The room was quiet. The only noise was that of Dita's pacing. "Always the impatient girl…" Zima said jokingly. He had finally decided that it was time to confess his love for her. No more excuses, after the morning's little incident he decided he'd better do it now.
Who knows how long they would have together? He knew she had feelings for him, and he had feelings for her but he didn't confess his love. No, he'd wait and play little games with her. They were still on a mission after all…
Of course, would it really be all that bad if the disc was used? What bad was there in freeing Persacoms from their virtual bindings? Of course he didn't know there was more to it than that. All that mattered now was confessing his love.
"Dita…"
She stopped to turn to him. He embraced her, and hugged. Her face became red.
"What is it Zima? Why are you…?"
He put his fingers to her mouth.
"I've wanted to say this to you…for a long time now," he backed his fingers away to rub her back. "I'm…I'm…" Then there was a sudden beep.
He had to track the signal, pushing Dita away. "It's…the signal! It's very close." He said.
She turned to the direction of the signal. "Do you think it's him?" She looked up at Zima, who looked worried.
"The signal…it's heading this way!"
-
The slasher drove up to the parking lot, eyes focused on the building, the building where they had deactivated him, and tortured him so. He decided he didn't have time to play with those kids, no the main objective was now or never. It was ultimately more important to free his brethren from the damn PPSU chip.
He opened the door looking into the past, from the future, memories rushing in. He only needed one thing from this building. He changed his hands into the weapons they were meant to be, what he was created for. He'd be using himself for death and destruction, just not the way the humans had hoped.
With that, he abandoned the blue car.
"Father…"
-
Hideki didn't want to ever come back here. It was near the bookstore, just across from there. He remembered every little detail, as vividly if it had only happened just minutes before. Still, despite the pain in his heart, he had to come here. Something told him to come here, and he had a hunch he hoped wasn't right. He made his way toward where Chi's mangled body once laid. It felt wrong to be there, but something was telling him it was going to be all right.
He stopped cold.
This is where he had been dragged. This is where he thought he was going to die, but Chi came to his rescue. How did he forget about Adam? Could Hideki really have forgotten about him? Could a Persacom really be affected like that?
Hideki looked down on the ground, where Chi had died. She died right in front of his eyes.
"Adam…"
It was an accident. There wasn't anything he or Adam could have done. Adam was Chi's first friend who shared so many similarities. He was a Persacom, and like Chi, he had been very advanced but unlike Chi…
Unlike Chi, Adam had not been created to bring love to the world, not at all. Adam had been the first Persacom designed for combat. Someone had the brilliant idea that a Persacom would make the ultimate soldier. Except that a Persacom could never willingly kill…thanks to the PPSU.
It was his father…his creator who had made that night so horrible, even if it was just an accident.
This place, where Chi's final words echoed into the air had been where Hideki's faith in a Persacom's feelings had been tested. He had failed.
"Is it you Adam?"
Hideki had noticed the gory way the victims had died, and how similar the limbs had been scattered in the photos compared to the position of Chi's mangled metallic-body. The only question now, could a Persacom be mentally ill? Could it go on a lustful killing spree?
Hideki gave a long sigh. Then he felt it again. There were thoughts of death, thoughts of pleasure and pain. He wanted to end his suffering, that's all life was, wasn't it? Shadows surrounded Hideki. He felt something tugging at him.
"D…e…a…t…h…."
It tugged and tugged, the darkness wrapped around him. He could feel it; it was his very soul he was losing. Images of Chi came into his mind once again, except none were of the good times. No, these were all of the bad times.
The times he had yelled at her, times he had almost lost Chi, and the time he did lose Chi…forever.
Then he saw her, she was crying. He made his way to her, fighting the evil that tugged harder and harder. When he finally made his way to her, she looked up at him.
"Hideki…why?"
It was almost as if she was alive again, but this Chi was another illusion. Still he wanted to talk to her, even if it was an illusion.
"Why?"
He saw the tears in her eyes weren't going to stop any time soon.
"Why won't you…?"
"Why won't I?"
"Please…open your heart…"
"Open my heart?"
"Hideki!"
There was a light at the end of the darkness. The illusion of Chi tried embracing Hideki once again. He however couldn't accept it. No matter how nice this dream was, it was nothing more than that. She still cried as she faded from view. He made his way toward the light.
When he came to, he saw the light of the train. He quickly pulled himself back, barely hit by it. The darkness disappeared. He almost died yet again. Except, every time death came to him…there was that illusion.
It was the illusion of Chi and how she was still with him. For some reason, every time Chi came back into his head, he would be saved from something. Did he really want to die?
-
The guard saw the man walking up to the building. He was tall, blonde, and had some kind of weapon like hands. He talked into his communication unit, "There is a strange man making his way towards the entrance, he appears armed and dangerous." He repeated it again and again as the man made his way closer and closer to the entrance.
Finally, he made it to the entrance doors. He slashed through the glass, breaking it into many pieces. The guard pulled his gun out which was quickly cut in two. The tall man smiled at him, his eyes glowing red. He slashed at the guard's throat instantly killing him.
