A.N. Oh my god! I'm so sorry! *Bows at the readers' feet* it's been so long, and for that, I'm sorry! Can you ever forgive me?
Chapter 14
Of all things, how could it have ended this way? How could we have lost everything just over our energy? What's going to happen to us? Thought like that ran through her head as she accepted the energy head on. Pain rippled through her body, causing her to cry out in scream.
"NOOO!" a similar scream met her ears, even as she plunged into the sea bellow. It couldn't end like this! It wasn't right! None of it was! It wasn't supposed to happen this way! She cast a look at the sky and all the people she had come to know, and then she hit the freezing water, and felt her body slowly begin to sink….
So this is how it ends? She thought sadly. Remorse filled her. Of all the ways, it had to be this. Against Her. Against Him. It hurt more than the thousands of knives filled with brutal cold plunging into her. Was this really how she was going to die….? Knowing what they had discovered only a few short hours ago, she knew. And it hurt not only her body, but also her heart…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
All of them sat around, just staring. A soft tapping noise seemed to be the only sound. 0014 had relayed her test results to Dr. Gilmore, who had been more than happy to assist in the physical and mental readings of the two cyborgs and their powers.
So far from trial and error tests had proved that while in water, 0015 grew fish-like appendages and scales all over her body. Mental tests proved that an odd energy had manifested itself in her body. Now Dr. Gilmore was running a scan on a sample of it and the energy found in 0014's body.
"What's the test say?" 004 asked when a shrill beeping signaled the end of the testing procedure. Dr. Gilmore's brow furrowed as he read the information aloud.
"It says their energies were designed to combat each other. There's some old text written here… about their pasts. I'll try to zoom in and decode it." Their breaths were held in their throats as they waited. Suddenly, the older man fell back, sweat breaking down from his forehead. 003 screamed and clamped her hands over her ears. There was a harsh ringing sound. So high in pitch it traveled to everyone's ears soon after 003's. 0014 fell to the ground and all of the cyborgs clamped their hands over their ears. It was so loud.
"003!" 009 screamed, and made a dash for her. He held her tenderly in his arms. The sound was nearly unbearable for even him, so he had a grave idea how bad it was for 003.
"0015, what are you doing?" As if in slow motion, heads swiveled to 0015. Her face was unreadable, her eyes glazed over. She moved towards Dr. Gilmore who blinked, confused.
"What are you-" he was cut off as cold fingers began to squeeze his windpipe. The older man choked and wheezed, clawing at her hands.
From that point on, everything was haywire. Crazy, unruly, frighteningly surreal.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
She looked up at the shafts of light coming through to her watery imprisonment as she continued to plunge into the depths, faster and faster she went, spiraling out of control. She couldn't breathe in the water this time. She knew it. She knew it so well and fear gripped her.
She thought about that slow minute of realization. Everything had been crazy. So very crazy. Somehow they had gotten Dr. Gilmore free; and then a fire had broken out, and they were all forced into the rain. And then, that was when her heart broke into a million pieces. When she had to forsake everything to save her new friends. To kill her own soul, agonizingly slow…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
0014 stared, grouped with the other cyborgs as 0015 smiled maliciously and licked dr. Gilmore's blood from her fingers. Her eyes were narrowed and showed no sign of the girl they had come to know. Beside her, Touma slowly rose to.
"What's going on?" 007 shouted.
"I'm not sure.." 008 trailed off when Dr. Gilmore coughed.
"A program. Black Ghost has a program in them, they're not who they were.." he coughed and Dr. Kasumi crouched by him, gently winding cloth over the doctor's badly scratched throat.
"You must rest now." Kasumi ordered. Dr. Gilmore made no move to retort.
0014 went into a form of shock and she slowly stood up, advancing on her friend and her fiancé. She held out her hands, her eyes spilling over with tears. It wasn't fair.. it wasn't fair at all.
"Mitsuko…Touma." She winced when they threw her cold looks and slapped at her hands harshly. She didn't care about the pain. She didn't, not anymore. They couldn't be gone, they couldn't. They were her closest friends, all the human family she had left.
"You are all I have." She whispered softly, "Don't leave me!" The cyborgs watched in shock as Touma harshly slapped her away. A mechanical voice came over.
"You wonder why you found me so fast?" there was a cold, calculating laugh. "I am not Touma you fool! Touma is long since dead!" 0014's eyes widened in shock.
"Mitsuko?" she whispered, searching her friend's face for any sign of humanity.
"She's under my control now." The voice, her Father's voice. Laughing. Just as it had when she had fought the bug cyborg. 0014 shook.
"Touma may be gone… but Mitsuko isn't!" desperate. She was desperate. A new voice, behind her.
"0015! Don't forget your humanity! Its that special place inside of you! Don't forget it!" 004? 0014 thought. Why, why him? Why should he care? IS it because he treasures his own humanity? Thoughts swirled in a tornado of feelings. Hurt, pain, sorrow… why?
0014 felt so removed from reality. 002 he struck Touma… or Touma's shell. Touma couldn't be dead though. He knew the poem, he knew everything. She felt so lost. 0014 felt as though a hole had been torn through her. Why? She wanted to scream, why?!
It is because he knows what will hurt you. 001's voice entered her mind. He blocked 003 from a shard of energy that lashed out at him. 0014 looked at them dizzily. She felt so weak, and yet so powerful. 001 was guiding her to something, and she couldn't even tell what he was saying anymore. How pitiful.
