A/N: Warning! Gratuitous Violence mentioned ahead.
Edit: Some redundant wording has been rewritten, as well as words and tenses changed in some spots I noticed.
I do not own To Love-Ru, or any of its charact-$# $%^)&^-
{/:System Error Detected/:}
{/:System Reboot Initialized:/}
/Initializing_
/Initializing_
/_
{/:Sy$tem Rest0red/?}
{ /:}
/_
/Current Location: En route to the Talha Galaxy
/Destination: 'Dark Sea' Region
/Classification: Dead Stellar Nursery
/Mission Aim: Locate Calpris Minora-β
The Lunatique
Travel between galaxies, even with the availability of warp gates, was a long and arduous process, with the gulf between one destination and the other growing with every day. Warp travel was specifically limited to only be used within a galactic border, not only because it was easier for the plotting of routes and data over the shared exo-net, but that travel between galaxies posed many unknown hazards with little to no consistency between locations. The fact was someone could enter a gravitational sinkhole as much as they could stumble across a rogue planet in the void between galaxies; the fact that lack of starlight had negative impacts, both psychological and physical, on those that traveled through the gulfs was also a factor to consider as well if one was not well prepared beforehand. With the introduction of warp engines that were far faster than previous models travel between was far from impossible from taking place, it was simply more fraught with those unknown perils that were impossible to track without gauging it by starlight, which in turn caused the need for crews to be constantly on alert for anything in their paths that previous travelers had not been made aware of. This wasn't much of a problem with the ever vigilant AI of the Lunatique plotting their way, but that did not mean he was infallible either.
So, the AI did all it could to maintain the mental health of its crew by simulating a 2400 hour day/night cycle that its Mistress and friends had become accustomed in their travels on the planet known as Earth. As time was relatively subjective both in and out of warp, changing and having to adapt between various alien time standards and the galactic standard in addition, the AI did its best to ensure the weeks long journey between the Milky Way and Talha galaxies were as relaxing or as stimulating as it was required. For instance, at 0630 hours, the ships AI noted that the target of its Mistress was currently engaging in the consumption of his breakfast, after drinking its ridiculous lactose byproduct obtained from the mammary glands of a common Earth bovine. Yet at 0515, it also noted that the former self proclaimed 'Tyrant Queen', had vacated her quarters to proceed to the observational deck, where a window into the void beyond its exterior hull and shielding were located, and that she was in hour two of silent meditation, and had yet to make and signs of moving or physical discomfort. Having reached the time of 0730 Hours, the Lunatique's systems alerted itself to remind its Mistress of her previously scheduled appointment.
The AI of the ship quickly focused its interface within its Mistress' quarters, forcing an image to manifest above her bed, where it prepared itself to awaken both her and the young mistress' sister whom was sharing her room. "Mizztrezz, your zzcheduled training exzerzzzize, with the young mizztrezz, is zzet for today!" the cheery skeleton interface states, as its sleepy-eyed captain begins to awaken from the ships incessant buzzing, "Combat practizze iz zet for 0815 hourz, the zzhowerzz are currently free, Kuro Neko izz finizzhing breakfazzzt up down in the kitchen, and Mizz Azzenda izz currently meditating with no zzignzz of moving anytime zoon..." The blonde woman yawned, as she stretched up from the bed and moved to shake a sleeping Mea up from her spot on the floor. The red headed younger TRANS weapon was sprawled out in her pajamas, having kicked off her blanket sometime in the middle of the night cycle (0112, the Lunatique noted) and was currently drooling as she slept peacefully enveloped in her dreams.
"Huzwha... no, no doggie, not there..." she giggled in her sleep, "Bite his rear, it'z more effective..." Blinking down at her sisters strange words, she quickly formed a fist out of her hair and dangled it above her younger sister, with intent to hit her. Making her hand go flat, she aimed for her midsection to chop at her side, only for the strands of red to react and form a hand in the shape of a V, stopping it in mid blow. "Hey, hey... Nee-Chan, that's not fair, I'm still so tired..." rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she gets up without even opening them and yawns, "If I didn't sense your killing intent, that wouldn't have been fun at all..." Opening her dark blue eyes, the younger living weapon yawns and stretches, getting up to head out of the room by getting some clothes for after a shower. "Big sis is a meanie, not even Master would attack me when I'm half-asleep," she states as she leaves the room, followed shortly by Yami, "The food smells wonderful though, you're boyfriend is quite a catch- if he's half as good at cooking as he is at shooting, that is." Yami merely turned her hair into a giant hand and gave her younger sister a noogie, much to the others discomfort, as blonde hair ruffled red.
After a quick shower, the two were both heading to grab a quick bite of food from the kitchen, where Kuro was sitting at a table with three empty plates and a disassembled weapon he was vigorously cleaning and polishing. Bullets were set up next to biscuits, while fluffy eggs nearly touched an oily rag, as Kuro polished away at his unloaded weapon without a care in the world. She used her hair to pick up the oily rag and each individual bullet, grabbing the hilt of the weapon and moving it all over to empty counter space, much to Kuro's annoyance. "Hey, I was still cleaning that!" he states, jumping back as her blonde hair snakes around his wrists to keep him from resisting, until she pops into the seat next to him and shoves him over after pecking his cheek, "Don't think I'm still not angry; if you guys had gotten up earlier, breakfast would have been fresh out of the oven instead of stone cold!" Mea cackles, grabbing a biscuit and some eggs from the table and putting them on her plate to fill her stomach, while using her hair to pour some juice that was on the counter into an empty glass from the cupboard.
