Sorry for the late update but I've been mourning the loss of the summer.
(Charges fire into hands) SUMMER CANNOT BE OVER!! NOOOOO!!! Anyway, enjoy
part three. -Randall Flagg2
In a dark dorm room, Ed slowly opened her eyes. She didn't have much recollection of what had happened. First she had been eating dinner, than she had seen Ein get shot and then all was darkness. "What happened to Ed?" she muttered. Where was she? It certainly was not the bebop. The floor was cold and stony, and there were no windows to see out of. She tried to rise but sank back down as her energy left her. She had never felt so tired before. Her arms and legs felt like sacks of cement and she felt as though a vampire had sucked out all but the last drop of blood in her. She lay back down and winced as her arm tingled painfully. Ed sat up and examined her arm. In the side of it was a small puncture mark. "Somebody has hurt Edward" she murmured to herself. She yawned and let herself freefall backwards to take a nap. Maybe things would be alright in the morning.
CRASH!! "OW!!! What the heck?!" Ed recoiled as she crashed onto something and her it yelp. She backed away and tried to look at whatever she had hit but the darkness of the room made it difficult to see. "Who's there?" the voice said again. Ed inched forward towards the indecipherable mass in front of her. She couldn't tell who or what it was exactly but she could tell that it belonged to a human, probably a boy from the voice.
"Edward is sorry. Ed did not see you." she said.
"Ed's your name?" the boy said.
"Yes. What is boy- person's name?"
"My name is Ray. Nice to meet you."
"Where are Ed and Ray Ray? Ed is scared of this room!" Ed whined.
"Shh!!" Ray hissed. "Keep your voice down. If somebody here's us we'll really get it!"
"Who could get us?" Ed asked.
Ray sighed. "You were unconscious when they brought you in here so I'll tell you everything." Ed leaned forward, now interested in what Ray had to tell her. "The guy who dropped you off in here was a man named Matthew Straker. I was the only one awake when he came. Everybody else in this dorm was already asleep. He just dumped you on the ground and muttered something about you. I couldn't here what it was."
"Why is Ed here? Where is Matt man?" Ed asked. Ray's face, still hidden in the dim light pervading the room grew grave.
"I don't think you want to know that Ed. If I told you now you might try to escape."
"If Ray person likes Ed why does he want to keep Ed captive?" Ed whimpered, her lip quivering. Ray couldn't see Ed's face but he could tell that she was beginning to cry.
"I didn't mean it that way. I meant that if you try to leave you could die."
"Ed could die?!" Ed half screamed.
"I've said too much. Just forget about what I said okay? I'll explain everything to you tomorrow. Just please be careful when you meet the boss tomorrow. If you step out of line with him." Ray's words trailed off. He lay back down.
"What could happen?" Ed asked. She got no reply. Ray was already asleep. Realizing that she would not get anything else out of Ray, Ed yawned and let herself fall backwards into a deep sleep. Within moments she was snoring on the ground.
Next morning.
Ed yawned and stretched in the cell she had been deposited into. Her back ached. "Edward would give much for a futon." she murmured. Ed looked around the cell and noticed that there were many other people in the room besides Ray. Some were men, some were women. A few teenagers were sprawled out on the floor, while younger children, some no older than 4, were just starting to awaken. Ed felt comforted knowing that other people were here. Just as she was about to try to interact with one of them the door to the cell banged open. Everybody, even the small children, turned towards the door. In the doorway stood a muscular man with curly blond hair and beady black eyes which to Ed looked a lot like Ein's eyes. Behind him stood two other men. One was short with long flowing black hair who had a pimply face. The other was of medium height with long lanky arms and spiky brown hair. All of them wore old-fashioned white robes. Ed didn't know who these people were but she did know that for some reason she was afraid of them. The middle one inspired the most fear in her for some reason. Why? She didn't know. All Ed knew was that these guys spelled trouble.
"I trust that you are all ready to repent?" the blonde man said. Everybody except for Ed nodded their heads vigorously. The man smiled. "Good. Follow us." Everyone fell into a straight line like military soldiers marching off to battle and was led out of the dorm. Ed followed silently.
"Psst! Hey Ed!" said a familiar voice. Ed turned to face a handsome boy with short blonde hair and glasses. The boy kind of looked like that Tomato boy she played with while on earth (If you don't know who Tomato is, read the Cowboy Bebop books.). "It's me, Ray!" the boy said.
"Hi Ray Ray!" Ed exclaimed. Before she could say anything else the blonde man at the front whipped around as if a bee had stung him. The look on his face was that of an anger that was too great for words.
