did was lie to myself and pretend that you didn't exist, right?"

The girl's sobs died down considerably as she gave a slight nod of her head and continued to repeat the word that was the most important to her in the entire world.

"And…and now that you have someone else to live for," The girl said quietly after a few moments, "You're going to bury me again, right? There's only room for one important thing in your heart."

"…Of course I'm not going to bury you. Before, I was relentlessly seeking one thing; surviving. I had convinced myself that I had found freedom; I didn't have to worry about finding a purpose in my life because the only thing I needed to do was survive. But now, I know better."

As Luka finished her sentence, she untangled the little girl from her arms and began to wipe the tears away from her face. She gave a warm smile as she brushed some of the wet bangs out of the little girl's face.

"Now, I have something important that I want to protect; actually I have two very important things that I want to protect."

"Mommy…?" The little girl asked quietly as she met her older self's eyes.

Luka gave a small nod and her face lit with a smile, "and Len."

The little girl looked uncertain for a moment before she gave a slow nod of her head. Luka returned the nod and took her younger's self's hand. For a reason she didn't quite understand, the two of them stood together and stood back to back. It felt like the right thing to do. Luka felt her younger self squeeze her hand as a confirmation that she was thinking the same thing.

No longer two broken halves of one person, they stood together ready to fight for their freedom or die trying.

Luka felt her vision slowly come back into focus as the emptiness in her heart seemed to abate a bit. She wasn't quite sure what had just happened, she only knew that there was a lingering warm feeling in her chest that almost caused her to smile.

Suddenly she became aware of another fact. Something heavy was lying across her and blonde hair was sticking in her eyes.

"Len…?" She asked quietly to the silence of the room. She was given no answer to her question as the young boy continued to lie unconscious.

Luka felt a small trill of panic run through her as she gently moved the young boy off of her. From what she could tell, he simply seemed to be sleeping but his face was contorted almost as if he was having a nightmare.

"Len…" She repeated his name again. She could tell that inside her, something important had changed, but she couldn't quite find the words to describe it. It almost felt as if some sort of superficial barrier had been removed but those words seemed inadequate to describe the feeling. Luka only knew one thing for sure.

Len had been the cause of the change.

Before he came along, she had been trapped in not only a prison of glass, but also a prison of her mind. She had pushed away anything that resembled human emotion believing it to only cause her pain and discomfort. She had honestly believed for fourteen years of her life the lies she kept feeding herself.

Then Len came barging into her life. He was loud, honest, short tempered and willing to act on any emotion that stuck him. It was unlike anything Luka had seen in her life. Despite her subconscious' best attempt to push away the change, it had slowly come over her. He made her question whether it was right that she was kept locked away, he made her question whether there wasn't something beyond this room of stars, he made her question whether freedom could truly be found in imprisonment.

"…Thank you…" Luka finally said in a quiet voice. She wanted to say so much more, but in that moment it felt like the right thing to do.

Before she really had time to think about it, she took Len's head in her lap and began to hum a lullaby. It was a song that her mother had sung for her once and it was something she held terribly precious. As the notes slowly escaped her throat and filled the void of the room, she felt complete for the first time.

A/N: See? Just a little bit of cute this time. In other news, I want to take this time to thank all the reviewers. If it wasn't for you guys, this story most likely would have never found its way out of my head and on to paper. Thank you!