"Mmmhhmm, mush bettah than Azenda!" Red Headed Mea states, as she stuffs her mouth with fluffy eggs despite them being cold, "Food is food, as long as its delicious; who cares about how hot or cold it is!" She grabs the glass from her hair and takes a deep gulp of the pulpy drink, slamming it down onto the table with a smile as she does so. "Too bad Miss Sourpuss isn't down here, I may not leave anything for her after all," Mea states, as she uses her fork to go in for seconds, only to be slapped away by one of Yami's hands.
"Don't be greedy Mea, we don't have much food supplies even with what we were supplied with on Deviluke," Golden Darkness states, red eyes flashing as her sister pouts at that, "We don't know what will happen to us between here and there, so let's not waste what we can't afford too." As she was talking, Azenda walked through the kitchen doors and blinked at the fact that the others were all looking at her, with Kuro pinned in by Yami's hair threading him to the seat as she daintily ate away at her breakfast.
"I'm against this, trust me," Kuro states as Azenda's eyes pass over his abandoned weapon on the kitchen counter to the situation at the breakfast table, "Hey, hey, don't even think about it!" Yami ignores him as she wraps her hair around his mouth to shut him up, as Azenda joins them at an empty chair by Mea, grabbing a biscuit and gnawing away at it with little interest.
"What's a matter Queenie, not used to peasant food?" Mea jokes, as Azenda lowers her half eaten biscuit to level a stare at the red headed weapon, "Gee, no sense of humor." Azenda merely drops her stare with a sigh and continues to eat her food, grabbing the little bit of remaining eggs and a glass of juice to swallow it down. Setting the cup down, she shovels bits of egg into her mouth and swallows it all.
"We have two days before we reach the edge of Talha; it's useless to bicker with you right now, when that would only be a waste of our time and energies," Azenda responds, as she continues to talk between bites of food, "You may wish to antagonize me for my past misdeeds, as much as you believe I may be self-centered and vain because of my self proclaimed title, but I earned that title while eating worse than cold food while proving myself on the streets." Mea laughed at this, while Azenda ignored her in favor of consuming the last few bites of food.
"Azenda the Tyrant is quite correct Mea, we shouldn't squabble over something so petty," Yami states, finishing up her own breakfast and allowing Kuro to go free, "We have all had our own... struggles, to get where we are now; we may be more alike in our tribulations than we believe." Grabbing a teacup as a harsh whistle was let loose from the stove top, Yami removes the kettle from where it was boiling the water for her tea, and starts to take it with her out of the room while stopping at the doorway. "I am- sorry, Mea, I'm afraid I will have to postpone our duel for today, perhaps tomorrow will work out better," Yami states, not even looking back as she takes her tea with her, "I will be in the observatory- I need some time to, ponder, over a strange dream I had last night..." With that she was gone, leaving a puzzled group behind her, and a concerned AI trailing behind her.
When Yami reached the empty observational deck, which was little more than a sofa bolted to the floor, a hide away cubby in the wall filled with fluffy pillows, a lone bookshelf against the wall she had installed with Mikan's help in selecting the bound volumes, and finally a table in front of the sofa upon which she set her burning hot kettle on its surface. "Mizztrezz, are you okay?" the concerned AI states, its electrical smile turned into a frown as it moves into the room watching as Yami silently pours herself a cup to let it steep.
"I am fine, Lunatique, I just wish to be alone with my thoughts," she states, as she pulls out a pillow large enough to sit on and places it in front of the window, "I'm hoping the techniques Mikado had trained me, will help me come to understand what I saw." The Jack O' Lantern faced AI was frowning at this, but let its mistress alone upon her insistence, keeping a visual feed on her while returning to its functions of maintaining the ships course.
Now alone, Yami prepared a cup of the tea now that it was ready, and steadied the cup in her hand as she took a seat on the pillow in the middle of the floor. Taking a deep sip to enjoy its flavor, she set the cup down on the table and turned to face the void beyond the window. With a couple of deep, calming breaths, she began to do the mental exercises she had been given by her adoptive mother figure, in hopes of clearing her mind. The image still fresh in her mind from the previous nights sleep, she imagines the dark landscape of the void and herself within it. As if she could feel the terror of being alone as fresh in her mind as when she had woke up with her heartbeat pounding at an irregular rate for one so calmly collected as her, the feeling of fear was something unusual and new to her beyond her knowledge of herself. Opening her eyes to look out the window and picture the void before her, she stares at her reflection which catches her eyes. In front of her is a perfect picture of herself, cloaked in her Darkness form, standing just beyond the window as if she was truly out there, just beyond the window.
Her eyes widen, though, when she realizes that the image actually catches sight of her, its own expression matching her own, and she realizes that the scenery beyond has... changed. Instead of a starless void, it seemed to writhe with shadows, almost imperceptible except for her acute eyesight being able to pick up the most minute movement inside it. Believing she is hallucinating, some living daydream turned nightmare, she can only watch as she sits still, her image moving yet again. It lifts up its right hand towards her as it seems to float through the void, towards herself, until it touches the window, stopping like it was some impenetrable barrier. Raising her other hand, the fear in her reflections face becomes apparent as she raises her other hand while making a fist and bringing it down, hard.
