Chapter 25: And Someday, Together
Royce awoke to the smell of pancake batter.
A note rested on the pillow beside him.
"You don't have to get up, I'll bring you breakfast!"
He got up anyway and walked to her small kitchen.
She was hunched over a waffle iron wearing a thin white tee and grey sweatpants.
Only she could turn such a modest outfit into a work of art.
He watched her cautiously from around the corner as she worked. She presided over a stack of waffles nearly a foot high, with three different kinds of syrup in large pitchers on the counter.
"Hey," he finally gathered the courage to say.
She spun around hastily and looked right at him. "Oh no! I thought you were going to stay in bed and let me feed you!" she held up a large wooden spoon covered in batter.
"Uh- I don't know. This all seems a little fast." He rubbed the back of his head. "I mean, we just went through a lifetime's worth of traumatic experiences in the space of a few days. I just broke up with my girlfriend yesterday after getting shot into space and having my mind violated by aliens. Then I had to rescue you from a plane crash in enemy territory only to watch you shoot my co-pilot, before getting taken prisoner by the Khanians and fly their giant robot while I was somehow a blacked-out zombie?!
"And that's before reliving years worth of repressed childhood memories in the span of a few minutes. I mean- maybe- let's slow things down a bit." He breathed deeply and crossed his arms over his chest.
"Pffft!" she waved the gooey spoon at him dismissingly then tilted it back into its bowl and a smile crept over her lips, baring her canine teeth.
"I- what? Did you even listen to any of-" He started to say.
She grabbed a chunk of syrup-dipped waffle from the plate and walked close to him. "What do you think?"
She stuffed it in his mouth and grinned at him. Her fingers were sticky and sweet. She wrapped her other arm around him and drew him close as he munched on the delicious fluff.
Oh stolen secret picnics. Oh sweet delight, he thought. And then he ceased to think at all.
"See- isn't that fun? Darling?"
He could only help but smile clumsily.
"I thought so," she smiled back at him.
A moment passed before he could collect his thoughts.
"Let's go somewhere. Let's get out of here." He finally said to her.
"I thought you were going to show me Ash Cloud?"
"No, I don't think we should go there. That place is a ghost town. Let's go somewhere else. Somewhere better."
She turned around and walked over to the waffle iron to shut it off. Then she grabbed another piece and stuffed it in her mouth.
He continued, "we'll get away from all this. I don't want to fight anymore. I just want-" she stared at him and blinked clumsily with a full mouth. "I want to enjoy every minute we have together."
In the distance he heard his communicator buzzing.
"Who's that?" she said after gulping down the massive piece.
"Who cares?" He tore open the window blinds.
Then he blinked a few times to make sure he was still awake. A black cobra, larger than any skyscraper towered over the city from the water's edge. He ran into the bedroom and grabbed the still buzzing communicator.
A tiny voice echoed, "Royce! Royce! We couldn't stop it! Someone released the virus, then that thing just came out of the water! R.T.C. Genista Two! It's a super-Lehmann-class serpent - East shore!"
"Uh- Diana-"
"Darling?"
"We might need to postpone our get-away…"
"I can hear it." She said slowly.
"Hear what?" Royce asked as she slid next to him.
"It's searching for something. It's going to destroy the city. To- to stop, whatever it is, from spreading. It also wants to kill- us, specifically. It knows we're here. It's especially after us."
"Come on, run!" Royce grabbed her wrist and dragged her out the door and down sets of long dark stairs which tumbled beneath their feet.
They bounded out a heavy fire door onto the street. A low metallic screech pierced the air behind them.
"Royce, I can hear it! I can see it- the light from its eyes- it's coming. It says it would rather destroy Serilona than let the VIRM- aaaah! There's something at Genista it's after. It thinks we're- Aaah!" she yelled and clutched her head. "I can't- it's inside my head."
"Shit," he cursed. "Can you talk to it?"
She continued to shake her head furiously and he grabbed her arms.
"Come on Diana, think! What can we do?"
Another metallic screech and a jet of blue liquid spurted from the giant serpent's mouth. It fell like a wave over the base. He saw a corner of the control tower melting in the distance.
