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"Anywhere" -- Chapter 10: Take My Hand
By The Last Princess of Hyrule
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"Touch my skin,
And tell me what you're thinking,
Take my hand,
And show me where we're going,
Lie down next to me,
Look into my eyes,
And tell me,
Oh, tell me what you're seeing . . ."
-Dido, "Take My Hand"
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The rain beat down in heavy sheets on Hitomi and Celena as they faced each other amidst the crumbling ruins of the Fanelian capitol. The freezing torrent soaked through their clothes and made Hitomi shiver, but it couldn't dampen the ferocity in Celena's eyes.
"What are you talking about? I told you, I'm not the Girl from the Mystic Moon." Hitomi's declaration was anything but convincing.
"You can't lie to me," said Celena. "You brought us both from Egzardia to Fanelia through a pillar of light with the power of the Atlantean pendant in your right hand. You are Hitomi Kanzaki."
Hitomi's heart stopped. How was this even possible? There was no way. Celena hadn't known anything when Hitomi first talked to her--she'd been like an empty shell without any personality. There was no way she could even have learned Hitomi's name since their last meeting.
"I . . . I think you've made a mistake," Hitomi said, taking a step back. "My name's Yukari Uchida, not Hitomi Kanzaki."
Celena reached out and grabbed her wrist. Hitomi tried to pull away, but Celena had a surprisingly strong grip. "Enough. You're coming with me."
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/./Celena, is this bothering you? Acting so cold-hearted like this?/./ Dilandau asked smugly. /./I know you don't like it././
/I don't know you, and I don't care to. Please, just stop bothering me./
/./Aww, you know I can't do that. Not until I get what I want././
/What is that?/
/./Let me free././
/I don't know how to free you./
/./Really? Well, that's a shame. I guess you'll just have to get used to acting like this. That's what happens when someone tampers with your mind././
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The door to the room opened and two foreboding armored soldiers entered. Celena recognized them when she looked up and tried to remain inconspicuous. She huddled as far as she could in the corner of the room farthest from the door, ducking below the shadow of a cot. Please don't let them see me, she prayed silently. My god, Jichia, please keep me safe.
"You there," said one of the guards to a little boy. He tapped Celena's bed. "Where's the girl that sleeps here?"
All of the children Celena had traveled with on the leviship lived in the same crowded room. There were fifteen of them and only twelve bunks, but the beds were never all full at one time.
The boy pointed silently to Celena's hiding place. The guards started toward her slowly.
Someone was always being taken away.
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/./Whoa, what was that?/./ Celena could almost hear the smirk in Dilandau's words. /./That was certainly interesting././
/Stop it./ Celena yanked Hitomi's arm. "Let's go." They set off at a jog through the rain.
"Where are we going?" asked Hitomi, splashing through puddles of cold, murky water.
/./Yeah, Celena, where are we going?/./
She didn't answer either of them, only quickened her pace.
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The guards yanked Celena roughly through a dank underground hallway that led to the Labs. Her heart pounded rapidly.
"I'm sick," she told her guards, faking an unconvincing cough. "I don't wanna go today. Please don't make me."
"Shut up," one growled.
They turned a corner and came to a pair of heavy steel doors, solid and unmarked, but Celena knew where they led. Everyone knew what horrors lay behind them, what torment very few of them survived. Her throat constricted as the guards, with noticeable effort, pushed one open.
"No," she begged in a whisper. "Please don't take me back in there. Please."
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It only took them a minute to reach the red guymelef, which had been transported to Fanelia by another pillar of light. It was scratched and covered with dirt from several crash landings, but looked fully capable of flight. Celena dropped Hitomi's arm and leapt up to the cockpit.
Dilandau was laughing inside her head. /./What interesting images. Care to see more?/./
The cockpit flew open. Celena stepped inside and closed it.
/./Have these memories triggered any other good ones? Like how to let me go?/./
/I told you, I don't know how to do that./ she snapped.
/./We've been in this predicament before and gotten out of it just fine. Why is this time any different?/./
/What last time? I don't know what you're talking about./
/./Okay . . . but I warned you././
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The only light in the operating room came from an artificial fire suspended from the ceiling made by Zaibach's magic "science." The two guards lifted Celena onto a metal table, the sight of which made her go limp with fear, and strapped her down. They drew thick belts across her ankles, wrists, and stomach, notching them so tight she could hardly breathe. The single light cast haunting shadows across their faces--half sickening yellow, half completely black.