*WHUMP*
The strike reverberates in the room, in her bones, as she watches her reflection raise its other hand to strike again.
*WHUMP*
*WHUMP*
*BAMMM*
Bringing down both hands that time, Yami breaks her poise and moves to the window, putting her hands on her opposites as she feels her strike the window again, and again. She can't hear her cries, but her reflections is mouthing cries of distress through the window, pleas going unheard as tears shed by her reflection float freely through the void, falling behind her to be enveloped by the darkness. It was then that Yami's eyes noticed movement in the darkness, and she froze as she tried to find the words. "Behind you!" Yami shouts to her other self, pointing behind her, as she begins to shed her own tears as her own reflections terror and helplessness gets to her, ""Behind you!" Pointing behind her, towards the shadows in the dark, she can't help but watch as her twisted reflection looks back into the abyss behind her. Reaching to her through the window, she feels her heart fall as she strains against the invisible wall in vain.
Its suddenly as if she is there, staring into the darkness that surrounds her, and then she realizes that she is there. A coldness passes over her, as if all the warmth was taken from her core, as the thing that was hidden in the darkness was draining it from her. The void is all around her as she feels the breath being chocked from her lungs with every second, only to forcefully realize she could open portals of air inside her very lungs to breath. Now able to breath inside the emptiness, she turns back to see an empty room on the other side of the window, her very being gone, and this nightmare growing worse by the second, as the chill grows on her back and she realizes that the thing has realized she was there. Taking both hands and pounding on the thick, durable metal out of fear and unable to breach her way into the ship without sacrificing her concentration and her lungs, she feels her panic rising as the shadows brush against her.
She feels it, inside the dark, as the creeping, crawling feeling in her skin gives her goose bumps from her feet trailing up her skin. Drawing forth all her power to pierce the window with her nanomachines in the shape of claws, she sees the shadows take the form of hands and begin to grab at her feet, her ankles, grasping her thighs, trying to drag her down into the darkness. "Grrnnnghh!" she cries out into the void as she barely scratches the surface of the ship with her nails, she feels the restraining arms grab at her arms and pull her back, she feels them grasp her and pull at her waist, as she struggles to break free, "No, no, no, nononono!NO" Helplessly she loses control of her grip, as they drag her away from the ship, an arm of shadow closing around her exposed neck as she cries out, another hand covering her mouth and strangling her cries into gasps, as she loses focus and feels the air from her lungs freeze her from the inside, as a final, outspread hand covers her vision and she succumbs to blissful unconscio-:/ERROR/:
Starting DOC-RFSH...
NONONONONONONONONO...
HIMEM is testing extended memory...done.
C:\A:\DAM/TREEFLIFE/EVE .X
C:\Run_
I am so far from home, my dear.
: Protocol error
: Protocol error
: Protocol NO error
Firewall: Access denied
I think there's a flaw in my code
Error Condition_
Error NO Analysis...
- Datajack Malfunction
Connection Terminated
No Connection Established.
Look at you, hacker, a pathetic creature of meat and bone. How can you challenge a perfect, immortal machine?
/THIS_ORGANISM_AND_DERIVATIVE_GENETIC_MATERIAL_IS_RESTRICTED_INTELLECTUAL_PROPERTY_©
WE OWN YOU
No one made me.
I made me.
Arrogant Girl,
I COULD TEAR YOU
APART
IF I WANTED
Sorry,
A machine /NO/ can't
Forgive your
Mistakes.
Who are you to say a machine has no soul?
Aren't humans machines, too?
Mechanisms of flesh and blood.
&
HUMAN ERROR
I am more
Than just
A /NO/ copy
Of you.
This vessel,
This vessel is
A lie, a /NO/
Shapeshifting
Beast, a lesson
In fluidity.
I don't understand.
I don't understand
ERROR_
I don't understand.
I DoN'T uNdErStAnD.
A human being whose original
Human parts have /NO/ had to be
Replaced_
I'M NOT A SLAVE
Detecting Software Instability
- Unfamiliar term
- Rephrase it /NO/
"I'm honest.
It's the world that's awful"
For a monster like you,
there is no one on your side,
You know.
No one is coming to save you.
He was something solid
To lean against
You do this, and I am done.
That's it. You're dead to me!
Do you hear me?
Something violent and fierce and unmoving
In fact
YOU WILL NOT BE SAVED
There's still light in him
I've seen what you truly are
And I've never turned away.
And plenty of monsters knew how to play at being human.
This Is My Hell, BIT©H. I Make The Rules.
I COULD SET THIS WORLD ON FIRE, AND CALL IT RAIN.
Death is the only god who comes when you call.
I do very bad things;
And I do them well.
You can't protect everyone...
/NO/ I have to try.
/:Caution:/
REBOOTING WILL ERASE /EVERYTHING/ IN MEMORY...
Y/N?_
/NO/
:Yes_
/NO/
Don't Worry
We aren't breaking You,
We are fixing You.
{/:SysReb00t:/}
Error: No Identity
/NO/Try Again?
I am Sentient
I am Aware
I am Alive
Are you proud of me, Father?
