Chapter 22 - Nightfall and Nightmare

Author's Note: I'm putting this at the head ... partly as a warning, perhaps, but nothing bad. It's more of a "don't kill me for anything that happens" and a warning for absolute spoilers ahead. *nods* But I can hope you'll enjoy this bit! :) Onwards!

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"Is he okay?"

'Where am I...? What's happened?' Ruprecht felt disorientation, aches along his whole body, including the sides of his head. How long had he been out of it - how long had it been since the last time he had his eyes open. And who was that woman talking?

"Yes, Filia, his life signs are stable enough, it looks to have gone through," A male voice said, that sounded familiar somehow, but not. Ruprecht sighed, feeling strength failing him. It was easier to sleep, then to continue fighting with consciousness.

....

"You're finally awake," Filia said, leaning over the bed to look at him. His eyes opened fully, looking at the young woman in front of him. She had hair somewhat like his, and long pointed ears that were barely visible beneath her cascade of hair. Her eyes were deep blue, searching his face, and then meeting his eyes. Her skin was pale, and looked as soft as silk. One hand reached out and touched the hand on the rail, confirming that. Except the sensation seemed so... different... then he recalled. She laughed then, and smiled. It was as if he had woken up in heaven. "You've been out of it for some time, Ruprecht..."

"I have?" His voice was slightly raspy, his throat drier then he expected.

She nodded, turning to grab a glass of water on a tray. "You have... my father - Dr. Lantis - was worried about you... thought he had made a mistake... Jibril and Nicolaus were up and moving much sooner then you, and you were the first of the three intelligence-related. I was worried."

He looked down, fighting the blush that wanted to reach his cheeks. He was not used to anyone showing any concern for him for any reason. His parents had died shortly after his seventh birthday in an attack, and his older brother often paid little heed to him. Cyril could have honestly cared less whether Ruprecht had survived - then or now. "Thank you... Miss..."

"Filia." She brushed some hair from his face and ran a finger along one of the new sensor implants on his head. He cringed slightly, unaccustomed to the feeling. She drew back quickly. "I'm sorry..."

"It's okay... I'm just not ... used to it." His own hands reached back to felt them, and he frowned slightly. He knew it was a mark of difference, of change. It wasn't as though it made him any more different in others eyes socially - he was used to being the outcast, the different one. He and his brother had to fend for themselves after their parents died for years because no one in their town would take them in. It wasn't until Dr. Lantis had found them that they'd had an honest break. And when given a chance to help him - and the Nedians, he leapt at it. His brother was a bit more hesitant, and had long deliberations with the doctor. It was something he had chosen to do for others who had lives like his, for those who had lost people. He hadn't really known about Filia much, other then that his 'savior' had had a daughter. He hadn't seen her until today. It was odd, having such heightened senses, but he would get used to it in time.

"Still, I should have been more careful," she said, taking his glass that he had emptied while thinking. She filled it from a pitcher, and handed it back. "You're rather lucky... my father chose you to be the first of the more complex ones, but during it he wasn't sure if it was going to turn out. I wasn't present for everything he did, but... it turned out well I guess. I was rather worried a lot, which was I wasn't there all the time."

"I remember hearing you ask at some point about me," he replied, and then took a drink, savoring the cool fresh water. It was clean, and so much better then anything he had tasted. "But I have no idea what was going on."

"I wouldn't worry about it too much, I left shortly after," she said, resting a hand on his. "You're alright now, that's what matters."

He nodded. "Why haven't you been around much?"

The question caught her off guard, and she blinked. "Oh... well, I'd been away at Central City for awhile, buying food items. With the others coming as well and being here, I figured we'd need the extra supplies. There will be nine of you total undergoing this trial experiment - four already done. You, Jirbil, and Nicolaus are making up the Intelligence Wing. You'll have Vesper leading you and overseeing when he comes."

Ruprecht frowned slightly, thinking. "Vesper, I know that name... wasn't he one of the scholars at one of the universities?"

"Yes, he is, but he volunteered to join the project as well," she said. "Father was very pleased when he volunteered, and immediately knew where to put him. Vesper knows much of Nede and history among so many subjects. I think you'll get along well with him."

"As long as he's not as cold as my brother," Ruprecht muttered.