The door opened, and a man hidden in a black cloak entered, followed by two others carrying trays. One was covered with strange, frightening devices with long points and sharp, cruel hooks, while the other carried papers.
The cloaked man picked up a file from the second tray and opened it. "This is subject F1047855, delta ward. Last procedure: Blue 14. Hmm . . that's almost twelve days ago. Treatment: Three shots Bytherian mix, one pure Tranentan, four Caerinine. Interesting set . . ."
He smiled at Celena. His smile was that of an obsessed madman, and it would be burned in the back of her mind forever with his creaky, scraping voice. "Well, let's get started."
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/./What the hell is this?/./ Dilandau's surprise was sincere. /./I know that man././
Celena was shaking in the guymelef as she stood up. /P-please . . . I don't want to s-see anymore . . ./
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Hitomi watched Celena stumble into the guymelef, feeling very out-of-the-loop. The young woman's sudden change from stable anger to faltering and shaking was just as odd as how she had suddenly come up with Hitomi's identity. What was someone so unstable doing out on her own?
The guymelef's molten claws shot out and wrapped around Hitomi's waist, lifting her off the ground. Why would Zaibach send a soldier like Celena out alone to capture Hitomi? Did they have any idea what was happening to her?
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The Sorcerer sorted through the tools on the first tray and picked up an empty syringe. "I need a new sample of her blood. I want to see what effect the stimulants had on her system before we begin."
He grabbed Celena's right wrist and turned her arm, plunging the needlepoint deep into her veins. She screamed for a moment, but the rush of blood being sucked away from her made her close her mouth to keep from throwing up.
"Now." The Sorcerer thrust the blood sample toward one of his attendants. "Take this to the white room and make sure they have it analyzed immediately. Watch them this time. I don't want to be kept waiting."
Celena felt herself drifting into unconsciousness as the first attendant hurried out. The Sorcerer picked up another syringe, this one filled with clear liquid, and passed it to the other. "Administer this to her. I want her awake the whole time."
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/Please, stop it!/ Celena begged desperately as she flicked on the guymelef's flying engines and lifted into the air. /I don't know how to free you, but if you stop, maybe I can think of something./
/./I didn't do anything that time././ Dilandau's voice quavered. /./You remembered that one yourself././
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"I don't get it," said the Sorcerer. He threw the blood analysis papers onto a tray in frustration. Six hours had passed since the stimulant entered her system, and Celena's eyes were still opened so wide they ached. "With this many toxins in her system, she should be dead."
"Jichia, Jichia," Celena muttered incomprehensibly. "Save me, Jichia."
The Sorcerer frowned. "I want her changed to shock treatment. Maybe that will have some affect. Bring me the generator."
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The red guymelef, which had been ascending smoothly into the clouds, suddenly lurched and dropped several feet, causing Hitomi to scream.
"No more!" came Celena's voice from the cockpit. "I don't want to see anything more! Stop it!"
"What's going on?!" Hitomi called. "Celena!"
"No!"
A rush of movement beneath them caught Hitomi's eye, and she twisted around to look down. They were flying at any upward angle several hundred feet above ground, which was clouded from view by a thin layer of misty rain. Not quite twenty feet below them was the Escaflowne.
"Folken!" she cried.
The red guymelef jolted again.
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Metal barbs were adhered in a peculiar pattern all over Celena's body by the Sorcerer's two attendants. Some were in lines down her arms and legs, some made an oval across her stomach, and five circled her face. When they finished, they drew several thin copper wires from the point of one to another, spinning a spider's web poised above her body.
She rolled her head to the side. On her left, a rumbling black box was vibrating and making hideous screeching noises. The Sorcerer stood next to it, observing the progress with narrowed eyes.
"The last child on this high voltage didn't make it," he muttered to himself, "but maybe this one will survive. With all the chemicals in her body, this much energy could cause an interesting reaction."
One of the attendants took the last strands of wire and twisted them together, then tied the coil to an outlet on the black box, connecting it to Celena. When they were safely away from the table, the Sorcerer flicked a switch on the generator, and wailing screech, it turned on. The first jolt of electricity was four times stronger than a lightening bolt.
"Jichia! Jichiaaaaa!"
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/Jichia . . . Jichia . . ./
The red guymelef banked and shot steeply upward. Sharp wind smacked Celena's face through the metal viewing grate as she climbed higher and higher.