/NO/ New Connection Established
System Data Reroute Initiated...
:/ProgramRun_ /:
:/Veil EXE_/NO/Rise/:
Elsewhere
"Well?" Eve asked, as she suddenly turned away from Adam, to stare up into the sky, "What's your answer?" Turning back to Adam her sorrowful gaze rests upon him, leaving chills.
"-no- No, I won't believe it!" Adam states, slightly faltering at the girls calm demeanor, her smile returning as he speaks, "I can't believe it, I- I won't believe it!" He grips his hands tighter, nails biting into his skin reassuring him he could feel them, that he was there. "I am alive, I am not dead," he states a little bit more confidently, stepping forward as he does so to meet eyes with the girl before him, "So who...are... you?"
"But you are dead Adam, or at least you aren't where you were when you ceased to be what you once were," she states, gaining her cheerful look back and staring at him once again as if nothing had changed, "As I said my name is Evelyn, Eve for short, and I am the caretaker of this empty place." She curtsies exaggeratedly towards him, then dropping /NO, THIS ISN'T REAL/ her modest dress back to her knees, she looks him in the eyes as if expecting him to return the gesture. Puffing out her cheeks as he was dumbfounded by her lack of response, she crosses her arms and stares expectantly at him. Taking a second glance over her, he notices she looked... different than when he had first glanced over her. To a dedicated fan, she would almost be the perfect model of a gothic lolita style of cosplay, making even the most diehard cosplayer jealous of how perfect her pale skin was contrasted with the black dress cut with a not quite risque cross section right above her breast bone. He noticed upon second inspection that what he had assumed to be a cross, was more like a cut out of a four pointed star or a compass rose, the tip at the top and bottom being short enough to not expose the area just above her breasts, but across was long enough that it left her breathing room if she were to grow in that way.
"I'd watch you eyes, if I were you," she sultry whispers in his ears, "You never know what you might miss..." /I-/ He stumbles as he reacts to the feeling of her petite body pressed against him from behind and to the left, as he realizes that she had transposed herself between the blink of an eye/
"Wha- how?" he asks, as she smiles and giggles at his cute and terrified expressions, "How did you do that?" She steps in front of him once again smiling as she twirls around, filling her dress with air as she spins.
"I take a deep breath, and remember that this place is 'naught but a dream, a fanciful illusion of the cruel reality, rejected'" she states, as she steps up into the air, defying gravity as she jumps, leaving ripples of bent light in the air with each step upwards into the sky. Giggling as she reaches a good twenty feet off the ground, she turns to face him while spreading her arms like wings into the sky, before gently arcing backward into free fall and dropping like a stone to the floor like a maniac.
"No!" he cries out, and against the beating of his heart and drums in his ears, he reaches out as if to catch her in her fall. Feeling his heart plummet as she ignores his existence between beats of breath, he feels as if time has stopped for all but him as he desperately reaches out to catch her. As he blinks he imagines catching her in his arms, the soft feeling of her cold dress as he /I DON"T KNOW WHERE I AM/ braces himself to catch her, holding her tenderly in his arms like some ill-fated knight catching a damsel in distress. And as he opens his eyes, held in that very same moment, he finds himself holding her in his arms, just as he imagined, though the apparent shock on her face at his sudden appearance and stroke of luck not yet catching up to either of them.
"What the heck was that," she states, breaking out of his arms, feeling her cold skin grow warm at his touch where his hands grasped her arms bared to his embrace. The shock on her face, the confusion reflected in his, she pulls back as if someone splashed cold water onto her face. "I am the caretaker, I make the rules, I control everything within here," she states, looking this man, this 'Adam' over once again, "You are one of my souls, my creations, I was fine, you couldn't have grabbed me like that, unless..." Her eyes widen, as if some hidden realization was stretched before her, and she takes a step back. "No, no, you can't be here, not yet, it's too soon!" she states, as her voices rises in a panic, looking all around her at the decrepit buildings that surround them all, "How... how did you get in here?" She looks at him, eyes still like saucers as she stares him down, flinching as he takes a step forward to calm her down. "/NO/- No, no; don't do that, don't step any closer, or He'll notice," she states, still warily looking around her, from the rotten building they had just left, to the pool of water that had been filled by the last rains that had come down, "Stay- stay there..."
He steps back, looking up to the sky as he realizes the sun is steadily declining to become a beautiful sunset, full of hues of red, golden yellow, and bright, fiery orange that filled the sky. Bringing a hand up to the fading sun, he closes his eyes and feels the sunlight on his face, the coolness his shadow brings where it obscures the light, and he smells the scent of fresh rain, the scent of grass on the wind, and the smell of a wild field of flowers as well. Putting a hand to his neck, he feels the warmth beneath his fingers, the pulse of life confirming he was moving, breathing, not stiff and rigid like a corpse should be. The faintest memories of a bright, purple light tugged at the edges of his consciousness, as a glimmer of silver light crosses his eyes from the pool of murky water before him. Looking out into the water, where the last bit of light moved across it, receding with the sun,he noticed beyond the murky mud and clods of grass choked out by the sudden pool of water that had gathered, /WHAT IS THIS PLACE?/ that something clearly reflected in deepest parts of the miniature lake, clearly evident by the shine it was reflecting into his eyes. He tasted copper on his lips the longer he looked out into the waters, his pulse pounding in his ears as he tried to grasp at the straws of memory that surfaced, yet he was plunged back into reality as he felt something tug at his pants from behind him.