"Where?" he grasped her shoulders and looked into her eyes. They were cold and unresponsive. He held her steady and looked at her. A smile slowly crept over her lips.
"Darling- let's go to Ash Cloud together." She said softly.
"Yes, let's go- let's go. How do we get there?"
"The airport- we have to get-."
He pulled out his communicator which had resumed buzzing, "Hello?"
"Royce! Thank goodness you're there! Where are you? Is Diana with you?" It was Victor.
"Yeah, I've got her. Something's wrong. That monster did something to her. She's barely hanging on." She slumped her head into the crook of his neck. "Where are you guys?"
"We're at the Pine."
"You're at the damn bar? While that thing is melting Genista? Look - just get to the Serilona airport. I've got a plan."
They ran. They ran like children from monsters under their beds.
They ran up abandoned streets next to evacuated subway trams, through tunnels and brightly lit walkways to the airport's unguarded tarmac. In the distance he could see huge jumbo jets lined up at the departure end of the runway. The city was being evacuated.
Another low roar and a small earthquake rocked the platform they stood on.
He looked behind him at the slithering behemoth. It was winding its way out of the ocean and onto dry land.
In his pocket, he felt buzzing. "Wh- Where are you guys?"
He peeled his eyes away from the incredulous sight and scanned the tarmac for any sign of life. After a moment, he saw them. Four guys and one strange red-haired girl with pigtails were running toward the terminal.
"What the hell is she doing here?" Cho pointed at Diana's unresponsive form clinging to his back.
"There's no time for that," he shouted over the massive grinding screech of gargantuan metal and flesh in the distance. "We've got to get out of- wait why'd you bring the bartender?"
"No time for that either. Where the hell are we going, exactly?" Victor asked, arms folded across his chest.
"Andross."
"Khania? Are you serious?"
"Come on. I'll explain." He ran toward the tarmac where a small passenger jet was parked outside a meticulously clean hangar.
"That'll do." He smiled.
Royce swiveled around from the pilot's seat. Alban was seated on the floor of the private jet next to Diana who lay in the aisle. Diana had a blank expression on her face. "What's wrong with her?" He asked.
"Lot of opto signaling, I can tell you that much." Alban looked up after examining her eye, "I'm guessing the optical signals in her brain are overpowering the ionic transmissions."
"What the hell does that mean?"
He stood up in between rows of seats and raised both his hands, weighing an imaginary objects in each, "you see, Diana has two types of cells- klaxosaur and human. The klaxosaur cells use optical signals. Human cells use ionic signals. Her mind is adapting to the use of optical signals due to over-exposure. In an ordinary pilot, this would just result in desensitization. The brain down-regulates overstimulus. But for Diana it's different. The parts of her mind which use optical signals are downregulating the human parts. But her body doesn't respond to optical signals."
"What's going to happen to her?"
"If you listen with your headphones turned up to eleven, eventually you'll go deaf."
"What could have caused this?"
"Well- has she been using optos more than usual lately?" Alban looked at him inquisitively.
Kimi, Cho, Victor and Morisato did as well.
"Why are you looking at me like that? It's not like-"
Then he remembered, "Darling, is it really you? … I have to be sure… I want to know everything -" and the flashes of light from within inside her eyes. And her reaction to the giant klaxosaur emerging from the water "Royce, I can hear it! I can see it- the light - it's coming- it's inside my head."
Slowly he understood, "will she be okay?"
I put her through this. I made her relive those memories. All because I had to know-
"What do I look like, an expert on klaxosaur genetics? Nobody's seen anything like this before. Half of what I explained was just a guess. I can tell you that the more we can keep her away from those damn klaxosaurs, the better. Get her to use the human parts of her brain. Talk to her. Be patient with her."
"What happens if it gets worse?"
Alban looked at the floor, "If my suspicions are correct- if only her klaxosaur cells can respond to nerve impulses, the human parts of her will die and she'll be left with- she'll become -"
"What?"
"Darling- where are we?" Diana asked weakly.
"We're on a plane, on our way to Khania."
"Why?"
"We need the Shrikes. They're the only things that can stop that giant snake from destroying Serilona."
She nodded.
Victor raised a timid hand. "Uh. Did I miss something? What's a Shrike?"