/./Celena, if you don't get a hold of yourself, you're going to kill us!/./
Celena couldn't hear him. She couldn't hear anything except the sound of the screeching black generator and her own voice screaming. She squinted her eyes, wishing she could press out the memories behind them. "Jichia, Jichia . . ."
Suddenly, the flying apparatus stalled, and their ascent halted. The world froze.
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The generator had been off for fifteen minutes before Celena could draw a breath without it burning like hellfire in her lungs. Several more minutes passed before she stopped screaming. The Sorcerer and his assistants watched her critically, their faces void of any shred of empathy.
"Interesting . . ." The Sorcerer stroked his pointed chin. "I think we're making progress with this one."
"Jichia!" Celena cried. She struggled savagely against her bindings, her eyes searing with the sweat that dripped into them.
"Take another sample of her blood," he said to one of his attendants.
The attendant nodded once and picked up an empty syringe, this one stained with old blood. He gave no thought to cleaning it before he stabbed it into her arm, the same arm they used before, where the only resistance was a sticky blood-blot failing to harden. He pulled up the blood and tore the syringe out again, ripping an inch or so of her skin in the process. Only on indication from the Sorcerer did he bother to tend the bleeding.
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"Jichia . . ." Celena was shaking as badly as during her shock treatment. "Jichia . . ." She couldn't seem to slow her beating heart, or calm her sharp breaths. Her concentration consumed by memories, it was as far from controlling the red guymelef as possible, and Celena lost her hold on Hitomi.
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The results from the second blood test came back sooner, only a two hour delay. In that time, another syringe full of stimulant had been injected into her throbbing right arm. She was back to staring wide eyed at the ceiling, watching the light beaming across it. The stimulant did nothing to numb the pain from the generator, but it hurt even more to scream, so Celena was silent.
The Sorcerer examined analysis papers for a moment, then scowled and threw them aside. " '. . . something strange about this experiment . . .' Of course there's something strange about this experiment! It should have failed a long time ago!"
He grabbed the records of Celena's previous treatments from her. His scowl deepened. "Hmm . . . If someone had thought to monitor her progress better, maybe we could explain what's going on." He glared at one of his attendants. "I want this child moved to a solitary ward. Get someone watching her all the time." He looked back at Celena. "Something about this child is making her different from the others. I want to know exactly what's causing it."
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Hitomi plummeted back to Gaea faster than Celena had flown away it. Overhead, she saw Celena had managed to reactivate her flying apparatus and stop her own fall, but Hitomi was too far down to be caught. She could only watch helplessly in the few seconds that all this passed through as the red guymelef flew farther away, and her back slammed into something solid.
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Almost twenty hours had passed since Celena entered the operating room, but even though her mind was still wide awake, her body had practically shut down when she was finally taken away. Her two guards dragged her by the arms down the hall, ignoring her groans at the aches their movement irritated.
"Jichia . . ." she whispered through the pain.
One of the guards yanked her arm up roughly, almost jarring her shoulder from its socket. "Shut up, stupid kid! Quit saying that damn name!"
"W-why . . .?" She looked up at him weakly.
"There isn't nobody watching over you here," he growled. "No gods, no Jinchi, no nobody."
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The impact knocked the wind out of her, and for a moment, Hitomi stared up at the sky in blank shock. Rain trickled down on her face. With effort, she wiped it away. It was only then that she realized she was still alive.
Sound returned to her ears a moment later, and the first thing she heard was Folken's anxious voice calling her name.
Hitomi opened her eyes and found herself lying face up on the back of the Escaflowne, just a foot short of the pilot's seat. Wind and rain shot sideways past her face. They were still flying, and very fast. More concerning was the fact that there wasn't anything on the back of the Dragon to hold on to.
"Hitomi! Are you all right?!" Folken's words shot right by her on the air current.
She closed her eyes and whimpered, reaching frantically above her head, her hands searching over the Escaflowne's smooth surface for anything to hang onto. Her fingers brushed the rim of something, and she grabbed on. Holding as tightly as possible, she rolled onto her stomach and pulled herself up to the pilot's seat behind Folken.
"Gods, are you all right?" he asked again as she wrapped her trembling arms around his waist.
Still unable to speak, Hitomi nodded and leaned against him, closing her eyes. Her heart was still pounding, and her entire body shook with each breath, but the pattering rain and the safety she felt in Folken's presence had a calming effect.
She tried not to think about what she had said to him earlier about being better off alone, but her mind wouldn't leave it alone. If anyone's life was cursed to be a magnet to disaster, it was Hitomi's. She'd only wanted to keep him away to save him from that disaster, but in fact, things were only more miserable when they were apart.