Filia looked across the bed and out the window. "Your brother, Cyril... he bothers me sometimes. Something about the look in his eyes, and the way he looks. I mean, he's a nice person, but sometimes he really scares me so much. I walked past him only a day ago and something about him just... chilled me. We only looked each other in the eye a moment but it was enough. I... feel sorry for you, living with him so long..."

"It's an acquired taste," Ruprecht said blandly. "I take it he hasn't so much as showed up once since my operation?"

She shook her head. "I'm sorry."

"No need for someone as lovely as you to apologize for his foul nature and uncaring attitude towards flesh and blood. I sometimes regret helping him as much as I did, for what little I got in return sometimes. But other times, he was a great person.... every so often he ... cared about me." Ruprecht sighed and wiped a stray tear forming. "I ... don't really know what to say. I'm just fortunate and thankful to your father Filia..."

"I should get going," Filia said, refilling his cup once more. "You should be able to get out of bed in a few hours. Try and get used to yourself, I'm sure my father will want to run tests to see how well it went over."

Ruprecht nodded, and watched her get to the door, and then said, "Will I see you again, perhaps under less formal situations?"

She smiled, and laughed, a sound that warmed him within. "Sure Ruprecht... maybe we can go to Central City sometime too, when father's finished with you."

....

"I realize that much of your full potentials are still untested, however, this is an important test for you as well as something the doctor wishes. Think of it as a field exam."

'Only an ex-professor of Giveaway University would see it as such,' Ruprecht mused with slight apathy. Things hadn't been great recently, and Nede itself was turning into a disaster area daily.

"I want you three to go out and find out what you can find out - Dr. Lantis hasn't heard much at all, and is far too busy with Cyril to find out for himself. Besides that, he's not fond of the reports he does get from the Nedian Government. He suspects there's more then meets the eye on them." Vesper looked at Ruprecht during most of this, eying him with a mix of emotions that the young man couldn't quite decipher. He suspected it stemmed from his brother's operation and set placement - the leader over bother Vesper and Decus - who lead the branch of Defense and Offense. Ruprecht was not at east with the decision by Dr. Lantis, but there was little he could do. He and Filia had talked often about Cyril stalking about the place since the initial operation, but lately, the topic had been avoided. In fact, any time Filia could be with Ruprecht she was, although she made sure they always avoided the topic of his older brother.

"Ruprecht, I want you listening into everything you can - I don't care if it's the old ladies' gossip chain, I want you on it." Ruprecht nodded, his sensor ears twitching slightly. He glanced over then to Jibril, who had always been cloaked since the operation. Jibril could easily process any information and would feed off anything he or Nicolaus found. Next to Jibril was Nicolaus, expert at deciphering written languages, and breaking coding on anything visual as well as scrambling things. Of the three however, Ruprecht was the only one who could easily blend into crowds without being noticed, and also the only one who had an intimate amount of time with large cities before he had even joined the Project. Jibril had led a reclusive life, and Nicolaus was a technician once, having spent many hours alone.

"Jibril I want you cracking news systems as much as possible and assimilating that information into somethign cohesive - everything I refer you to do I mean allied and enemy. While Dr. Lantis has Decus cooking enemy lines getting too close with the help of the others, we need to find out everything going on." Jibril nodded, the glowing eyes barely changing.

"Nicolaus - get the airwaves - see what's being allowed to be broadcast while Jibril puts it together. Visual, written, anything and everythign you can without getting noticed."

Ruprecht swallowed, nodding. They rose, and started for the door, but Ruprecht felt a hand on his arm stopping him as the others walked out. He looked back nervously to Vesper. They had gotten along, but lately, things seemed to be degrading slightly.

"Ruprecht, Dr. Lantis is worried for his daughter, she's all he has left. Please see if you can find anything out about her. It's been awhile, and he's still preoccupied with the project - between Cyril and the last one, he's too busy to keep up with these things. She was going to the City last I checked."

"I know, Vesper, and I will report what I find."

...

The wind was harsh as he stood at the scene of the attack that had happened days before. Over a week, perhaps, it had remained, here on the fringe of the city. He wasn't sure, but it hadn't been cleaned up. Bodies were still trapped, but everyone was too busy to try right now, and too many were too stunned. It was the store Filia had always gone to - and the last place she probably had gone to. The place had been attacked the day she had left the compound. For all the questions he had asked, he only collected more. No one had seen the woman, no one remember this Filia he spoke of.