"Karina! Power up the systems, there's -"
"I know, minister. We saw it the minute it went active. It's the largest we've ever seen. That large of a RT cluster - whatever it's doing is must be of great importance to them. The world itself must be in peril."
"It seems to be focused on the Serilonan island. But we should prepare mainland defenses in case it heads here next. Have we isolated the sequence we took from Royce's sample?"
"Yes, all Shrikes can now interface with Serilonan opto-linked pilots. Also, minister- I just received a request for landing from a private jet on long final to Andross. It's Diana, Royce, and Dr. Stein."
"Dr. Stein- now that's a name I haven't heard in a long time." The small blonde woman looked up in anticipation. "Get Fenghuang fueled for Diana and Royce. Go ahead and make preparations to launch Shangyang and Phoenix with the other pilots. Set attenuation at fifty percent and make sure remote opto shielding is on all the units. If I know Ishigami- he's close to cracking those initiation codes."
He's going to pay for what he did to Elder Hachi.
"At once, minister Hyrroc." Karina set off running down a long tunnel toward the Shrike cavern.
The Minister peered into a blue radar display in front of her. Half of the display showed dots and symbols moving between the Earth and the Moon, and the other half showed strange pathways under the ground, three dimensional maps of units moving across vast distances. She tapped on the blue outline of the three pointed object floating high above the Earth.
A small message popped up from one of the white dots near the moon.
IKUNO: 16 CLEARED FOR ASH CORE
She turned serious and whispered to no one in particular, "I'm coming for you, sister. Soon- I'll get you out of there."
Royce leaned back in the pilot seat as the runway came into sight on the horizon.
Diana was asleep beside him, propped up by seatbelts in the co-pilot's chair. He glanced back at Alban in the seat behind him and the other four who were staring out large portal windows.
"I still can't believe planes were invented almost two thousand years ago. You'd think we'd have something better than airplanes and cars by now-" He mused.
Alban sighed. "That's what everyone thought about the wheel- about gunpowder, heating oil, beer, and rockets. Sometimes humans just run across the best way to do something, and there's nowhere to really go from there."
"What about the Tracers," Victor looked over and asked.
"Well, those are more of a domestication. Much like how man domesticated elephants or horses. We slapped a saddle on something we didn't quite understand, and learned how to ride it. But make no mistake, it's still a wild animal we're riding. A creature- which we ultimately have limited control over, and one day it may decide it's easier to eat its master than to wait for its daily feed."
"Honestly though," Alban continued, "I'm amazed we figured out how to get planes working again. The last two millennia have been plagued by two mass extinctions. The second half of recorded history- spent rebuilding the knowledge lost during the first."
"You mean the first and second Holocene?" Victor asked.
"Yup. The first mass extinction- caused by burning dead organisms from under the ground. The second extinction- caused by harvesting the living ones from inside the mantle."
"Quite poetic," Kimi raised an eyebrow. Cho continued to peer out the window with his arm around her shoulder.
"Not really. The abyss is home to many monsters. But just because there are monsters in the dark, doesn't mean we should be afraid of it. After all, it is our intrinsic nature as Sapiens" He nodded at Diana, "I think Royce knows what I'm talking about all too well."
"I'm not sure if I follow," Royce looked back at them.
Kimi smiled at him, "oh come on, Royce, even I get it! You love her. You love the mystery of her."
Alban nodded, "it's the most natural of all human responses." He mused, "do you know the main difference between Homo Sapiens and Neanderthal? The reason why Sapiens flourished and the Neanderthal died out nearly fourteen thousand years ago?"
"Why?"
"Because of Sapiens' intrinsic desire to explore the unknown. We are, as an intrinsic property of our biology, drawn to that which is dangerous and mysterious, even at our own peril. Because the alternative is stagnation. The world belongs to those who are bold enough to explore it."
Royce looked for a moment at Diana.
"Say, Alban-" Kimi spoke up again, "Humans haven't gone extinct before, have they?"
Alban shook his head, "No, no. But the stories of the first and second Holocene events are like a game of telephone. They're told almost more accurately as myths than they are by history books. Of course there are some who take the legends literally, and some who chose to study the hard evidence. Of which there's scarcely little.