She felt the same way about her other friends, and was beginning to realize the rashness in her decision to leave them. If avoiding her made things any easier on them, they would have abandoned her a long time ago, but they, like Folken, stayed loyal through everything. Running away from them was like trying to run from her destiny--in the end, it hurt less just to face it.
"Something very strange is happening with Dilandau's flying," Folken pointed out. "He's diving all over the place."
"Dilandau?" Hitomi's eyes snapped open and she looked upward. The red guymelef was faltering in flight, banking sharply in random directions, stalling for periods of time, and then shooting forward in mad bursts of speed. "That pilot's Celena."
"Celena? She doesn't sound familiar to me. She must be pretty brave to steal Dilandau's own guymelef."
"What do you mean?"
"That red guymelef is unmistakable. It's the only one in the entire fleet. Dilandau is known for it. This Celena is going to be in a lot of trouble if he finds out she took it." The Escaflowne slowed.
"Wait a minute! What are you doing? Follow her!"
"What?" Folken turned around and gave Hitomi an worried look, as if she had gone completely out of her mind. "Why?"
"There's something really weird about her. I don't know what, but there's something. The way she was acting when she captured me . . . it was almost like her mind was in two different places," Hitomi tried to explain. "Like she was actually two different people in the same body. Look, I know it sounds crazy, and I can't explain it. Just don't lose her."
Folken hesitated. "I have a feeling she's headed to the empire. Are you sure that's where you want to go?"
Hitomi nodded, and they sped up again. Following a pilot that tried to kidnap her into the thick of Zaibach probably wasn't a smart move, but it felt like the right one. Celena's fluxuating personality was sharp in Hitomi's mind, edging her on. I have a feeling there's a long story behind this . . .
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Dilandau was shaking as he wrestled the guymelef's controls, struggling to manage its wild flight and keep from falling. He was high above ground, and the cold air seeped inside through its drafty crevices, numbing his body, but at lease he knew it were there.
/Dilandau? Dilandau?/
It took Dilandau a moment to find his voice. /./ . . . I'm here././
/Oh, thank Jichia you're all right!/ Celena sighed with relief.
/./Yeah././
/What happened?/ Her voice was full of concern. She was back to her old self again.
Dilandau shook his head and tried to dodge the subject. /./I don't know././
/Did you call those images? Those memories?/
He was silent.
/How did you find them? I mean--/
/./I don't know, okay? I have no idea how I did . . . whatever the hell I did. The whole thing just doesn't make sense././ He frowned. /./Look, everything's back to normal, so let's just drop it././
/But what about those memories? I can't believe I remembered all of that stuff . . . Wait, didn't you recognize someone in one of them?/
/./Damn it, Celena, I can't think about that right now! I'm trying not to crash this damn 'melef!/./
/Sorry./
They flew in silence for a while. Dilandau was grateful for it. Celena was back to her usual honest, good self, but as hard as he tried, he couldn't put her cruel lapse out of his mind. He still wasn't exactly sure how he caused it, though he had a vague idea. By some weird happening he didn't know, he and Celena seemed to share a body. Only one of them could be walking around in control at a time, but the other's consciousness remained awake in the controller's conscious mind.
Dilandau toggled the flight capacitor and sped up, turning the guymelef north. They were headed to the capitol of the Zaibach empire. Maybe there was someone there who could explain to Dilandau exactly what was this predicament he and Celena were in.
With the thought of Zaibach, the images he'd recovered from Celena's memories returned to mind. They were so sharp and clear--it was evident they were real events. He hadn't meant to find them at first. Tampering with Celena's personality had been more than enough to get her to talk to him. But no, a better opportunity presented itself and he took it before he even knew what he was doing.
Dilandau flew in that contemplative state all day and night without stopping to rest. Eventually, the rain that beat into the guymelef through the grate and dampened its interior slowed to a sprinkling, but it, like his flight, was persistent. It wasn't until it was almost dawn again that he started to slow down.
Celena noticed a change in his thoughts immediately. /What's happening?/ she asked. /Where are we?/
An expansive mechanical city lit up with cold, artificial light lay out before him. The welcoming sight was enough to make Dilandau smile. /./Home././
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"Unlock your heart,
Drop your guard,
No one's left to stop you . . ."
-Evanescence, "Anywhere"
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TO BE CONTINUED . . .
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