Electric Sheep
Summary: Post-game. After discussing the fate of the failure with Akane, Luna is left in charge of Dio. Eventual Dio/Luna.
Rating: T
Notes: This epilogue may not answer many of your questions about the fates of Dio and Luna, but hopefully it'll give you enough hints one way or the other to decide how you interpret it. I have my own interpretation (and you can message me for it, if you like), but ultimately, it's up to the reader. Did they survive? Where are they? What's going to happen now?
I may link an information page here at one point, if I type one up. Just general notes about the fic, themes, and maybe even short cut scenes.
It's been a long ride, but I'm glad it's finally been completed. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for reading Electric Sheep.
Disclaimer: I don't own Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward or 999!
Electric Sheep
Epilogue
Where… am I?
Whatever force was pulling him back into consciousness was not gentle or subtle; it ripped him back to awareness, hitting him with sudden terror and confusion he couldn't understand just yet. The world was a mess of blurs, images and colors not quite taking form.
His memory failed him currently, but he had a feeling that whatever he was facing now was in between life and death. His entire body was numb, his head repeating whispers of conversations he didn't comprehend and couldn't identify the speakers of.
Fuck, he could barely recall his own name at this point. A voice in the back of his mind told him he'd been in this position many times before - but perhaps the previous situations had not been quite so intense - and that it was a good thing he knew his name, at least.
D-10 - no, just Dio. Dio's my name.
Yes, there was no mistaking that name. Too bad he didn't know where the hell he was.
Even as the surroundings became a bit more clear, they weren't familiar. No color or object coordinated with a memory, and he couldn't even figure out if he was lying down, sitting or standing. His entire body felt disconnected with his mind, and absolutely nothing was recognizable. It was as though he were looking through the perspective of someone else.
The last place he remembered was a wide-open warehouse - gray, dull, with a giant door painted with a red number nine. There was a lot of emotional pain, too - sorrow, anger, grief… He'd felt it all in the span of not even an hour, forced to say goodbye to… someone. He couldn't place who just yet, but he knew it was someone very important.
Dio had never been accepting of change, and the bleakness of his new setting just enhanced his uncomfortableness. Whether or not he was truly present, this scene was too new, too strange - he honestly couldn't notice anything that stood out.
It was all just washed-out shades, like he was looking through an unfocused telescope. It was all quite terrifying, really, and he wanted something to remember correctly. Something, anything, to give him a sense of comfort in this desolate room. It was a room, wasn't it?
Whether the room to hell, or purgatory, or some goddamn place he'd never heard of, Dio's uneasiness only grew as time ticked by - in seconds? Minutes? Hours? Days? Lifetimes? Fuck, it wasn't like he could tell one way or the other; years and years could be passing him by right now, and he would never know.
It was all so foggy as he floated there, his thoughts looping back to the uncover the mysteries of what had happened to him. It played on repeat, the words still slurred together and sounding too far away to properly hear.
He tried to speak, but all he heard was a strangled gurgling sound, his mouth not connecting to his brain just yet (if any of those body parts were still actually on him, that was). For the umpteeth time, his gaze drifted around, trying to determine his whereabouts or for something to magically come into view.
As if it'd be that convenient. Some instinct told him that the cards he'd been dealt weren't the luckiest, and wishing for clarity was just a bit too optimistic now. Perhaps this was what he was doomed to - being out of focus for the rest of his existence.
Maybe this was his punishment, after death - to sit in oblivion until he crumbled away into nothing.
Thankfully, though, Dio's eyes did eventually begin to adjust to the world. With a shudder, he detected the outline of an object slowly coming into focus. It was a bit small, but very close - close enough for him to wonder why he hadn't seen it before.
Probably not even two arm-lengths away from him, resting on featureless surface, was a disembodied head. But the unusual sight didn't bring him fear; no, quite the opposite, for he recognized the skull-like shape brought together by metals and wires, and could see the two switched-off bulbs that acted as eyes.
And there was no doubt that he could pick this particular head out in a sea of them, for he'd taken care to note its unique features. If he learned nothing else from his upbringing, it was that no matter how identical things may look, there were always subtle differences.
He recalled many things all at once after seeing the head, the memories of his last few weeks fluttering through his mind rapidly like the wings of a butterfly. He knew instantly who had been the source of his recent pain, and where he'd been all the time. It didn't answer where he was now, or even if he was still alive, but it was better than nothing.
Rhizome-9 had been his temporary home. And in that place that had originally been a prison, he'd learned to care for her.
Her face didn't bear freckles anymore, but the metal structure was uniquely arranged and different from the other GAULEM he'd seen. Besides that, her bluebird necklace was placed around the shape of her head, somehow in one piece again, so there was little doubt on who it was.
Dio felt warmth spread through him at the sight of her, but confusion soon followed. Why was her head here? Where was here?
There were so many questions at this point that his mind couldn't sort through them all at once. So he eventually chose to just push the concerns from his thoughts, and focus on the only thing that accompanied him in this empty space.
In the complete quiet of the room, he willed himself to speak again. It took a vast amount of effort, and his voice was nothing but a low croak now, but he could hear himself. At the very least, he managed to call out to her, with an almost pitiful hope attached to his tone.
"…Luna?"
He watched, breathlessly, as the red lights blinked on, and he was certain a familiar soft voice whispered his name through the silence.