007 changed into a bird and made a dive at Touma. At the last moment he shot his laser, but it didn't seem to have too much of an effect. He changed back into a human and 002 made his own dive. 005 took his turn and then threw a large chunk of rock. Touma's arm flew, there was a spray of sparks. But Touma didn't seem to be effected. He continued to advance.
"Continue hitting him!" 002 yelled, switching his blaster to its more powerful mode. Touma then moved, he was shielding 0015. She was gathering energy.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Her eyes closed as she recalled the scene. The energy was being gathered from the body. It was pure energy. Pure white, icy hot, beautiful energy. Without that energy 0015 would die.
She wanted to sob. Her friend. Her friend… she wanted to cry out, but she wanted to hold her breath as long as she could. In her mind she knew when she died, she would run. Run free with her mother in Heaven. She'd see Shiboo.
She let her tears mingle with that of the ocean water. She remembered what happened next. 006, he burnt Touma to a crisp, leaving nothing but his mental chip. The chip downloaded from the real Touma. The dead Touma. Pain ripped at her heart again. A small whimper, escaping air bubbles. She was going to die soon. She knew it. But she wanted to remember it all..
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
0014 stared in chock as the memory chip fell to the ground. Inside she was screaming as all around her, her world shattered. Slowly her body began to work again. She felt herself moving, standing up. Energy flowed from her. One side was life.. the other was death. The bandages melted. Death wanted out, but life wanted to control it. Inside 0014 as spinning, loosing it. She didn't want to fight. She didn't want to fight at all.
"Move." The command was soft. All around plants sprung up, pulling the cyborgs apart, away from her.
"0014! Don't!" she couldn't register whose voice it was, but the plants were struggling. 007 tried changing shape, but it didn't work.
"This is my fight!" she yelled, and then gently coaxed the plants to scoot the doctors out of the way. Somehow, she knew this was her purpose. Her Father wanted pain to come to her. He had always wanted that. Always. Realization came to her.
He started the fire.
He was the one who suggested them.
He was the one who killed Touma.
Rage.
That was all that could describe the feeling. Her power of life and death mingled, and she sent it far and wide, to every last base he had been at. Plants grew up all around, men screamed as Death seized the buildings and plants, lighting them on fire.
Somewhere, she knew it was her destiny. She was meant to do this and die. To free her friends of the binds that kept them running. Black ghost may have been gone, but its remnants were not.
She found him. He awaited the death. He was ghastly; she could see him in her mind's eye. He was not a man. Each inch of his used to be skin had been replaced with scales. His face, which used to be flatter stretched out in a muzzle like fashion, and instead of a nose, on the tip of the said muzzle there were two nostril holes that were now flared a blood red tongue flicked between rows upon rows of sharp, razor like, teeth.
His body was equally twisted in a snakelike fashion. His arms were longer, and his finger were not fingers, neither were his hands. They were sharp talons that yearned to dig into one's skin, and dried blood was flecked on the ebony tips.
Even his legs were twisted, in that the knees bent the wrong way, and his feel had also grown longer, and each foot supported three toes and talons that gleamed menacingly. These two were covered in blood.
Emerging from the creature's back was a long tail, and there started the spikes that gradually started getting bigger and worked their selves all the way up to the creature's head.
He was a monster. She saw him, and he grinned.
"Kill me." He mouthed.
She did. She struck with deadly accuracy. Thousands of vines penetrated him. But he didn't cry out. He was a creature of old. He toyed with someone like her, and then he expected death to finally get the release he desperately needed.
So she didn't hesitate in making in a quick death. She drove vines into every inch of him, and then let death crawl up them. She set the place aflame, but didn't bother to watch. She was sick of death.
She came out of her death trance and looked straight into the eyes of 0015. She was ready to die, there was no stopping it now.
0014 spread her arms.
"I welcome it, my friend." She whispered.
And then it hit. Pain laced up her, and she could help but cry out. It hurt, it hurt more than she could have imagined and it seemed to last for an eternity.
But the drop into the chilling water soon replaced the hot pain. Her plants withered and dispersed, and death released its hold on her, as she slowly sank into the abyss that is the sea.
The last thing she heard was her newly acquired friends scream in the loss.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
0014 stared up one last time to the surface world. It was dark, eerily so. She never liked the dark, and she whimpered, letting go of her last breath. She watched the bubbles travel up to the light. The light she'd basked in, the light she'd loved, and then she closed her eyes, knowing she'd probably never again see the light.
As she slipped farther down into the water, a light enveloped her, sending waves of warmth through her. A man and a white wolf enveloped her, and slowly guided 0014's limp body to a cave. They swam for a long time, before coming up into an opening, filled by air and technical equipment.
"Shiboo.. is it possible? For her.. for me?" the man asked softly, smoothing 0014's tousled hair. The wolf nodded, a smile seemingly tugging on the corner of her lips.
Very much so…the wolf smiled and gently licked the girl.
"Just as they can revive Mitsuko, since thy have her memory chip and body, I can revive you and my little child…" the man smiled.
"I love you…" he whispered as Shiboo let out a howl, that echoed in the caverns of the cave.
To be continued in "Welcoming The Light"
A.N. Lol. Yep, this is it. The end of Further into the Darkness. I'm sorry if this last chapter was confusing. If you don't understand it, it's going back and forth between 0014's thoughts of death and what really happened. I guess I was so ready to end this, I decided to change it around a bit. Who all expected this coming? Lol. Look for Welcoming The Light!
