Chapter 13: Memories of a Nightmare
Location: The White Door: Dimension 4-4-12-3
Unit: Delta
Time: Mid Day
Date: Unknown
Delta stepped through the door and shielded his eyes to the bright light in the sky. Once his eyes adjusted, he realized he was in some kind of forest. He sighed. "Not this again…" He thought aloud as he began to walk through the forest. He was pleasantly surprised to come across a school building, and was even more surprised to see Monika. He ran towards her, but stopped when he realized something was wrong. She wasn't moving. Not like she was dead, but like she was frozen in time. He waved his hand in front of her face, and she didn't even blink. "Alright. Not the weirdest thing to happen today, but still odd." He attempted to poke Monika, thinking of anything, and was shocked when his hand went straight through her. Almost like he was a ghost. Frightened, he took a step back. To his sudden surprise, though, Monika started moving. Attempting to match her stride, Delta followed her into the school building. He quickly realized that this was the same school building before, when he was chasing Project Gamma. However, it was clean. Like nothing had attacked. Following Monika up some stairs, she suddenly stopped and opened a door. Her movements seemed natural, like everything was going back to normal. He followed her through the door, and was met with the three girls his friends had fought before, and they looked normal. Happy, even. There was another boy there, and when he and Monika looked at each other and smiled, then proceeded to share a quick hug, Delta suddenly got a sharp pain in his chest. Looking around frantically, he realized that he wasn't under attack and went back to watching the scene before him. They were all gathered in the center of the room. The purple haired girl pulled out a book with a triangle with a single eye in the middle and began reading. Delta was unsettled by the sight of the book, but the strawberry blonde haired girl and the pink haired girl were in deep conversation, and Monika and the boy were making lovey dovey eyes at each other, and Delta felt the sharp pain again. Shaking it off, he stared at the book again. The book began to glow an eerie red, but no one except Delta noticed. Delta saw shadows grow behind the group and heard an eerily familiar laugh. Delta watched with a blank stare as a large shadow grew behind the purple haired girl, with two dots Delta assumed were the shadow's eyes and a large toothy grin that, in any other circumstance, would have Delta shaking with fear. The only problem for the shadow, Delta wasn't afraid of it. He calmly stepped forward, pointing a single finger at the shadow. "You can't hurt them anymore. Your reign is over." The shadow, still grinning, simply dissolved into nothingness, as did the rest of the room. In fact, Delta shortly found himself falling into what can only be described as a white void. Looking around, he saw that Monika, who appeared to be unconscious, falling as well. The way her hair flowed around her as she fell struck a chord with Delta, and he reached out to her, catching her as she fell. As he caught her, the white void around seemed to shatter from the bottom to the top. She wrapped her arms around Delta, and he heard her crying and saying "I'm sorry." Delta hugged her tight and said, "It's okay. You're safe now. Nothing can hurt you now." It wasn't long until everything went dark once again. It wasn't a cold dark, though, it was a warm inviting dark. One where Delta felt comfortable. The threat was gone, for the time being, anyway.
Location: Omnibasu Academy: Infirmary
Unit: Delta
Time: Night
Date: Month 9, Day 7
Delta awoke with the feeling of not being alone, and attempted to sit up. He winced, having some slight vertigo from sitting up too fast. He looked around, finding he was in the familiar infirmary. He laughed a little. I can't go two days without ending up in a hospital. Again. "Mmm…" He looked to his left and found Monika curled up in a chair, and Ayaka laying down on a couch next to Monika. He furrowed his eyebrows wondering why they're here. He saw Monika stirring, and he froze, worried his movements might have woken her. He saw her roll over and snore loudly, and he breathed an internal sigh of relief. He was about to get off the bed when he heard a familiar voice. "Hey, Delta. Glad to see you're up." He turned towards the door and saw Shadow, with a smile on his face. "It is nice to know that nothing keeps you down for too long. You sorta disappeared off the face of the earth." Delta laughed a little. "It seems to be a habit I have." Shadow joined in the light laughter. "I'm assuming that you took care of Gamma? We were trapped in darkness for a while and then it sort of… shattered around us and we sorta appeared back in the square of the school. We took the other three girls to the infirmary, and they woke up rather quickly. They seem to remember Monika, so that's good. Delta… I don't know what it was you did, but Monika and Ayaka haven't left your side since you reappeared in the club room. They brought you here, and haven't left you since. It's kinda cute, how worried they were about you. Either way, they were very adamant that they stayed here. Heh, if I didn't know better I'd say they're falling for you." Delta began to blush. "T-That's… That's not…" Shadow laughed. "I'm pulling your leg. Either way, the director is wanting to meet with you. Whenever you feel up to it anyway, he said not to rush your recovery. You've been out for a while though. In fact… " He pointed behind Delta, to where Monika was yawning and rubbing her eyes, waking up. "I'll leave you to it, Delta. Don't strain yourself, alright?" Shadow turned and walked out the door, shooting one last glance at Delta. "We're not out of the woods yet. I fear this is only the beginning."
Delta watched Shadow walk out the door, and he turned back around to double check on the two girls sleeping behind him. He was grateful to find they're both asleep. He rolled over and started to close his eyes when he heard a noise. He thought it was coming from Monika, but he didn't want to alert her to his being awake. He felt bad about it, but he wasn't sure what to do. He listened to her cry in her sleep for a bit before rolling over and seeing her face buried in her hands. She wasn't asleep. He could barely make out what she was saying through her sobs. "I'm so sorry… It's all my fault… Why did you go after him…? You would have been fine… I'm sorry… I don't even know if you'll wake up… Or even if you can hear me… but I'm so sorry…" Delta felt an all too familiar pain in his chest, and he wasn't sure if what he was about to do was a good idea, but he was trying it anyway. "Monika, It's okay. I forgive you. I'm here. It's okay." He quickly jumped to the floor and hugged Monika. She was shocked, but then started crying harder. "Y-You're okay… You're okay…" She kept repeating it to herself. "Yes Monika, I'm okay. I'm here. It's okay." Monika started apologizing again, and Delta held her in his arms and let her cry. After a while, she ended up falling asleep, having cried herself to exhaustion. He picked her up and put her in the bed he was laying in, and was going to sit in the chair when he felt her grip tighten around him. "P-Please don't leave me… I don't want to be alone…" Delta, unsure of what else to do, laid down next her, allowing her to wrap her arms around him. Delta a little confused about this sudden display of affection, but he wrote it off as the whole "being saved" thing. He figured Ayaka would grow out of her affections soon as well. Nevertheless, he put his head on the pillow and almost instantly fell asleep, holding Monika close.