"Who dared to speak before they were commanded to?" the man growled, his voice so low the growl was animalistic. Nobody spoke. This seemed to be the right response. The man turned around and began to walk again. Ed remained silent for the remainder of the trip. They passed through the nature room which served as the center of the entire area, wherever the area was. Ed was curious about how people could have an entire field in a building. As they marched onwards towards wherever they were going, one part of the field caught Ed's attention. In the center of the field was a patch of land that did not have any grass. In the middle of this land patch was a good- sized square shaped hole. To the sides of this hole were patches of dark brownish red. Ed had a feeling of what those colored patches were, but she didn't want to believe it. She and the others were led into an elevator which was in one of the side walls. After a long flight down they exited into what appeared to be a mine. The blonde man and his followers exited, leading their group to a clearing where a man with short brown hair and eyes which shined like Fourth of July sparklers stood. He too wore a robe of white. Many more groups of people were gathered around him. The three men stepped forward and bowed to the man. Ed gasped when she saw the man. It was the same person she had found on her computer.
"You have brought the iniquitous with you?" he asked.
"Yes Reverend John. All of them are with me." the blonde man replied.
"Iniquitous? What do you me-" Ed didn't finish her sentence as the short man delivered a hook to her face and sent the child hacker flying to the ground.
"You are to speak when we tell you too." he said as Ed picked herself up off the floor.
"Enough Mark. Save it for later." John half hissed. Mark obediently stepped back.
"Now then," John began. "I have brought you here for the usual reason. As you know, Calisto is highly packed with minerals which will be useful to me in the future. Due to the fact you have all committed so many sins in your life, I have brought you here to atone for the iniquity you have sewn by having you work in these mines. Before you begin your work I must introduce to you a new sinning girl. Luke, bring her up." The man with spiky hair known as Luke grabbed Ed by the back of her neck and brought her up to the front of the group. Luke grinned macabrely at Ed as he squeezed the back of her neck over and over like a stress ball.
"This girl has no name, but she refers to herself as Edward. We do not know her last name. However she has committed horrible sins and blasphemy so we brought her here to atone for what she has done." John continued. Everybody looked uneasy. "Now then, as always you shall be grouped together to dig in these mines. Those who disobey shall be punished." At the mentioning of punishment the people almost fainted. One of them cried out. John's followers grinned at the word. Ed saw something in their eyes when they smiled like that. Something that made her want to scream. Those smiles were not normal. She could feel something in them. Something that was screaming and laughing and gibbering crazily inside of them. Something that may be insanity. Perhaps worse. John Mathers ordered his men to pass out tools for them to use. Everybody was given shovels and pickaxes to work with. Then they were assigned into small groups of two. The small kids were paired with adults or teenagers. Ed was paired with the boy she had spoken too earlier. The men in white robes patrolled the area, making sure that nobody stopped working unless they were absolutely drained. Soon, Ed was chipping away at a rock wall along with Ray and the other people.
"Ray Ray?"
"Yeah?"
"Who were those people?"
"The guy with brown hair who told us about the rules and stuff was John Mathers. He regulates the place with his other men. The guy with the blonde hair was Matthew Straker, the second in command. The short one was Luke Rawson and the last guy was Mark Calhoun. They run this whole place." he replied.
"Ray Ray said last night that he would tell Ed everything that he wouldn't say last night today. So what is happening in this swookey place?" Ray resisted the urge to giggle at the way Ed talked.
"Well, I'll tell you, but you have to promise not to freak out." Ray said.
"Don't worry. Edward promises not to scream." she said.
"Alright. The thing is we're all captives in this place as I said before. But you don't know how we got here."
"How?" Ed asked.
"That guy, John Mathers constructed a special satellite which allows him to see inside of a person's home. It doesn't have to be a certain kind. His satellites can see inside of any home it wants. When it gets into the victim's home, it hacks into their computer by sending out an electromagnetic pulse into the system which bugs it into giving him all the files and documents on that person's life as well as any information on their family members. Once he gets the information he sends his agents to kidnap the victim and his or her family. Then he brings them here and forces them to work as slaves to "atone" for things which he thinks sinful. We have to obey him otherwise."
"Otherwise what Ray Ray?" Ed asked. She had a feeling of what the answer was.