Not until he talked to the older Nedian woman who sold flowers in the inner city. The one he'd bought flowers form for Filia.

'"She'd stopped by to talk that day, and then went to buy some stuff for dinner, she told me,"' he heard in his head, her exact voice replicated. The old woman was a good friend and wouldn't lie to him. '"And then it happened - a large explosion over that way. The papers said many were dead, but no one ahs time, no one cares. I don't think Filia made it out."'

Ruprecht shuddered, staring blanking at the ruins. 'They are not untouched... they have been stirred. I can see it. They pulled the bodies... they aren't here. I can't smell a trace, and I see nothing but moved rubble. Too many open holes. Where is she...'

He turned, his eyes narrowing as he looked at the central tower. "Where is she, the only person I possibly could care about... where is my saviors daughter and why haven't you told us?" he seethed, his voice lost in the wind.

He took off then, making for the compound, only sending out one short message to the other two. 'Report back now.'

....

"She's dead," Ruprecht said, his voice flat and his eyes almost cold. "Those military bastards dug out all the bodies, they know who died, and they didn't tell us."

Cyril blinked, looking coldly down at Ruprecht as Lantis finished work. "What did you say?" he asked, glancing at Cyril a moment to remain silent.

"Those bastards from the military dug out the bodies form a terrorist attack. According to Jibril, some screwball group of Nedians against the project made an attack on the building while she was in there and killed her. Nicolaus has the location of burial should you require us to retrieve it..."

"Yes, please," Dr. Lantis said, his voice iced over. "I want her back here, and you three, I commend you on finding something out and proving yourselves worthy. When you return from bringing her back, there are modifications to be done. I found a ... flaw... that requires fixing. Will be fatal otherwise."

Ruprecht nodded, and the three left.

~*~

Ruprecht sat up suddenly from a dead sleep, shivering. 'What the hell was that?' He blinked, looking around to make sure that he hadn't somehow, in fact, been taken away or something. He shuddered then as he tried to clear his mind of thought, the stood carefully and made his way out of the room and outside the building they were sleeping in.

To the west somewhat a dim ruddy glow filled the air and accentuated the jet-black shadow of the tower rising over El. He shook his head and sat down on a step, still mulling over the dream.

"Can't sleep?" The deep voice jarred him from through but not thought from his head. This was the first time in a long while someone had surprised him that well, and his eyes transfixed on the figure leaning against a wooden pole. He recognized it immediate from sound and form - it was the swordsman, Dias Flac.

"I was, but... I had a dream."

"Fickle things, they are," Dias said, looking up to the sky. "Often times more haunting then anything else we can imagine, more terrifying."

"You sound as though you've had dreams that bother you," Ruprecht said, looking into the Expellian sky and tracing out patterns in the stars.

Dias grunted slightly and shifted his weight. "Reliving the same moment in time, over and over is not a good thing... more so when you know that you cannot change it now for anything."

Ruprecht frowned, feeling that exact feeling. Knowing something now, and being able to change it now, but not when it happened. "That it is," he murmured. "But I don't know whether I can trust anything anymore in my mind." His eyes narrowed, spotting something in the sky out of place - something that Dias hadn't picked up on.

'Nede? It simply can't be... we can't be this close to Nede now... it's impossible!'

He sighed then, and Dias looked at him. "Trust is important, trust of others and self. I'm learning it... learning to trust myself, and everyone." Dias gave the former wise man a long look, as if judging him almost. "Despite who you are and where you came from, you need to have it as well. I doubt anyone really would want any sort of betrayal at this point, and if you try, I can promise I won't be gentle or kind about stopping it."

They looked at each other for long moments. "I know," Ruprecht said at last. "But it's not like I'd be that hard... I wasn't one of the strongest - to my own knowledge I'm the weakest in both combat and magic. My specialty was information gathering - mostly geared towards audio." His ear sensors twitched, registering the grunt of one of Ashton's dragons. 'Probably Gyoro, by the grunt,' he thought. "But I know there's no chances for me on going back - even if I probably managed to stop you, my own brother would probably rend what life I had left out of me. I... don't know what the others would think. The only thing I do know is that I have not detected any of the others around us."

Dias nodded slowly, thinking while looking west. "Could they possibly directly access hat you were feeling?"

Ruprecht shook his head. "Highly doubtful -the only man who could have even tried that has been dead as long as I can remember..."