"In the first Holocene extinction, eighty five percent of worldwide biodiversity collapsed. Most species couldn't survive the change in Earth's climate. Humans, of course, were just fine and dandy. That is, until the sea level started to rise. Slowly. Too slowly for any one generation to care about it. And by the time it was a problem, it was already too late.
"Fresh water shortages, famines, wars and mass migrations. Eventually, all basic science ground to a halt. Every scientist and engineer was conscripted into the pursuit of practical solutions to urgent problems. Cities had to be picked up and moved to higher ground. Water had to be desalinated. Homes had to be rebuilt. Sewer systems quickly constructed. Meanwhile, supercolliders and telescopes succumbed to the rising water table.
"That's why, thousands of years ago, the old city they called Taipei had to be moved inland to the site we now know as Serilona- to escape the rising waters. Then, just as things were stabilizing, the second Holocene event occurred. The emergence of lifeforms from beneath the Earth's crust. Instead of moving skyscrapers, they had to move entire cities. What we refer to as the 'Plantation Era'. We suspect it was due to a massive magnetic field decoherence. Whatever they did to the mantle screwed up the Earht's magnetic field. Solar ejecta wiped out the ozone layer. Cosmic radiation blighted the soil, sterilized the plants as well as many animals. Even the DNA samples of humans from the Planation era are heavily damaged. As farmlands dried up, the entire mainland became a dust bowl. And then, supposedly, that's when the monsters showed up.
"But Serilona was one of the few places on the planet left green and untouched during the crisis. Ancient scientists came up with the idea for the Sunbird teams. Fighter planes equipped to drop cloud seeding chemicals into the atmosphere. For hundreds of years, generation upon generation of pilots volunteered to fly, to seed the clouds every day, to shield against the ever pressing cosmic rays. A practice which still continues to this day in some form. Thanks to the Sunbird's bravery, the crops never withered in Serilona. And we suspect because ancient embargos barred magma technology from being sold to the island nation, ancient beasts never roamed Serilona either… at least until now." Alban waxed.
"So that's why not much has changed?"
"Oh, a lot's changed, Royce. But organic life is a game of cycles. Homeostatis and transistasis. Like the seasons on a one-year period. You might just say that the planet itself is just maintaining homeostatis on a thousand- or ten-thousand year period."
"That's an interesting way of looking at it," Royce was still lost in thought. He looked down at a small blinking light on the console. "Looks like we got clearance."
He smiled.
A loud rumble erupted from the seat next to him.
Diana was snoring.
"So you've finally returned." A blue haired woman greeted them.
"Yes. We need to ask you a favor." Royce walked with her. He glanced back at Diana, still weak, supported by Kimi and Alban.
The woman peered down at him.
"Serilona is under attack."
"I am aware."
"We need to use your Shrikes. It's the only way."
"I guessed as much. They are prepared for you. But there is a favor I must ask of you."
"And what is that?"
"Destroy Ishigami. Free the heart of Ash Cloud."
"What?"
"Your commander has gone mad with power. He is under the influence of the invaders. He has killed Elder Hachi and Nana, and Ikuno's fate is unknown. He's taken over Ash Cloud's master computer and is preparing to launch an attack of unbelievable destruction on the world. If he cracks the initiator codes, we will all be in great danger. That's why you must kill him first. Then get to the power source of Ash Cloud, and bring it to me."
"Woah woah- that's a tall order. What the hell is this power source?"
"The device known as Quaking Aspen. We believe the entrance takes the form of a large tree."
"What about Ria? She's still up there, isn't she?"
"I don't know."
"I see."
He looked behind him at the small crowd.
So this is it? Team 'save the world'? A pink haired lab experiment, a geneticist bartender, three genetically modified fighter pilots, Cho's bar-girl girlfriend, and me- and I don't even know what I am anymore.
…
The great metal door of Fenghuang slid shut and they were alone inside together.
"Diana, are you okay?"
"I'm- so tired- Darling. It's hard to talk."
"Did you hear what Alban said back in the plane?"
"No, I can't seem to remember-"
"The more you use - the klaxosaur parts of your mind, the less human you'll become. If listening to that snake thing did this to you- maybe we shouldn't pilot this."