"Death. If we disobey him too many times we are executed. He told us that by committing sin in a place of god that the only way we can enter heaven is by making us "just like Christ" as he puts it." Ray said grimly. Ed was aghast. Religion had never played a big role in her life, in fact it might have been non-existent, but she had always thought that it condoned love and peace. All that this man promoted was cruelty and death to those he deemed unworthy in the eyes of god. Ed knew why Ray didn't tell her last night. If she had heard it at night, she would never sleep. And if she was too tired to work, she would be killed. Noticing one of the men was starting to glare at her for not working she went back to chipping away at one of the walls.
"Ray Ray? Why does John person want us to dig?" she asked.
"He wants us to dig into Calisto's core so he can harvest the water in the center. After the gate incident years ago, Calisto shifted off orbit and into the suns path for reasons unknown. The heat melted all the ice and somehow the water got into Calisto's core. When it went back into it's normal orbit he set up base here below the surface and built a prison here. That's when he constructed his satellite and began to kidnap people. Since then things have been hell for us. He wants us to get to the core so he can harvest the water for some reason. I don't know why but I doubt it's for any good." Ray said. Ed grimaced.
"Keep working sinner!!" Matthew Straker bellowed from behind. Ed jumped and quickly began to dig again.
In his office, John Mathers sat in front of a TV screen watching the iniquitous work while the righteous watched over them. All this pleased him greatly. It would take only another day before they got into Calisto's core. Once they got in there, he could make the whole universe repent for their sins. Oh yes, it would be a sight to remember when the wicked would be consumed in holy fire at his hands and the righteous took their place as rulers of the universe. After all, the Holy Scriptures did say that the sinners would be cut down in the end. That end would come soon. The only thing he worried about was the new girl he had captured. He knew about the bebop and their ways, and he knew it was only a matter of time before they came after him. And that girl was a famous hacker who could get into any system she wanted. Could she possibly get into his satellite? No. There was no way she could. She may have been a professional hacker but he also knew a great deal about code crunching himself. He too had hacked into government files and satellites among other things and had messed with them to punish them for their sins. Ed however only did it for fun and entertainment and Mathers knew that unless something is done in god's name that it was devil's work. Because she had fooled with things for self pleasure he had taken her and was going to get her to repent for what she had done. She would break eventually, he knew it. Everybody had a breaking point and even a girl as carefree and happy as herself had a limit. He would find that limit. "My dear Edward." he muttered. "Soon you will writhe in the darkness with the rest of them where you belong. First you, then your friends, then the universe and I will reign over with the righteous." Mathers turned around and began to read the book of Revelation.
In a dark dorm room, Ed slowly opened her eyes. She didn't have much recollection of what had happened. First she had been eating dinner, than she had seen Ein get shot and then all was darkness. "What happened to Ed?" she muttered. Where was she? It certainly was not the bebop. The floor was cold and stony, and there were no windows to see out of. She tried to rise but sank back down as her energy left her. She had never felt so tired before. Her arms and legs felt like sacks of cement and she felt as though a vampire had sucked out all but the last drop of blood in her. She lay back down and winced as her arm tingled painfully. Ed sat up and examined her arm. In the side of it was a small puncture mark. "Somebody has hurt Edward" she murmured to herself. She yawned and let herself freefall backwards to take a nap. Maybe things would be alright in the morning.
CRASH!! "OW!!! What the heck?!" Ed recoiled as she crashed onto something and her it yelp. She backed away and tried to look at whatever she had hit but the darkness of the room made it difficult to see. "Who's there?" the voice said again. Ed inched forward towards the indecipherable mass in front of her. She couldn't tell who or what it was exactly but she could tell that it belonged to a human, probably a boy from the voice.
"Edward is sorry. Ed did not see you." she said.
"Ed's your name?" the boy said.
"Yes. What is boy- person's name?"
"My name is Ray. Nice to meet you."
"Where are Ed and Ray Ray? Ed is scared of this room!" Ed whined.
"Shh!!" Ray hissed. "Keep your voice down. If somebody here's us we'll really get it!"
"Who could get us?" Ed asked.
Ray sighed. "You were unconscious when they brought you in here so I'll tell you everything." Ed leaned forward, now interested in what Ray had to tell her. "The guy who dropped you off in here was a man named Matthew Straker. I was the only one awake when he came. Everybody else in this dorm was already asleep. He just dumped you on the ground and muttered something about you. I couldn't here what it was."
"Why is Ed here? Where is Matt man?" Ed asked. Ray's face, still hidden in the dim light pervading the room grew grave.
"I don't think you want to know that Ed. If I told you now you might try to escape."
"If Ray person likes Ed why does he want to keep Ed captive?" Ed whimpered, her lip quivering. Ray couldn't see Ed's face but he could tell that she was beginning to cry.
