Chapter 25

Alice

My eyes cracked open so painfully I immediately closed them again. A loud scraping across the room made me wince and I forced my lids to remain apart long enough to let me get my bearings. I could see and hear a whole bunch of people moving about around me. I sent a distant joy inside my chest, for some reason. The lady doctor was bustling and clattering things together, the two ODST were sitting around, waiting, Dutrevai sliding her knife along her forearm guard. It felt like I had just killed something.

I glanced down at my hands and blood dripped off of them. It pooled at the floor beneath my feet, surrounding the corpse of a human, a civilian. I blinked and it was gone. The man that was always with the doctor appeared before me. He said nothing, but grabbed the doctor and pulled her over. She replaced him above me and smiled.

"Welcome back." She said, her voice painfully loud, echoing throughout the room. "You've been out for a while. Good news, though, you're back in working condition now."

I remember her being mad at me, what happened since then? I groaned, which resounded in my eardrums, and sat up, my armour butting together and making noises. I rubbed my eyes tenderly, trying to force the sleep out of them. My stomach clenched suddenly and I wanted to puke. I held my eyes shut as the feeling came over me. In the darkness of my mind I saw blood everywhere, rooms and walls, floors, ceilings, all covered in a crimson coating of sticky gore.

I opened my eyes and the feeling of needing to expel my last meal doubled. "You shouldn't sit up so fast, it'll make you light-headed." The doctor told me.

I nodded and forced some bile back down my throat. It burned, but I didn't particularly want to clean it off the floor, either. I took another look around the room, making sure everything was still as it was. Every time I blinked I was standing in a massive amount of blood again. I could feel a distant, yet familiar sensation. It was the same as when I had given in to the temptation to kill everything I saw. That wasn't too long ago, yet the feeling was ancient to me. I felt like I was somewhere else, letting myself senselessly slaughter again. I suddenly wanted to puke again, for a different reason.

"How long?" I asked, my voice just a whisper, yet still deafening.

"Two days." Nikolai replied, almost instantly. He pushed off the wall he was leaning on and walked over to me.

"A lot less than what you're used to." Dutrevai chimed in, across the room, not even glancing at me.

I grimaced and accepted Nikolai's hand to help me stand. My legs were shaking, they felt numb and cold. I reached a hand up to feel my head, careful not to cause undue damage. It felt fairly healed, but there was a large chunk that felt like it wasn't actually my skull. There was also a lot of hair missing. I grabbed for the two pieces I had left long, the ones that had my old blonde hair still attached to me. One of them was missing, no doubt they had to cut it off to operate on my head.

I was just relieved I still had the one. I pulled it forward and inspected the long strip of hair. It was far longer now, a line of crimson, ending in a tattered, dirty lock of blonde. It still retained some of its old sheen underneath the grime… I wondered if I was the same, or had I been thoroughly changed by the world around me.

I sighed and tossed the hair back and looked around for my helmet, I wasn't sure if I would even still be able to wear it with my injury. The injury I had caused. The injury that happened because I wanted to end it all. I suddenly felt anger heating my chest up. My actions had not been my own. It felt like that had happened to someone else, it practically had. They burned the thing that had done it to me, though. I clenched my fists, tight enough to make the knuckles crack. Even that stupid guy, I had to watch him die by my own hands. Ripping that thing out of me wasn't nearly satisfying enough to make up for what it had done.

"Hey." Nikolai interrupted my thoughts. "You haven't moved in long time." He jerked his thumb to the weight sover in the corner, gathering dust.

I understood his meaning. He thought my body might be weak after what I had just gone through. At least working my muscles would help me lose focus. I suddenly found myself wishing there was a cryo-pod on the ship, then I could deal with all of the crazy stuff in my head later.

?

Seven more days just to get back to the base I had literally left with no time to spare. I swear if I hit another roadblock I'm going to do more than just kill an entire ship of 'rebel insurgents' with the 'loss of all Marines onboard'. I even let one live, so she could die in many other ways. When I catch up to her, to my prey, I am going to kill her so slowly she might as well have died of age.

I dropped my rifle on the table in the back corner of the armoury. I finally had the chance to check it for damage. I had been in such a hurry to and from the base I hadn't thought of it. I began the slow and arduous process of pulling off every part and piece and placing them all in different concoctions of grease or cleaning excess oil off of them. I hated this part of the job the most.

But every time I did it it was worth it. The entire barrel, from the firing mechanism up was cracked. If I had tried to fire the extra-large ammunition with such damage, the whole rifle would have exploded and taken my hands with it. Which was a damn shame, because the custom barrel on the thing was not exactly a spare part lying around in every armoury. I would be lucky if they had a regular sniper's barrel, sans one I would have to tear out of another gun.

