Evanescence: No More Dreams: A Final Farewell to Science
"So…. What are we looking at?"
Amii blinks several times, her jaw hanging down in disbelief at the machinery at work, "I… I think this is where they manufacture those Hulk-monsters…."
True, the machines work quickly to inject the subjects with the H-strain of Fusion, the straps doing more than they should to hold them down as the mutations start. What was once a room occupied by at least seven human beings is now home to three Hulk-Creatures and four humans. Tawny shifts uneasily as Amii drops down and opens her bag, pulling out several 40mm grenades.
"Amii?" Salem starts to back up from something, "Amii… You might want to move…"
The leader shakes her head and keeps working, taping the grenades together and placing the mega-grenade on the chest of the struggling Hulk, "Okay, back out…"
The group slowly makes their way out into the hallway as Amii raises her M93R, the sight rested on the package she created. The Hulk roars and tries to stand up, but the woman squeezes the trigger and the entire room erupts into a ball of fire and intense heat. When the smoke clears, there is nothing left inside but molten metal and smoking corpses. Amii grimaces and steps in, wanting to check her work, hoping that this room was the only one capable of creating those beasts. Tawny coughs and swats the black smoke from his face and surveys the destruction.
"Holy shit…." Caryn picks herself up from the floor and blinks to clear the debris from her eyes, "Amii, was that necessary?"
"Oh, so much…" the smile on the redhead's face never fades as she stares at the charred lab, nothing inside remaining in any discernible form.
Tawny walks up next to his girl and checks his machine gun, "Um… We might need to leave."
Everyone turns to face Salem, who is pulling Caryn out the door, her eyes wide and mouth quivering. Amii attempts to say something, but she is promptly pushed against the wall, a Hulk-Creature slowly rising from the debris. Smoke billows around its flexing muscles as it growls deeply. Its hand keeps the redhead pinned to the wall, while the other swipes Tawny across the room. Caryn unloads more rounds from her hand-cannon, but they do absolutely nothing but piss the monster off more.
Amii cries out in pain, her thoughts running to her dad, "Help me dad!"
"Get off her!" something flies through the redhead's field of vision and then the pressure is gone.
The damage is done, several fractured ribs, bruised spine, several strained muscles, the pain promptly sending the woman into unconsciousness, Thank you, whoever you are…
11
Amii is sitting in a hospital room, a woman screaming in front of her. Several doctors are perched around her, one resting under the blanket covering the woman's legs. Apparently this woman is giving birth, but something appears to be wrong. Several orders are rushed out, but finally the baby is born without any serious harm done.
"Is it..?" the voice is so familiar to Amii.
"Mom?"
Sure enough, Amii is at her own birth, her mother now receiving the small bundle from the doctors. Despite several attempts to make the child cry, no sound ever leaves the baby. Amii chuckles, as this is the first sign of the strong woman she is today. Aya smiles, strokes the child's face, and then says something.
"What, Miss Stracener?"
"Amii. Dusty wanted to name her Amii."
"Pardon?"
"Amii…"
"Amii?"
"HEY AMII!"
Her green eyes flutter open and spot Tawny's mohawk smiling down at her. She slowly sits up, stretches, and then hisses in pain at her sore chest. Caryn and Salem look on worried, as a strange man reaches in to loosen the bandages. His touch is gentle, yet worry-filled, which somehow puts the young woman at ease. He smiles and leans back, his hand draping over the M93R on his hip.
"You have…" she coughs, "a M93R?"
He nods, the smile warm and inviting, "Yup, I see you have one too, along with a M79. You have good taste, ma'am."
She smiles back and laughs lightly, "As do you, sir. May I ask who you are?"
He cringes, this won't be good, "I prefer to leave that matter for a later time. Just trust me that I am a good friend to have around with the stuff in this facility roaming around."
Tawny attempts to force the answer out of him, but Amii senses he speaks the truth, "Agreed, sir. What is your plan for this?"
He takes a step back, "Um.. Ah.. Well I thought this little outfit was under your command?"