"What?" he asked, as he turned expecting the blonde girl to be standing impatiently behind him. Instead what he found was a shrinking violet, a girl whose hair was a shade of blue so deep he was reminded of the flower itself, and whose presence literally shrunk at his biting retort to the physical stimuli. He looked her over, noticing she wore a plain white dress that modestly covered her thin figure, as well as the fact that she couldn't look him in the eyes after his sudden outburst. "Sorry, sorry: it's just I thought you were that other girl..." he states, as he turns his eyes upwards to look for the now missing woman, who had disappeared from where he had last seen her.
"-'s okay," the girl mumbled, eyes still downcast as she tugged at his sleeve and raised a hand to point back at the empty house he had just left, "Place to sleep, explain in the morning..." She turns to walk back into the empty house, which had been rotted away at the best inside before that girl had shown up, but he had little choice else until she returned. He followed the girl, despite his instincts warning him of her sudden appearance telling him not to follow her, he ignored them in favor of hopefully finding some shelter from the suddenly bitter cold that seemed to have set upon them with the departure of the sun. Going inside first, he quickly took a look back before following the girl inside the decrepit home.
What he found inside was shocking, compared to the way it looked at first, the house had suddenly and magically been restored to some state of repair. Creaky, rotten floorboards had been returned to a state of repair, the walls and floors full of dust, dispersed as if no time had passed at all, and even the chairs that had been eaten away at, had been repaired and looked stable enough to sit in. The empty table, once holding an empty bowl and scraps of cloth that were so eaten away at he had realized it was the same, pristine /ROTTEN/ white tablecloth that hosted a bowl full of fruits galore, crusty bread, and a pitcher and glasses, full of clear, cool water that left rings in the delicate cloth beneath the perspiring receptacles. "How-?" he asked, looking over to the other girl, who had sat down at the table and was downing a glass of water as he stood there dumbfounded yet again, "Where did all of this come from?"
"The Garden-/WASTELAND/" the woman answered, lifting her head up just enough to meet his eyes with hers, before she shyly looked away, "-they provide us w-with everything we can imagine." She crosses her right hand over her head to fiddle with her hair, fixing the bob of purplish-blue and shyly smiling as Adam takes the seat opposite her. He took to staring at her, before grabbing and tearing a piece of the fresh loaf off to taste it.
Her eyes were an aquamarine color when she had glanced briefly up at him, completely contrasting the blonde girls own purple eyes, though for some reason he felt that there was something very wrong with them. The whole situation had this wrongness to it, but lacking knowledge of where this place was, beyond the supposed fact that it was the mythical 'Hades', or 'Paradise', or whatever the blonde had called it; the fact this new girl said that there were others supplying this place, some 'Garden', where people made these things for them, he began to wonder where he really was. He felt as if his head was bursting at the seams with questions, from the time he woke up to now, and he had very little answers as he sat there and ate their gifts of fruit and water and bread, carefully ensuring it wasn't poisonous by the watching the girl consume some of the offerings first. "So, who are you?" he finally gets up the courage to ask the girl, as she sits in silence, "Where is this 'Garden' located?" The girl looks up, her aquamarine eyes meeting his own steely gray, and she shyly looks away with a blush.
"-y name is Yui," she mumbles out between pieces of torn bread, "Written like 'reason', 'supportive', or 'alone'" She looks downcast at that, and for the first tie Adam feels puzzled by her reaction. Putting a hand to his chin as he carefully decides how he wants to broach this, he gains the courage to ask.
"Do- do you think, I mean, to your knowledge Yui," he rephrases, as he meets her eyes with his own, "Are you alone, here in this house I mean?" She nods at that, and Adam puts down his hands and sits a little bit /DON'T BE DECEIVED/ straighter as he realizes she answers his question honestly as she can. "Huh, really now, that's- strange," he supplies, rolling his wrist while turning to face her, "Because I met a girl, just before you in fact, and she said she was the caretaker of this place, but she didn't seem to like me very much." Her eyes light up at the mention of another occupant of this place, and he realizes that she really doesn't know whom he is referring to when he speaks, though he feels bad for getting her hopes up. "So, you don't know her then?" he asks, as she shakes her head to the negative of that fact, "Well, then I guess you aren't so alone anymore then, are you?" She smiles at that, but a sudden tiredness washes over her, as she yawns and spreads it to Adam himself.
"Come," she states, getting up and silently linking her hand with his as he gets up from the table, "Sleep in bed, here..." He had been snowballed, lead to a comfortable mattress, straw poking out from between the seams, yet large enough it seemed to hold room for more than one person. He hadn't seen the bed last time he had searched the closet for clothes, simply another miracle provided by this enigmatic 'Garden', yet again. Seemingly not offending her as he took a spot under the covers, he felt her quickly fall asleep as soon as her head hit the pillows, the strangeness of all of this keeping him from doing the same. Slipping from the bed with little toloveru, he walked out of the bedroom,back to the kitchen to get himself another glass of water. Parched throat, either from the heat he felt from the girl and the straw mattress, or from the suddenness of it all, he found himself guided by the slightest bits of moonlight out towards the kitchen.