"I didn't mean it that way. I meant that if you try to leave you could die."
"Ed could die?!" Ed half screamed.
"I've said too much. Just forget about what I said okay? I'll explain everything to you tomorrow. Just please be careful when you meet the boss tomorrow. If you step out of line with him." Ray's words trailed off. He lay back down.
"What could happen?" Ed asked. She got no reply. Ray was already asleep. Realizing that she would not get anything else out of Ray, Ed yawned and let herself fall backwards into a deep sleep. Within moments she was snoring on the ground.
Next morning.
Ed yawned and stretched in the cell she had been deposited into. Her back ached. "Edward would give much for a futon." she murmured. Ed looked around the cell and noticed that there were many other people in the room besides Ray. Some were men, some were women. A few teenagers were sprawled out on the floor, while younger children, some no older than 4, were just starting to awaken. Ed felt comforted knowing that other people were here. Just as she was about to try to interact with one of them the door to the cell banged open. Everybody, even the small children, turned towards the door. In the doorway stood a muscular man with curly blond hair and beady black eyes which to Ed looked a lot like Ein's eyes. Behind him stood two other men. One was short with long flowing black hair who had a pimply face. The other was of medium height with long lanky arms and spiky brown hair. All of them wore old-fashioned white robes. Ed didn't know who these people were but she did know that for some reason she was afraid of them. The middle one inspired the most fear in her for some reason. Why? She didn't know. All Ed knew was that these guys spelled trouble.
"I trust that you are all ready to repent?" the blonde man said. Everybody except for Ed nodded their heads vigorously. The man smiled. "Good. Follow us." Everyone fell into a straight line like military soldiers marching off to battle and was led out of the dorm. Ed followed silently.
"Psst! Hey Ed!" said a familiar voice. Ed turned to face a handsome boy with short blonde hair and glasses. The boy kind of looked like that Tomato boy she played with while on earth (If you don't know who Tomato is, read the Cowboy Bebop books.). "It's me, Ray!" the boy said.
"Hi Ray Ray!" Ed exclaimed. Before she could say anything else the blonde man at the front whipped around as if a bee had stung him. The look on his face was that of an anger that was too great for words.
"Who dared to speak before they were commanded to?" the man growled, his voice so low the growl was animalistic. Nobody spoke. This seemed to be the right response. The man turned around and began to walk again. Ed remained silent for the remainder of the trip. They passed through the nature room which served as the center of the entire area, wherever the area was. Ed was curious about how people could have an entire field in a building. As they marched onwards towards wherever they were going, one part of the field caught Ed's attention. In the center of the field was a patch of land that did not have any grass. In the middle of this land patch was a good- sized square shaped hole. To the sides of this hole were patches of dark brownish red. Ed had a feeling of what those colored patches were, but she didn't want to believe it. She and the others were led into an elevator which was in one of the side walls. After a long flight down they exited into what appeared to be a mine. The blonde man and his followers exited, leading their group to a clearing where a man with short brown hair and eyes which shined like Fourth of July sparklers stood. He too wore a robe of white. Many more groups of people were gathered around him. The three men stepped forward and bowed to the man. Ed gasped when she saw the man. It was the same person she had found on her computer.
"You have brought the iniquitous with you?" he asked.
"Yes Reverend John. All of them are with me." the blonde man replied.
"Iniquitous? What do you me-" Ed didn't finish her sentence as the short man delivered a hook to her face and sent the child hacker flying to the ground.
"You are to speak when we tell you too." he said as Ed picked herself up off the floor.
"Enough Mark. Save it for later." John half hissed. Mark obediently stepped back.
"Now then," John began. "I have brought you here for the usual reason. As you know, Calisto is highly packed with minerals which will be useful to me in the future. Due to the fact you have all committed so many sins in your life, I have brought you here to atone for the iniquity you have sewn by having you work in these mines. Before you begin your work I must introduce to you a new sinning girl. Luke, bring her up." The man with spiky hair known as Luke grabbed Ed by the back of her neck and brought her up to the front of the group. Luke grinned macabrely at Ed as he squeezed the back of her neck over and over like a stress ball.