"Well, I am a little worse for wear right now.. And I don't know why, but you feel so familiar and I trust you… It's odd."
"Amii…." Salem cautions her friend.
"I know," she slowly stands up, using the stranger for support, "but this is no time for loyalty arguments.. We need someone with the knowledge… And that Umbrella badge on his arm tells me all I want to know at this point."
The man chuckles and steps back, holding his arms out, "Yes, well this badge is a little tough to explain… I uh… I don't remember anything up until about seven hours ago…"
As interesting as this story is, Amii groans and passes out again, the pain coming back to pay her a visit.
11
"Millington, stop where you are!" the voice of One fills the hallway.
The older man sighs and turns around, "Yes, One. What can I do for yo-"
One charges at his leader and punches him in the gut, shattering the ribcage and rupturing several organs as he screams, "How could you give Four a soul!? How!?"
Blood fills the air as Augustine stumbles back, gasping for air and holding his chest. One stomps closer and clenches his fists, his mind filled with a rage never before seen in the history of Umbrella. He kicks the man back down to the ground, then straddles his broken chest. A sick smile crosses the clone's face as he proceeds to pound his fists into the scientist's face. Blood covers the clone as the sound of fist on flesh gives way to sound of crunching bone and shattering concrete and tile. Laughter fills the hall as One falls onto his back, almost bathing in the puddle of blood around him. The laughter grabs his attention and he quickly sits up. The clone gets a shiver up his spine as he realizes the laughter is none other than his own.
"I'm.. Getting a… Soul?" One stares down at his blood-stained hands and proceeds to laugh again.
11
The ceiling shakes and blood trickles down from the cracks as Dusty watches his daughter as she tosses in her sleep. The pain in her face left a while back, replaced with a sense of wonderment and curiousness. A drop of blood falls onto her face, resting on her cheek.
He reaches in to swipe it away, but the guy, Tawny, slaps it away and cleans it himself, "No. She might trust you, but I don't."
Dusty sighs and leans back in the chair, "Fine. Make sure she is awake in twenty minutes. Longer than that and she risks injury."
The two women and Tawny are stunned as he stands up and walks out the room. Tawny just makes things uncomfortable for the father, but Dusty knows the kid means well. With that aside, he drops into soldier-mode, his eyes scanning everything, hand perched on the gun, his mind analyzing everything. His goal is upstairs; the cracks in the ceiling could've only been done by one thing, a clone. And with the blood… Dusty already knows which one too.
"Come on out One… I know you're here…" the soldier slowly creeps through the stairwell door, gun poised for head shots.
An arm comes flying down to break the arm or disarm him, but Dusty is a little too quick for that. As One's arm slams into the tile, Dusty drops a foot on it, then spins around to kick his opponent back. The Genesis leader flips mid-air and lands softly on the crushed tile, a knee planting in the remains of some unknown individual.
"Now, what did he do to deserve that?" Dusty stands up, his knuckles cracking in anticipation.
"If only you knew…."
"If I knew, I wouldn't ask," the reply is curt and in the usual sarcastic tone One has come to despise.
"Well, he created the Genesis Program. Us. And thanks to what I did to him.. I gained something tonight…"
"Do tell my friend," Dusty charges and throws a fist at his counterpart.
One catches the attack and pulls Dusty into his face, "A soul," then head-butts him back.
"That, uh," the brunette picks himself up and snorts blood onto the floor to clear his nose, "is a really useful piece of you to have… Now what has your soul made you today?"
"A… Sadist it seems… I enjoyed every scream he made, every crunch of bone… I thoroughly enjoyed ending his life… I almost didn't want it to end."
"Sick… And pathetic… That's not a soul, that is a magnification of what you already are…"
"Here is where I correct you finally, I enjoy it so much.. I don't want to die… I want to live so I can keep hurting people. I will let nothing stand in my way…. Not you, not Fission…. Nothing…"
Something slides toward One's feet, a small grenade, "You need to find some ONE to live for asshole!"