So much for all that ammunition I had requisitioned. It almost wasn't worth even using my own rifle without all the proper parts, if it weren't for all the upgrades elsewhere I would have just taken a spare. I searched around the whole armoury, until I finally came across where the spare long range barrels were kept. I grabbed one that looked in decent condition and brought it back. The rifling wasn't damaged, so I slid it in and reassembled the whole gun. I was actually pretty lucky there wasn't more destruction throughout the weapon, after all, I had landed on it. A landing which had all but killed the human behind me.

I made sure to replace all of my current magazines with regular ammunition, I didn't want to destroy the gun with just one shot. I would have to come back and grab all the special ones I had left, they were expensive and my hunting budget wasn't infinite. I loaded the gun up and set off to the cryo-chamber. I didn't want to waste any more time waiting.

?

So if The Distant was a decoy, which ship was the target? I strolled down the hallways of the base, trying to figure out where she had gone and what she was thinking. I made my way to the detention level, to where her cell had been. Perhaps she and her AI were far less intelligent than I thought and were on the Clairvoyant. It was possible. But more likely, whether it be through sheer brilliance, or utter failing stupidity, was that they were aboard the Lurking Evil. I wouldn't put it past the scheming ball. It always seemed to be trying to outsmart everyone around it.

I stood in the doorway to the cell she had been in for some time, pondering the actions of this seemingly random prey. There was no pattern to their movements, yet I was certain this was their first time being followed by one as skilled as I. Perhaps they knew it was me coming, so they based their actions upon my own? Likely, very much so. I would have to plan ahead further, no more recklessness. Time to drop the gloves and get serious, then. You want to play, little ball? I like to play rough.

On my way out of the detention area I spotted the prisoner's belongings storage. I pushed the creaky door open and I was immediately met with a cloud of dust, unsettled for quite some time. They clearly didn't receive many prisoners out here. A single set of footprints were within, once there, then back. And on a shelf lay a jewel, a true treasure. An impossible find. A crimson Operator Helmet, the kind only worn by Spartans.

With a gleeful gasp I dashed forward and retrieved my prey's head. Her face, at least the one known to the world. I hugged it tightly to my chest and hurried off. There was much data to be retrieved within its logs. Recordings of all her movements until now. Fighting her would no longer be a variable to calculate. I would understand everything she did. I was overjoyed, ecstatic, what a wonderful discovery!

Alice

...4...5...6...7...8...9...10...1...2-

"Alice." Soul's words interrupted my trance. I had been non-stop exercising for… Who knows how long. "We need to to talk, privately."

I was about to reply, but he interrupted me, "Privately." I noticed he hadn't appeared as a ball and decided he really meant away from the others.

I stretched my sore muscles and started to leave. "I'm gonna have a shower." I told anyone who was still awake.

I made my way down the halls, feeling sweat running underneath my armour. I shouldn't have kept it on while working out. My first stop was the armoury, where there were enough tools to get me out of the steel around me.

The blue ball rolled in front of me, looking a bit paler than usual, the same crack from before running across its surface. "So you're probably wondering where Soul is, huh?" He asked, suddenly.

I stopped and focused directly on the ball, not quite understanding. It just sat there, waiting for a response, waiting for me to speak. So I did, "What?" I asked.

He seemed hesitant now, like I had said something unexpected. "Uh, what do you mean 'what'? You literally told me flat out that I wasn't Soul just recently."

"I did?" I asked, dubiously. I didn't recall even talking to him recently.

"Oh… Well I guess I just ruined something for myself then." He sighed. "Ah well, I had to tell you sometime, might as well be now."

I cocked my head to one side as he paused. I presumed he was gathering his thoughts, right before he spoke again, "I am not Soul. Not the one you know, anyways. I am what Soul was before he was Soul, if that makes sense."

I shook my head. "Shit." He muttered. "Okay, how about this. I am a human. Does that clear things up?"

"Aren't all AI based on humans?" I asked, continuing my trek to the armoury.

"Based on them, yes, but not actually human." He answered. "I'm different, though. The person's brain I was created from is a lot different than regular brains nowadays. Humans evolved quite a bit over the past five hundred or so years. So the process to make an AI from a brain as old as mine didn't quite work as expected. I'm not nearly as restricted as a regular Artificial Intelligence, which means to say I was able to access and learn all of the memories that were recorded and copied from my old life's brain. It essentially allowed me a pseudo reincarnation, type thing. Like being given a new body, after my old one died."

I entered the armoury and started digging around, looking for the right tools. He continued, "It wasn't perfect, and there was also this little pesky part of me that kept trying to take control. That little part is the Soul you know. I am something different. He is the piece of me that wanted nothing more than to protect you. He clung to his independence because he wanted to stay with you and make sure you stayed alive."

I found the right tools and set to work on my gauntlets. One of the bolts was stuck with dried blood and required a lot of pulling to break loose. When it finally did open, the wrench went flying and bounced off the nearby wall, landing back next to my feet with a painfully loud clang. Rather than pick it up, I sighed and looked at not-Soul.