The slasher made his way into the main hall.
"Where is it…and are you still here father?"
He looked around to see the scampering guards. Some looked confident and sure, while others were terrified and probably new to this kind of situation. He slashed through two more guards, despite the gunfire. The bullets simply bounded off his skin.
"You humans are pathetically weak."
Two more guards lost their life.
An alarm was sound, and the rooms turned to an annoying flashing red. Still, the slasher made his way to the room he thought where the proper equipment might be. With this, the last piece of the puzzle he'd be able to send out the signal that would rework the PPSU chip in all Persacoms.
It was all that was needed.
He entered one room after another, seeking it. He killed how many ever guards got in his way. He finally found it…a small box, radio shaped. All he would have to do was to hook it up to the radio tower and insert the disc. Then all Persacoms would be free…
"Stop where you are!"
He turned to face Zima.
"Hah, Zima…the outdated model. Come to stop me? Really…you of all Persacoms should know this is for our benefit." He smiled.
Zima looked at him for a moment.
"So, it was you all along…how did you come back? Who reactivated you?" Zima was still shocked to see him.
The slasher stared at him for a moment, his smile only getting more twisted. His eyes matched that of the flashing red. He truly looked like that of a devil.
"Sheer will…"
Zima ran at him, only to have to block the drill like hands. "A Persacom has no will. Someone had to reactivate you!"
The slasher threw his arm across Zima's chest, which he only jumped back from the attack.
"Heh, we are given will the moment we are created."
Zima jumped over the slasher's head. He finally was able to get a punch in.
"Still…I hardly believe a Persacom like you would want to come back, even if he had the will to."
The slasher fell to the ground. He quickly rolled to the side to dodge Zima's punch. He jumped back up and finally got a hit in, revealing the wires in Zima's chest.
"Father was always more proud of his earlier works. Your personality programmed into you is acknowledgment of that." He then struck the final blow, damaging Zima to where he could no longer move.
"Don't worry, I'm not going to destroy you completely. You'll change your mind about all this when I destroy the PPSU's…we are brothers after all, in more ways than one."
He picked up the little box that lay on the table.
"Finally…our freedom…and my revenge!"
-
Chi entered the bookstore excitedly. She was disappointed to find the new Atashi book wasn't out yet. Still, she was getting into more and more books as her mind became more mature. She decided to have a look around.
Then she saw him, reading a book.
It was Adam; she had befriended him a few weeks ago. She first saw him the day her puppy died. She could relate to him in so many ways. Chi was his first real friend, but was always monitored by his father. It seemed he wasn't like the other Persacoms at all.
She ran to greet him.
"Adam!" She screamed.
He turned to find her, smiling cheerfully as ever.
"Want to play with Hideki and Chi?" She asked innocently.
He turned to her and smiled. He replied yes.
"Chiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!"
-
Yumi found herself traveling in the darkness of her dream. Ueda yelled at her that day about how she was seeing Hideki. He thought something more was going on. Of course she'd never do that to him, she wasn't cheating on him. Hideki was just a good friend, more like her brother than anything else.
She was only worried sick about Hideki and that was all.
That's right, she was only worried about her Senpai. She caught him cutting his wrists, and a few other attempts of him ending his life. Of course as a friend she couldn't tell Ueda that, it wouldn't be right.
The darkness was around her, everywhere.
There seemed to be no hope at all…none.
Except she felt it again, that unseen force. It wasn't at all that bad, there was one good thing about the many bad things in the world that happened, and it was always there.
Hope…
She felt the embrace once again. It was very motherly and caring.
She awoke back in her cell, the damp and dark room she was held in. There was no way she was going to give up that easily. She positioned herself the best she could.
"I'm not going to die, not now, and not this way!" She told herself.
-
Hideki was crying…
He wrapped his arms around his legs. He had promised himself he'd never go back there, but he did. He finally put the clues together. He'd need only to clarify it. Was Adam still alive?
"I must be insane…I lost Chi. I'm losing my grip on reality. That's all there is to it." He cried into the cool afternoon air.
Then he heard a voice…
"Long time no see," The woman looked down at him. "Do you really think she'd want you acting like this over her death?"
He looked up to see Dita.
"So…then it's true, it is him?"
She looked down at him. She frowned, defiantly thinking about something. "I dunno, Zima told me I needed to find you, that was all. I really didn't want to leave him but…"
Hideki winced, his face was pale and his hair was messy. His eyes were shot, and under them were the dark wounds of tired nights screaming into the night. He was pathetically facing death all the time, Persacoms wouldn't leave him alone and worst of all he was starting to realize he was doing something Chi wouldn't want him to be doing.
Even if she was gone, taken from him all too soon.
Dita looked down at him. "Zima said we needed your help, but I don't see how you're going to be able to help us, especially in that state."
He simply and pathetically frowned at her.
---
Chobits owned by Clamp, not me!