"I see," Dias said. "I doubt it's anything of consequence... but I have my suspicions. It's my nature. I lost my family from an attack we weren't suspecting... I didn't die. I should have for being so weak. Now I'm probably heralded as one of the greatest warriors on Expel... but I'd hardly consider myself great. I can barely admit my feelings for someone, how can I be great if I can't even do that?"

Ruprecht blinked, looking at the older man. "You mean Rena," he queried.

Dias softly snorted in what Ruprecht could only take as acknowledgement. "At least she's alive," Ruprecht said softly. "I... can't make anything of my dream. I only know names - nothing more - that are real. I don't know if my dream is looking back, or some twisted reality... or something false planted in my head to make me question things. I have always questioned everything. I lost my family... I pushed on with life as best as I could. I had something, and if it's truth, I've lost it..."

"We're sort of in the same boat, or on the same page almost," Dias commented.

"You're a few back, and I hope you never reach the page I'm on... no one should ever have to. And this..." He stood, gesturing to the area around the town. "This is the culmination of something that is ... it seems like a large sacrifice for little gain... I don't understand it. I can't understand how I was so blind to this. Why I let it rule me. I just don't know."

"It's better you question things... it keeps you alert." Dias folded his arms across his chest. "Relaxation can be the downfall to anyone. Thieves and opportunists will always prey on those not looking. I sincerely doubt your former comrades are much better, considering how they've taken advantage of my home."

"I know... but starting tomrorow, we'll be getting out answers."

They both remained outside for a long while, looking around and seemingly standing their own vigilant watch. As the stars shifted and the night changed, Dias looked at the younger one. "You shuould sleep."

"So should you," Ruprecht said.

"I had enough sleep between the nap I had when we got here and the short bit I had at night."

"I'm not tired, and can survive under minimal conditions," Ruprecht said. "I may be one of the weaker of us, but I still have my basic abilities intact."

Dias nodded. "Fine then, have it your way."

'I don't mind not sleeping since I can stand it... I just do not relish another dream like the last. I'd rather wear down though the grueling task of the tower... then to be haunted again this night. Until I know, until I understand... I will not rest. I will have my answers, be they from Vesper, Cyril, or Indalecio himself.'

~*~

"Something wrong?" Cyril's question was even - neither malicious not supportive.

Indalecio glanced over his shoulder coldly. "Some manners might be in order," he quipped. "You could knock."

Cyril shrugged off-handedly. "It was cracked open already, I didn't know you were meditating."

Indalecio snorted. "Whatever you say, Cyril. I was just keeping track of some things."

"Such as...?" Cyril folded his arms across his chest and put more weight on one foot, causing him to stand cocked to one side. An odd smirk crossed his features, and his good eye glimmered with a smile.

Indalecio rose with grace, facing his dark-clad company. He smoothed his white robes carefully and adjusted his gloves, making Cyril wait. "Seeing how everyone was doing... from Ruprecht through to... you."

Cyril blinked, completely thrown off. His eye narrowed then, studying the elder wise man. "Me?" he hissed through his breath.

"Just making sure things are in order and working correctly... you don't think Doctor Lantis would possibly leave out keeping track of the other nine when he set me over the rest of you... did you?"

Cyril frowned, obvious disdain in his demeanor. "I wouldn't see why he should. He chose each of us, he should know us well enough to not have to worry."

Indalecio waved his hand out towards the world in general. "Need I mention your younger brother, Cyril?"

"No." The words were like ice glazed over. "Still, it seems awfully intrusive."

Indalecio shrugged. "I thought it was amusing this time around. Decus' daydreams are rather entertaining, and Ruprecht apparently is stumbling into areas that should have been sealed off. Amusing at the least, but nothing to worry about. Even if he does find something it's useless. Tomorrow, we'll be in reach of Nede and our revenge."

"So soon?" Cyril said, perking up. "But I thought-"

"There's a Quadratic Key here."

"..." Cyril pondered over this for a few minutes. "Then we have the upper hand no matter what and can leave this accursed planet."

"Correct, so I'd suggest getting some rest and be refreshed. I'll be informing the others shortly."

Cyril walked out his step slow but careful as he deliberated over what he knew. 'Almost to Nede already... back to our home... our source. I guess then it's fitting to go on there. Though it is uncomforting to know that someone might know already...'