She blinked slowly at him, "you'd stay with me, even if I wasn't human?"
"I don't want you to lose you-"
"I feel so weak."
"Victor and Cho, and Morisato can handle it. They don't need us. They can-"
"You'd leave your friends- just for me?"
Leaving others to clean up your messes again, boy? His father's voice.
"NO!" he shouted. "I can't-" He was shaking. Caught in a horrific bind.
She nodded. "Then we go, together. Someday-"
He peered into her eyes and reached around her neck, winding his fingers into her long hair.
"What?"
"Someday we can go to the beach-" she whispered. "I've seen the ocean so many times- from the sky. But I've never watched the waves roll in from the shore, never stayed put, never had the time dig my toes into the sand or hear the sound of the water. I hear it's very beautiful."
"I'll take you to the beach, when all this is over," he stroked her head.
"I do remember one thing-" she looked up at him and smiled. There was a note of happiness in her voice, "from the plane- or was it… a dream? What the girl said- is it true?"
"What did she say?"
"You- love me?"
He held her close, then whispered in her ear. "Love? I- I can't even be sure of my own memories any more. I don't know what's my own and what's yours. Whether I'm still conscious or unconscious. All I know is- I was willing to risk everything for you. I still am. I have no choice but to trust you- because without you, nothing makes sense."
"Oh darling! Let's make so many more memories together."
"I'll never let you go." And he kissed her.
Green and white flickers appeared before his eyes and the large display panels inside Fenghuang illuminated. Diana collapsed back down into the front seat.
He looked out at three large robotic mechs staring back at him.
"Uh- guys? Can you hear me," he asked.
"We hear you Diana!" Said the red one.
Diana? Does that mean- there's no time to think about this philosophical shit. We've got a mission. I've got to focus.
"This is Shrike Fenghuang, up and running."
"Shrike Phoenix, ready to go." He heard Morisato's voice.
"Shrike Shangyang, I'm in stampede mode. I'm ready to go." Cho's booming voice said.
"Stampede mode?"
"Kimi is having trouble with the controls. I can't fight like this but I'll hold back for support. You and Diana are going to have to take the lead." He heard a loud cough. "Sato and Victor, you two are on fire support."
"Got it."
"All Shrikes, ready for launch!" came the cheery scientist's voice.
He saw three tiny figures on the ground below waving goodbye.
A massive conveyer belt slid them out of the cavern toward a closed rock wall which quickly slid open to reveal a boundless Khanian wasteland.
They positioned themselves next to Cho's Shangyang and he extended his own mech's thrusters which resembled massive wings, and they took to the sky.
"DIANA!"
"Royce?!" she asked, confused and dazed.
What is this? Where am I? Was I inside Royce's head?
"Diana! You freaked out," he was standing over her in the cockpit of Fenghuang. On the monitors she saw the jaws of a massive blue snake. A giant yellow spike impaled through the roof of its mouth and its massive fangs dripped blue poison onto them.
She felt movement as they removed the spear and stepped away from the Klaxosaur. Their mech stepped back. Before them a serpent the size of a massive river ran from the sea to where they stood.
Half of Serilona was destroyed. Skyscrapers were bent and lay in rubbled heaps.
Royce's hand was on her cheek.
It was too much for her to bear at once.
"Aaaaah! What's happening! What happened? How did I get here? Who? How?"
"Sync ratio is falling!" a strange cockpit recording announced. The screens dimmed and turned to black.
Royce lay back in his seat, "well I guess that's how I know you're conscious."
Was I- like Royce? Unconscious?
"Do you remember anything?"
"I remember- we had a wonderful breakfast. There was honey, and syrup and I was so happy. So unbelievably happy. You're my darling- from all those years ago! And I fed you waffles and then we saw that thing- that horrible thing. And it looked at me and then all I remember are- bits and pieces. And then I was in your memories. Fractured, disjointed memories. And now this."
She pulled her arms out of the mech's handles and swung around to face him, then hugged him tightly. "Just tell me-"
"We have to do something, Diana. It won't be easy. But I made a promise. To someone- I know you don't like."
"No- please tell me it wasn't-"
She covered her face in her hands.
Anyone but her.
"But, it's the same promise I made to you."