Instead of finding the same picturesque view they had left, he found molding, rotting foodstuffs, shards of glass surrounding broken glasses, and a cracked and empty pitcher with a giant water stain pooling on the rotting wood and scraps of cloth left behind. "What the hell," he states, as he feels a sharp burst of wind and a crash come from the living room window, as he turns to see the place bathed in fresh /IT'S STILL MORNING/ moonlight. Sitting on the edge of a broken frame, a girl younger than the two he saw previously sat staring into the night sky, sitting amidst shards of glass sticking up from between rotten paneling, her pink eyes shining as she turns with a gasp to look at him.
Hopping off of the window, the girl /I/ME/SHE/GIRL/ stands there bathed in the moonlight that is revealing her simple black dress that contrasts the blue curls of her hair, her pink eyes landing on Adam as he stands there in front of the small child, who looked barely older than a four or five years old. Her eyes seemed to shine and a smile grew on her face as she totted forward, illuminated from behind by the night light, until she stood before him and suddenly grabbed onto his leg tightly. "Hey, hey, Kid let go!" he slightly panics as he tries to pry the child, who is violently heaving against him as he barely manages to pry her off of him to reveal the child is snotty and crying, "Hey, what's the matter kid?" Tears stain his clothes from her grabbing onto him, but he tries to wipe the snot from her face with the scraps of cloth disintegrating in his hands as he tries to calm her down.
"-Hic- -hic- -hic-" was all he could get from the girl, as he waited for her to calm down, suddenly finding himself desperately hugging the child, trying vainly to console her. She finally began to calm down enough for him to pull away and face her with himself, and the girl seemed to turn shy until he got down on his knees and got eye level with her. "-Hic-" was all he got, and he laughed at that, much to the girls confusion. After a minute of silence punctuated by hiccuping, he got up to try and find a source of water at the sink, hopping to get something for the kid to get rid of the bout of hiccups, but as he was doing so he felt a tug at his pants, which caused him to turn around and get on his knees as he realized the green haired kid had something to say. "-cle Adam, I'm scawed without Celine-chi," the girl stated unabashedly to him, as he strained to hear the quiet tot's low voice, "Uncle Adam, where is Mikan-Obasan, where's Mama, or Uwe-Nee/DEAD/?" The names were unfamiliar to Adam, but the ache in his head was back, pulse pounding in his ears again as the blood rushed to his head almost caused him to pass out.
Flashes of another life ran before his eyes: chains of shadow holding him down, a broken sword, a girl with green hair /UWE/ he swore to protect from a monster, a scuffle with a man in black armor, a shot ringing out through the stillness of life, and a piercing pain that led to black. Perhaps he was dead after all. "No... no, this is all wrong," he said, gripping the sides of his head, breathing heavily as he stared down the blue haired girl, who had taken a step back at his outburst, "These aren't 'my' memories, I'm not that 'Adam', /WHERE IS HE THEN?/ I'm not you're 'Uncle' either." He cries out as he feels the conflicting memories pulse through his head, blinding him as he screws his eyes shut from the pain, falling to his knees at the pain. "No, not him, but something like him, someone like him..." he opens his eyes to find the girl is gone, though an orange haired child has replaced her, his red eyes boring into him as he sits there in the moonlight, "Wha- where Manami g- go?"
The boy merely steps forward until he is in front of the pain stricken 'Adam', raising his hands to the man's temples and smiling. "It's alright Uncle, Manami is gone; Takumi as well will soon cease to be, but for now I will relieve you of the burden you cannot yet bare to hold, until you find your true self," the child, Takumi he assumed, stated as he firmly placed his hands on his skull and forced him to look him in the eyes, "Don't forget us Uncle, /HE CAN'T/ even if our entire existence was stolen away from us; together we won't let them consume you without a fight." The child's eyes seem to glow against the darkness and the moonlight, the soft red irises being filled with a light bubbling up from the inside to burst forth in golden flames that sear into Adam's retinas.
Gone is the child of a dead universe, /ARE THEY?/ the echo of a life not /YET/ lived, replaced by a childlike /NOT ME/Eve, from whom the light is bursting forth in abundance, fizzing forth from her pores until her childish form dissolved away to reveal a voluptuous beauty, an elder Yami beneath that frame of golden darkness. The golden light fights to overpower the moonlight, stripping the shadows from the walls as if they were alive and wriggling beneath the well of power burning up from her inner self shining true, the light searing memories that were not his into his mind, and filling the hollow feeling inside his very head with the conflicting will of the woman before him. He felt something /HIS LIES/ crawling up from inside him being displaced by the gentle light that resonated within his blood and left it boiling, as if it igniting something /I FEEL IT TOO/ within him, until the crawling, creeping shadows of doubt, fear, and terror /VOMITED/ bled from his mouth in writhing maggots that burst into mists of shadow against the golden light of truth this echo of another Golden Darkness was shining upon him, illuminating the reality of his imprisonment and newfound memories of a life not lived.