Heat and light fill the hallway as the grenade explodes. Dusty dives into a nearby room and prays he managed to at least damage his opponent. Something is wrong, he doesn't nearly have the stamina to hold off One's attacks.. Everything actually hurts now. Each hit takes something away from him, strength, stamina, life?
"Try again Dusty!" One's voice is distant, urging the clone to chase after.
Dusty takes the bait and runs down the hallway, landing in a large, white room, "What trick is this One!?"
A dark chuckle fills the room, speakers, "This is the Memory Chamber… Its purpose is to feed data into the sleeping minds of the Genesis Clones, but it also works well as a form of psychological torture. I'm sure I can find something in this file to set you off…"
Before he can retort or react, the walls shift and darken, taking on the events lodged well into the forefront of Dusty's mind: Six months after the events in Neo Raccoon.
Dusty finds himself standing before the door to his house, the one he shares with Aya and Trudie. He knows it is fake, but just the thought of seeing her face one more time forces him to step up and try his key in the lock. No dice, as the lock remains unturned. He knocks several times, Trudie greeting him with a shocked expression.
"Dusty!?"
"Hiya Trudie… How is she?"
"Um… I.. I'm sorry Dusty…"
That voice, "Who is it Trudie?"
The door is pushed open wider and there she stands, the redhead he so fondly remembers, standing before him with the stunned expression, "D… Dusty?"
He attempts to say something to her, but a fist is driven into his jaw, snapping both jawbones in one powerful strike, "Caught you off-guard!"
The scene distorts and changes, a beautiful wedding inside a huge church, Dusty still off-balance from the blow. The man falls into a table of drinks and glasses, causing everyone to spin around and stare at him.
"Dusty!? You came!" Aya runs up to him, her dress fitting her perfectly.
She helps him up as he shakes his jaw, resetting the bones, "Watch what you say about me, jerk-off."
The brunette glares at the black-haired individual who struck him, "You ever treat Aya worse than she deserves, and I'll do worse than call you a limp-dick adopted bastard."
Aya's eyes shimmer with tears as she fights with the words she doesn't want to say, "Dusty.. Please… Please leave…"
"But…" another fist strikes him, One capitalizing once again on the emotional blows.
The scene phases out again, this time returning to the white walls as One pounces the wounded clone and drops fist after fist into Dusty's face. The sadist stops as tears roll down the others face, the man crying at the devastating blows he just received. For a split second One actually feels remorse, but his mind calculates a solution just as fast as the remorse appears.
"I have someone who wants to see you again," One walks away as the room shifts again.
Dusty opens his eyes and swipes the tears away, finding himself back in his mom's house in Montana, "Dusty! Someone's here to see you!"
He doesn't remember this memory, so he treats it as another trick to shift the balance of the fight. Dusty slowly creeps toward small cabin as birds chirp overhead. The sounds die down though as none other than Aya appears at the door. Her smile is so warm, soft… Her eyes glowing as they always do…
"Aya…." he smiles and reaches out to her.
She holds her arms open and wraps them around him as he falls into them, "There there…"
Tears stroll down his face as he lets it go, lets go of his emotions, but that comes to an abrupt end as his shoulders erupt in pain. Aya's arms have turned into tentacles and are forced into Dusty's body.
"Wh… Why?" blood trickles from his lips as he clenches his love's shoulders.
"Because you are a wrench in our plans," her voice changes into that of another clone.
"Nine!" Dusty pushes away, taking the tentacles with him as he plants both feet into Nine's face.
Bones snap and muscle tears as the two fight, Dusty to get away, and Nine to keep them closer. One of them finally gives, the tentacles tearing away as Dusty slams his left foot into his opponent's head again. Now that Dusty is finally free, he pulls the tentacles out and tosses them aside.
"If this is a true remake of my mom's property.. You have no chance of beating me…"
"Is that so?" One's voice fills the forest as the scene slowly fades, "We can fix that."
Just what I wanted.
"Dad!" a rocket launcher is tossed at his feet, Amii holding her side from the doorway.