"Where is he?" I asked.

He started saying something, then stopped, then said, "Wha- I mean. He's still alive, don't worry. I kind of… locked him inside your neural implant. A while ago."

I bent down and retrieved the wrench, he wanted to stay with me? I finished loosening the bolt, how could he keep me alive? I stopped and looked down at my hands, still caked in blood and whatever else I managed to get them dirty with. He really did? How can I trust this weirdo, though? Why hasn't Soul talked to me, if he's practically inside my head?

I growled at all the questions and looked back to the ball, "Why hasn't he been talking to me, then?"

"When I said I 'locked' him in your implant it was literal." He responded. "That's the point of this conversation, actually. Since I thought you knew, I was going to let him out sooner than I had originally planned."

"Then do it." I told him. I started forcing another bolt loose on my gauntlet.

"Done." He said. "He'll probably be a little mad, especially since I've limited his movements to only within your armour. You two have a bit to catch up on, I'll let you get to it."

I watched the cracked ball fade away and resumed my work. Not long after, another ball shot out into my vision and shouted, "SON OF A BITCH!"

I ignored Soul and grunted as the bolt finally popped free. This was going to take a while at this rate.

"Where is he? Where did he go, I'm gonna kill him!" Soul ranted, jumping around the room, evidently searching for not-Soul. "Alice!" He came rolling back to me. "Damnit, are you alright? How are you feeling, does your wound hurt?"

"Quiet down." I scolded him, ears slightly ringing at his outbreak. I set the wrench down and opened my gauntlet enough that I could slide it off my arm. His ball didn't have a crack in it, like the other one. It wasn't a problem with the holo-projectors, then. "Unless you can help me take this damn stuff off, keep your voice down."

"How come?" He asked, thankfully with his volume down. "You got a headache, or something?"

"Nah." I answered, starting on my other gauntlet. "My ears hurt."

He stayed silent for a few moments, leaving me to try and ignore the constant rattling of the ship moving around me. His ball rotated a bit, then settled in front of me. The bolts on this gauntlet were far easier to free.

"What kind of pain?" He asked, finally deciding to speak up.

"Hm?" I slid my arm out and shook it, feeling the air rush across the undersuit. "Everything's really loud. Like, really loud."

"Weird." He circled around my head, I ignored him. "I would have thought your changes had stopped by now."

I glanced at the ball as he came back into view, he continued, "Like when your eyes developed further, only this one happened a lot later."

I started on the armour further up my arms, intent on removing it within a day at least. It wasn't easy alone and I had never attempted it before, last time on this ship I had a bit of help. At least I knew how to put it all back on by myself.

"You should get used to the sensitivity of your ears soon enough." Soul kept talking. "Until then just tell everyone to keep the volume down and avoid any explosions and gunfire."

"No shit." I muttered, forcing my bicep guard open. It slid off, along with the shoulder plate and I tossed it next to the gauntlets. Soul's ball flickered momentarily, but otherwise seemed unfazed.

I worked in silence for a lot longer than I expected, before he must have gotten bored or really wanted to get something out, because he spoke up again, "You need sleep or something?" He asked. "You're kinda on edge a little."

I breathed a sigh out of my nose, but kept working, "Yeah, you know, I feel dead tired right now." I focused my gaze directly on his avatar and kept a perfectly straight face.

"I don't know whether to laugh or check if you managed to blow out the last bits of your sanity as well as a chunk of your skull." He commented.

"Both. Both would be nice." I sighed, dropping my chin onto one hand and letting the wrench fall from the other. "How did I survive?"

"Oh, psh. Your skull is literally stronger than some parts of your armour." He scoffed. "I'm amazed a low caliber pistol was able to do as much damage as it did. None of us were surprised that you were still alive afterwards. I was just worried that you tried, y'know." He added the last sentence in an offhanded and quiet voice.

"Hm." I replied. My stomach let out a low gurgle, setting a vibration through my chest. I shivered and glanced down. "I'm hungry." I almost said it as a question.

"Well you better hurry and get that armour off." Soul stated, sounding like a father scolding a child. "Don't you dare be lazy about it."

I just about smiled, but when I blinked, I saw in the darkness, my helmet. I shut my eyes and sure enough, I could see it, visor cracked beyond repair, staring back at me. My eyes snapped open and my heart refused to slow down. Something was coming. I remembered the decaying creature, suddenly. A deep chill ran down my spine and settled into my stomach, replacing the feeling of hunger. So much for almost getting back to normal.

I've decided on some new canon for when I re-write this. It changes a lot of the details, but I should be able to salvage the majority of the storyline. I just need to get working on this version so I can move on. I also plan on splitting this into two books, hopefully each will have enough content to be referred to as such. Thanks for reading, if you somehow made it this far :P