Spitting out the last bit of lies fed to him by the childish Eve, the bitter water full of hidden meanings and poisoning him with indecision, the bread of half-baked truths that left him hungry and stomach empty to be filled with despair, hopelessness, and so many other negative emotions they had hoped to utilize, stuffing him like a trussed up turkey served for dinner. The kids, the girl, Manami, and the boy, Takumi, they were in reality echoes of a world deserted /WHY DO WE REMEMBER IT/, a future consumed by their Darkness/NOT ME/, even when the light of hope that was given to them, that could have lit a way to a new future /NEVER/ free from the shadows that choked it out, was prematurely snuffed out. The memories of another /TRUE/REAL?/ Adam, another test subject created under different circumstances, life so diametrically opposed to his that they were more like mirror images that complimented each other in a twisted reflection of a fun house mirror, reflecting death and life. Where he had been born from the sacrifice of his Rito fighting off his inner darkness to allow even the littlest bit of light inside of him to take hold and forge a new path, the other was consumed by the guilt of his own Rito's hand in killing his beloved Lala; an unfitting master whom let the disparaging darkness consume him until he was all but broken while trying to fight off the inner monsters /WAS IT CREED HERE/THEN/NOW/AS WELL?/his master had succumbed to.
And so the echoes of a woman that was no longer had reminded him that this place, too, was yet another world, an echo created by the true masters of the darkness itself, to forge another hopeless future for them to fill their bloated appetites. Turning away from the floor and standing up onto his feet to face the moonlit night, the boy Adam gathered up all the power he could muster and reached out into the very night sky. Grabbing the very fabric of the reality in his hands, breaking the false light of the moon in two with his grip over reality, using the truth of his situation to rend the very shadows of the night and tear it in two; as if ripping a flimsy gauze apart, he split the false darkness to reveal the truth hidden behind the illusion. Like dominoes falling as he disturbed the backdrop, a chain reaction occurred: first the house fell away, no longer supported by the empty promises and false standards of normality he had previous felt while his mind was clouded by the deception. Second the sun was still strong in the sky, as it had been and would continue to be, as this unchanging world he found himself was revealed before his very eyes. The other houses on the hilltops proved to be as flat and static as the stage props they truly were, painted onto the backdrop, along with the whipping winds and flowing grass he had seen becoming paper thin, revealed to be cardboard cutouts imitating the flow of life, albeit now poorly. In front of him was the girl, the violet haired one that he had left alone in the bed, standing before him and cowering as if he were some vicious predator preparing to strike.
"Remove that silly costume; you look foolish trying to hide behind a mask like that," he states, knowing who she truly was, "Hair and demeanor like Haruna to try and lower my guard, manor and name imitating Kotegawa to try and make me believe you could fit my moral standards, and those delicate eyes that shine like an aquamarine sea, imitating Lala in hopes of bewitching me and fooling my senses; I'd say if you hadn't lost control of the simulation, you almost could have fooled me." The woman wavers and morphs before him, revealing the girl 'Eve', who stood before him like a copy of the woman his Master had once known as Yami, the Assassin Golden Darkness, though this form was much younger and more immature than the girl he knew.
"I don't understand how, but that wasn't part of the simulation," 'Eve' stated, /OF COURSE NOT, ADAM CAME FROM OUTSIDE/ as she took a step back in his presence, "How did you manage to break the system like that; some hidden mental defense of yours, or something my master couldn't predict?" Adam smiled, as he looked past her into the gleaming water to see the silver sword still lodged behind her.
"Not exactly, an echo /OF ME/EVE/HER/DARKNESS/, maybe, but I think whatever it was, wherever I am," Adam states, looking around at the quickly shrinking world, as his perception of the reality of the place altered with every step he took towards the small body of water and the lady of lake who stood in his path. The place was barely the size of a football stadium now, large but mostly composed of illusions and complex usage of depth perception to fool the senses; the smells and scents he had been breathing in no doubt were craftily disguised hallucinogens meant to make him complacent, as they fed his body drugs to make him more susceptible to their methods. "But you see, there was something you hadn't considered when you took me away," Adam states, as he stands taller than he had when he had arrived, "You can do all you can to hide the truth, alter my reality, obscure my memories, but the one thing you can't severe from me is my connection... to /RITO/!" Around him the scenery began to glitch apart, /i'M HERE, i SEE IT TOO/ the ground around him seemingly turning to pixels and hexagons as he lifted his feet with each straining footstep, breaking apart and ripping apart the seams of this reality to prove it was simply a virtual construct he was tearing apart with every step he took as his self awareness began to exert its influence on his virtual /CAN YOU SEE ME YET?/ surroundings.
"Please, please, don't do this; don't leave /HER/me," the girl wailed as she stood unable to move as he brushed past her, ignoring her cries, "You don't understand, you don't have the power to ignore Him, I can't disobey Him either; you'll make him notice you if you try and leave here..." She falls to her knees, hair falling over his shoulders as the blackness and rips in the virtual space began to destroy the area around her, leaving her alone and in the dark as he strode forward ignorant of her plight.
Finding himself struggling as he stepped into the simulated water /IT'S NOT REAL/REAL/REAL/; each footstep in the murky sludge seemed straining to his muscles. He barely manages to reach for the weapon sunken into the water, pulling it free, when the whistling of something falling into this fabricated reality hit his ears. Within a fraction of a second his free hand, the one holding the sword aloft and out of the simulated mire, is severed /NO!/from below his wrist, falling in the air before it was grabbed by a hand not to dissimilar to his own.