"This girl has no name, but she refers to herself as Edward. We do not know her last name. However she has committed horrible sins and blasphemy so we brought her here to atone for what she has done." John continued. Everybody looked uneasy. "Now then, as always you shall be grouped together to dig in these mines. Those who disobey shall be punished." At the mentioning of punishment the people almost fainted. One of them cried out. John's followers grinned at the word. Ed saw something in their eyes when they smiled like that. Something that made her want to scream. Those smiles were not normal. She could feel something in them. Something that was screaming and laughing and gibbering crazily inside of them. Something that may be insanity. Perhaps worse. John Mathers ordered his men to pass out tools for them to use. Everybody was given shovels and pickaxes to work with. Then they were assigned into small groups of two. The small kids were paired with adults or teenagers. Ed was paired with the boy she had spoken too earlier. The men in white robes patrolled the area, making sure that nobody stopped working unless they were absolutely drained. Soon, Ed was chipping away at a rock wall along with Ray and the other people.
"Ray Ray?"
"Yeah?"
"Who were those people?"
"The guy with brown hair who told us about the rules and stuff was John Mathers. He regulates the place with his other men. The guy with the blonde hair was Matthew Straker, the second in command. The short one was Luke Rawson and the last guy was Mark Calhoun. They run this whole place." he replied.
"Ray Ray said last night that he would tell Ed everything that he wouldn't say last night today. So what is happening in this swookey place?" Ray resisted the urge to giggle at the way Ed talked.
"Well, I'll tell you, but you have to promise not to freak out." Ray said.
"Don't worry. Edward promises not to scream." she said.
"Alright. The thing is we're all captives in this place as I said before. But you don't know how we got here."
"How?" Ed asked.
"That guy, John Mathers constructed a special satellite which allows him to see inside of a person's home. It doesn't have to be a certain kind. His satellites can see inside of any home it wants. When it gets into the victim's home, it hacks into their computer by sending out an electromagnetic pulse into the system which bugs it into giving him all the files and documents on that person's life as well as any information on their family members. Once he gets the information he sends his agents to kidnap the victim and his or her family. Then he brings them here and forces them to work as slaves to "atone" for things which he thinks sinful. We have to obey him otherwise."
"Otherwise what Ray Ray?" Ed asked. She had a feeling of what the answer was.
"Death. If we disobey him too many times we are executed. He told us that by committing sin in a place of god that the only way we can enter heaven is by making us "just like Christ" as he puts it." Ray said grimly. Ed was aghast. Religion had never played a big role in her life, in fact it might have been non-existent, but she had always thought that it condoned love and peace. All that this man promoted was cruelty and death to those he deemed unworthy in the eyes of god. Ed knew why Ray didn't tell her last night. If she had heard it at night, she would never sleep. And if she was too tired to work, she would be killed. Noticing one of the men was starting to glare at her for not working she went back to chipping away at one of the walls.
"Ray Ray? Why does John person want us to dig?" she asked.
"He wants us to dig into Calisto's core so he can harvest the water in the center. After the gate incident years ago, Calisto shifted off orbit and into the suns path for reasons unknown. The heat melted all the ice and somehow the water got into Calisto's core. When it went back into it's normal orbit he set up base here below the surface and built a prison here. That's when he constructed his satellite and began to kidnap people. Since then things have been hell for us. He wants us to get to the core so he can harvest the water for some reason. I don't know why but I doubt it's for any good." Ray said. Ed grimaced.
"Keep working sinner!!" Matthew Straker bellowed from behind. Ed jumped and quickly began to dig again.
In his office, John Mathers sat in front of a TV screen watching the iniquitous work while the righteous watched over them. All this pleased him greatly. It would take only another day before they got into Calisto's core. Once they got in there, he could make the whole universe repent for their sins. Oh yes, it would be a sight to remember when the wicked would be consumed in holy fire at his hands and the righteous took their place as rulers of the universe. After all, the Holy Scriptures did say that the sinners would be cut down in the end. That end would come soon. The only thing he worried about was the new girl he had captured. He knew about the bebop and their ways, and he knew it was only a matter of time before they came after him. And that girl was a famous hacker who could get into any system she wanted. Could she possibly get into his satellite? No. There was no way she could. She may have been a professional hacker but he also knew a great deal about code crunching himself. He too had hacked into government files and satellites among other things and had messed with them to punish them for their sins. Ed however only did it for fun and entertainment and Mathers knew that unless something is done in god's name that it was devil's work. Because she had fooled with things for self pleasure he had taken her and was going to get her to repent for what she had done. She would break eventually, he knew it. Everybody had a breaking point and even a girl as carefree and happy as herself had a limit. He would find that limit. "My dear Edward." he muttered. "Soon you will writhe in the darkness with the rest of them where you belong. First you, then your friends, then the universe and I will reign over with the righteous." Mathers turned around and began to read the book of Revelation.