Nine tilts his head and flings an arc of electricity at the four. They duck back and Dusty grabs the weapon. The sight is fixated on the control room of the Memory Chamber, the trigger squeezed. A flash of light covers the soldier as the explosive sets off on its path of destruction. As the rocket nears its intended target, a body jumps up to meet it. In a final show of loyalty, Nine sacrifices himself to keep One alive. The heat is intense as the clone's blood ignites from the heavy concentration of Fusion. The walls spark with electricity as the explosion sets something off inside the Memory Chamber. Dusty spins around and heads for the exit, where his daughter greets him.
"What, no clever one-liner?" Amii leans against her father as he sighs in relief.
"No point when no one is able to hear it. By the way.. How long have you known?"
11
Here we go… her sigh is heavy in the air as they slowly move into another section of the main facility.
Their steps are loud in the silent hallway, all of the doors closed and locked, but that doesn't really stop them on their path. Amii rubs her arms and looks around cautiously, still feeling safe and secure with her father nearby. Tawny points his weapon down the next hallway, but is taken straight by Dusty.
"Just a feeling deep in my heart… You are everything I've imagined, you know? You can handle anything thrown at you… You're so damn strong, physically and mentally."
"I have a confession to make, Amii," Dusty kicks open a door and leads the group inside.
The room is small, but covered in crushed glass and an unknown liquid. Several circular platforms line the wall to their left, pieces of glass stuck into the bases, signaling the glass came from these machines. Several EKG machines pulsate with a flat line alarm, but they are quickly unplugged.
The brunette mutant takes a seat in the fourth chamber and looks at the group before him, "I am not your real father; I am a clone, one of nine to be exact. We are part of a program called the Genesis Nine. Designed to be the next step in Super-Soldier warfare, they created nine soldiers who think, act, and behave the exact same way. We all know the same things, have the same training."
"So, do they know about my connection to the… The base subject?" Amii is unsure of the correct wordage to use here.
He shakes his head, "I don't think so. They chose nine of us, each with a unique personality quirk that matched one found in your father and his split personality. That balanced us all and made us all exactly the same.. If I had to guess, I got his sense of justice and pride… His strongest trait… I think it overcame the programming and created me, a true clone of your father. Now, I believe you are my daughter, and have this insane want to get you the hell away from here, but I don't think I can take down the other clones without some help."
Tawny looks confused, but keeps his mouth shut to give Amii the peace she needs, "Come on you two, we'll guard the door…"
Salem nods, but Caryn stays put, "I am SO lost here…"
Dusty sighs, but Tawny drags her outside, "Let's go find you something to shoot."
When the door finally closes, Amii takes a seat in her father's lap, wraps her arms around his neck, and hugs him, "Regardless of how you came to be, you are my father, and mom will be so happy to have you in her li-"
Dusty growls and clenches his fists, alerting the woman to an incorrect assumption, "You know the last real memory I have of your mother?"
Amii shakes her head, the amber locks stuck to the sides of her face from sweat and blood, "The last thing I remember her saying is 'Leave… Please leave…' No, I don't think she wants to see me… I know she's happy with the guy she married…"
"Where in the hell do you get your information?" Amii actually has real anger in her voice as she slaps him. "Mom NEVER remarried! She waited for you, waited… Waited until the pain became too much to bear.. It took Trudie getting married for her to finally move on and accept you were dead! That wasn't mom's wedding you got into a fight at, it was Aunt Trudie's!"
"What…?" his brown eyes darken, the events in the memory chamber were fake… All of them? "You mean….?"
"Yes, Trudie got married, and he ended up leaving her cause of how mom acted… Both of them LOVED you. Trudie chose mom over her husband and son… Both of them, to this day, do nothing but continue to write this," a black book is pressed into Dusty's chest, "your story. Every moment of it, every detail, every drop of blood, every tear shed. This book, to me, is you, dad…"
Dusty feels tears roll down his cheeks as his hands fidget with each other, "I… I'm sorry, I was led astray by the events in the Memory Chamber…"
Amii drops the book in her hand and drops down, her arms wrapping around her father's neck, "I'm sorry dad…"
END