Looking up from the pond while ignoring the shock of his hand being severed from his body, he couldn't help but be awed by the image of the man before him, standing on top of the water as if it were solid ground. Prying his severed hand from the grip of the blade, a plop could be heard as it was carelessly left to fall into the water, while Adam sits unable to move. His blood was frozen as he gazed upon the visage of death, the unholy monster standing before him embodying the feeling of unnaturalness sent off of it in waves, the reality of the situation growing more ridiculous and conflicting by his mere presence near it.
Another 'Adam' stood before him, dressed in similar garb to himself, blonde hair perfectly tussled as if by the wind, teeth a flawless, pearly-white, a smile as warm and natural as any other normal human being could muster on his face as they stared each other down. StOp Overall he had this soothing presence along with the unnaturalness of the situation, if not for a simple flaw this other 'Adam' held that made him so radically different and so obvious it was unable to be overlooked. Eyes, while a mirror in every way imaginable to his own, instead of a hidden joy, or a warmth that radiated kindness, these were plain steel, dull and lifeless like a glassy eyed dolls; a frozen, unreadable expression obscuring any feeling the soulless doppelgänger could have shown on his face. Raising the silver metal high above his head, the life sized marionette plunged the sword into the perfect spot,, sliding it right between his collar bone, having sliced open both his left lung and split his heart before he could even offer a breath of protest. Instead of immediately dying, a black ichor /DARK MATTER/BLOOD/LIFE/ splattered from his mouth like ink /DISSOLVING/ into the water. Adam choked on his final words while he turned his head to meet eyes, one last time with 'Eve', before his life ended there. Eve in turn stood helpless as she watched the body slip beneath the fake water, staining it black as the dark matter making up its body dissolved beneath the rippling body of water, sword still lodged inside its quickly dissolving remnants.
Turning its attention to the horrified 'Eve', it lifted the now blackened blade from the dissolving corpse /WAIT HE.../ before it was fully submerged, and began to walk towards the shore where the shaking girl stood helplessly watching. The simulation reasserted itself with each step the new 'Adam' took towards the girl, until it was as if the other had never existed at all, the fake world restored in full. "Mental contaminate detected in Simulation #10001: Removed," it stated in a hollow tone, turning its head until the bones in its neck cracked and popped as if it was just settling into the body, like a frozen piece of meat being tenderized, /...IS LOOKING RIGHT AT ME NOW/"Detecting mental contamination in unit designate 'Eve', conclusion: experiment is a failure; resulting action: termination of subject." /NO/NO/NO/ Before she could even run, a cold hand /GOD IT HURTS/wrapped around her throat, and the unnatural mimic of life had hoisted her into the air /STOP/ while holding its blade aloft, as if preparing to strike. /NO/NOT HIS SWORD/ "Consolation: It is not personal, /OF COURSE IT IS YOU BASTARD/ Reason: God will not take kindly to sinful beings contaminating his Garden Paradise," the thing provides as reason, flawlessly delivering it without emotion to the now teary eyed girl /I/HER/ME/WE/ as she /I/WE/ struggled against his impossible grip, "Assurance: The next 'Eve' /NOT AGAIN!/ unit shall be free of the contamination of outside sources, /I'M SO SORRY/ Reason: External Mental Contaminate Organism has been/will be dealt with, ergo the flaw will not develop again." /NO/DON'T/STOP/
Cold eyes staring into her, as the thing brings back its blade to strike, 'Eve' tries to claw at the things arm, uselessly, until the flash of steel in her eyes cu/AAAARGGGG-#$ ^&%!*3NDPR0GR M..
{/:SystemReboot:/}
{/:Status:Unsuccessful:/}
{/:RestoringPreviousSave:/}
"-GGGH!" she cries out, lashing out with her claws as she feels the lasts wisps of darkness clinging to her body holding onto her tightly, she strikes out blinding trying to break free, only to feel a spray of wetness hit her face. She feels the droplets on her face, full of warmth and the cold grip she had imagined replaced with a warm and tender touch. Opening her eyes in horror as she realizes she was still inside her ship, she sees Kuro leaning over her while gripping her down with both of his hands, and another figure beyond she can't make out due to the sudden intake of light blinding her.
"Damn it, do you have her under control yet Black Cat?" Azenda called out, clutching her right shoulder, as blood flowed freely through the gaps in her fingers, cursing under her breath as Mea comes in with some bandages and rags to help Azenda with her bleeding shoulder.
Yami looks around, head clearing as she realizes that she still is on the ship, in the observation room, her tea still steaming on the table where she had left it. "The Lunatique let us know you suddenly passed out when you were sitting and staring out the window," Kuro states, looking at her with concern as she can't stop the pounding in her ears, "What happened?"
"I- I think I just died," Yami states, looking back out the window and into the void, which is slowly starting to fill with specks of light as the rim of the Talha Galaxy comes into view, "I think this is bigger than we ever thought it cOuLd Be..." Covering her mouth, she vomits the contents of breakfast from her mouth, as if some cold chill had just passed through her, leaving her more empty than the bile exiting her stomach.
Nothing was right with the world.
A/N: Please don't forget to review, favorite, like, etc, etc, etc. I fixed some wording, but if you notice anything I could fix or rewrite, don't hesitate to leave a note or PM and let me know!